We present the very first August Riordan story, No Such Thing as Private Eyes, by Mark Coggins.

Music is Coffee 'n Scotch from the Chris Greene Quartet.

Flash fiction, Hand That Feeds, by David Tallerman. Narrated by Scott Danielson of A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Main fiction, Bold Choices by Ryan Priest. Narrated by Ryno the Bearded.

And two selections from Adam Guantlet's bookshelf: Maus, by Art Spiegelman, and The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price.

We present the conclusion of The Drug Study by James Austin Farrell.

Main fiction is The Drug Study by James Austin Farrell.

Adam Gauntlet returns to discuss the "87th Precinct" novels of Ed McBain and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.

“Well, I guess we’ve got you by the balls.”

This was Davey’s reply once I had explained my predicament to him, perhaps sounding too desperate and, I imagine, looking troubled. I needed the job. Busboy: proper noun, a job title, I could hardly correlate, etymologically, with working in a pub. Though in spite of my ignorance of this bottom rung métier in the pub/restaurant field of work, and in spite of his candid claim that by taking the job I would be handing him my testicles . . . in spite of Davey’s furnished hard but fair demeanor, that even though determined to assure me he was a decent working class chap like myself it did exactly the opposite – in spite of all that, I was desperate to take the job. The thought occurred to me, as I presented Davey with the bereft look of a man whose circumstances ensured he must keep smiling, that if being a busboy entailed gutting rats in the cellar twelve hours a day, I’d have gladly picked up the scalpel and started there and then.

Fisher Cat, by Seth Harwood. Be sure and check out Seth's crime fiction on his web site, sethharwood.com, or on Podiobooks.com.

An interview with J. Michael Shell.

Adam Gauntlett discusses the crime fiction of Chester Himes.

And our main fiction is War, by Sandra Jensen.

Apart from Religion, school was torture. Lines of white chalk scraping into my head. I sat at the back where on good days I could see Hillbrow Tower out the window piercing Johannesburg’s sky like a pin. Today was a crappy day and I didn’t care if I could see it or not. We had netball later and I hated netball. Miss Hadley was telling us about the Boer War. I hated the Boer War.

The conclusion of J. Michael Shell's Preacher Porter's Cure.

The Doggies are the oldest race in the galaxy. At least that we know of. The light beings are almost assuredly older, but like I said, my people pretty much pretend they don't exist. To those of us who do admit it they're an embarrassment, because they are probably what we should have evolved into. They're what you would be if it wasn't for The Lucies.

Part 2 of Preacher Porter's Cure by J. Michael Shell.

Adam Gauntlett opens his bookshelf to find The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell.

And Jim is joined by Jennifer Leeper, author of the novella Padre. Be sure and take a look at the very nice trailer!

I stayed with the preacher about a week. It was Sunday night when he took me in. For three days he watched over me while I got good and sick. I'd been at it a long time and stopping damn near killed me. Twice in that three days I was so bad the old preacher had to give me a little booze or I'd have gone into DTs. But when the worst of it was over he told me I wasn't going to ever take alcohol again because I was going to be what God wanted me to be. "First thing you got to do is admit liquor's stronger than you, but not stronger than God. It's done wupped your ass and it'll always wup it. Go ahead, admit it."

Welcome to the first issue of Nil Desperanum in our new audio magazine format, and the first which will be heard on the No Agenda Stream (Wednesdays at 12p PST / 3pm EST).

This week our main fiction is Preacher Porter's Cure, by J. Michael Shell.

Adam Guantlet returns, and finds The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman, on his Bookshelf.

And we are joined by Deanna Knippling, author of Miracle, Texas and Choose Your Doom: Zombie Apocolypse to discuss her story, why Westerns should always end badly, and zombies.

Thanks to everyone who listened live to our 2011 Nil Desperandum Christmas Special. This live event was great fun, and everyone definitely enjoyed it.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, by E. T. A. Hoffman. Narrated by Jim Phillips, Lorna Boyle, Richard Kunz, Ken Stoffler, Charlie White, and Paul Alves.