Nocturnal Tales: Mystery Audiobooks and Crime Stories

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A lodge-keeper has been found dead at the gates of a great house, and the county has already settled comfortably on who must have done it.

Miss Loveday Brooke of the Lynch Court agency is about thirty, dresses in plain black, and enjoys the considerable professional advantage of being the sort of woman nobody bothers to watch. She uses it in this one more coldly than in any other.

This is generally reckoned the best of the Loveday Brooke stories, and we think the reckoning is right. Two of you wrote in within hours of each other asking for more Pirkis and more Loveday, which is why it is here.

Written in eighteen ninety-three, by a woman, about a woman doing a job no woman was permitted to do — and Pirkis simply declines to make a fuss about it, which is somehow the most modern thing in it.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is a complete, unabridged reading of The Murder at Troyte's Hill by Catherine Louisa Pirkis, collected in The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries.

🗳️ YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT
The Archive is deep — more Loveday Brooke? Max Carrados? Judith Lee? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Lady Molly? Raffles? Dr Thorndyke? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
The whole county has already agreed who did it before she arrives. How early did you start distrusting their opinion? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
01:26 - The Murder at Troyte’s Hill
16:25 - The Murder at Troyte’s Hill
31:59 - The Murder at Troyte’s Hill
45:42 - The Murder at Troyte’s Hill
1:00:47 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
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🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
https://nocturnaltalespod.gumroad.com/l/ebookvol2

❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales

🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
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❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
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🎧 Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nocturnal-tales-mystery-audiobooks-and-crime-stories/id1896195848

🧾 CREDITS
Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (public domain).

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
catherine louisa pirkis audiobook, loveday brooke audiobook, the murder at troyte's hill audiobook, experiences of loveday brooke 1894, victorian lady detective, female detective audiobook, country house murder, early women detectives, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #MidnightArchive #LovedayBrooke #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Unabridged #FemaleDetective #VictorianMystery #EarlyWomenDetectives #PublicDomain

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales
🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

Ceylon, nineteen thirty-six. Green hills, tea bushes in immaculate rows, ceiling fans producing a great deal more noise than wind, and a heat our narrator describes as approximately the temperature of boiling soup.

A planter has invited the Belgian Detective to his estate for the hospitality, with Arthur in tow, and turns out to have a rather different reason. Money has been leaving the estate accounts for five years, and he would like to know where it goes.

Cinnamon House is a place that looks expressly designed to prevent tragedy. English furniture in a climate that does not want it, a household that has kept the same shape for a generation, and a very old servant who came with the house and has been there longer than anybody.

The Secret of Cinnamon House is an original Golden Age-style mystery about what people say in front of somebody they have decided cannot understand them.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is an original mystery written by Nocturnal Tales, inspired by the spirit of the great Golden Age crime writers. The plot, characters and text are entirely our own creation. Cinnamon House, the Wetherby family and everybody on the estate are fictional, and any resemblance to real persons or places is coincidental. No affiliation, endorsement, or official connection is implied.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
Everybody in this house has spoken freely for twenty years in front of a man they believed could not follow them. How much do you think he heard? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
01:22 - A Climate Unsuitable for Murder
11:53 - The Seventh Word
22:10 - An Honest Thief
31:47 - The Saucer in the Rain
41:50 - The Woman in the Photograph
51:47 - The Six Words
1:02:41 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
https://www.patreon.com/posts/156573383

🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
https://nocturnaltalespod.gumroad.com/l/ebookvol2

❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
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🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
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📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
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❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
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🎧 Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nocturnal-tales-mystery-audiobooks-and-crime-stories/id1896195848

🧾 CREDITS
Written by Nocturnal Tales. Narrated by Nocturnal Tales.

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
golden age mystery audiobook, ceylon mystery audiobook, tea plantation mystery, colonial 1930s mystery, belgian detective audiobook, arthur mystery audiobook, embezzlement mystery, closed circle whodunit, full length mystery audiobook, classic detective story audiobook, original golden age mystery, vintage detective fiction

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #GoldenAgeMystery #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #CeylonMystery #DetectiveFiction #Whodunnit #ColonialMystery

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales
🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

A first night in the West End, and a leading lady who does not appear. By morning the newspapers have a word for it, and the word is sensation.

Max Carrados has been blind for many years. He is also, as five separate listeners told us within three days of the last one, the detective you most want more of — so here he is again, from the second collection, published in nineteen twenty-three.

Nobody dies tonight. Bramah is unusually good at this register: having spent a whole collection establishing Carrados as formidable, he keeps turning the same faculties on matters no police force would ever hear about, and the detective is visibly happier for it.

He does not want a case to be important. He wants it to be interesting.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is a complete, unabridged reading of The Missing Actress Sensation by Ernest Bramah, collected in The Eyes of Max Carrados (1923) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries.

🗳️ YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT
The Archive is deep — more Max Carrados? Loveday Brooke? Judith Lee? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Lady Molly? Raffles? Dr Thorndyke? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
Several of you have written to say the cases without violence are the ones you enjoy most. Would you like more of the Archive's gentle ones? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
01:20 - The Missing Actress Sensation
17:24 - The Missing Actress Sensation
31:52 - The Missing Actress Sensation
55:52 - The Missing Actress Sensation
1:02:59 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
https://www.patreon.com/posts/156573383

🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
https://nocturnaltalespod.gumroad.com/l/ebookvol2

❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales

🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
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❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
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💛 PayPal — one-time tip
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🎧 Apple Podcasts
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🧾 CREDITS
Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by Ernest Bramah (public domain).

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
ernest bramah audiobook, max carrados audiobook, the missing actress sensation audiobook, the eyes of max carrados 1923, blind detective mystery, theatre mystery audiobook, west end london mystery, cosy classic mystery, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #MidnightArchive #MaxCarrados #ErnestBramah #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Unabridged #BlindDetective #CozyMystery #PublicDomain

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales
🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

Ireland, the third of May, nineteen twenty-nine. A romantic weekend, our narrator has supposed, begins when two people leave their work behind. His error lay in believing that work respects railway timetables.

Captain Arthur, Anne Foster and a spaniel of settled opinions take the morning train out of Dublin for Waterford, bound for a small residential hotel in a grey tower above a bend of the Clodiagh, some miles beyond Portlaw.

In an inside pocket, examined four times since Dublin, there is a small square case bought on Grafton Street. The proper moment requires privacy, tolerable weather and the absence of railway crockery. None of these is yet available, and the rain has begun before they cross the bridge.

Kilnaree also has a ghost. A lady with a black ribbon at her wrist, whom the hotel has lately discovered is very good for business.

The Black Ribbon of Kilnaree Castle is an original Golden Age-style mystery about a house that sells its own haunting, and what that is worth to somebody who arrives with other intentions.

The legend behind it is real, and one of the best-documented ghost stories in Ireland. We set out what is actually recorded about it in a factual epilogue at the close.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
An original mystery written by Nocturnal Tales, inspired by the spirit of the great Golden Age crime writers. Plot, characters and text are entirely our own; Kilnaree Castle and everybody in it are fictional. The story draws on a real Irish tradition, the Black Ribbon of Lady Beresford, first recorded in the seventeenth century, discussed factually in the closing epilogue. No affiliation is implied.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
A caretaker wrote a pamphlet because a hotel needed visitors, and gave his lady a bell she never had. Then a real bell, walled up for a century, rang three times by accident. How long did you hold on to the ghost? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
02:26 - A Weekend Without Work
14:53 - The Lady of the Ribbon
29:38 - What the Ghost Left Behind
41:18 - The Passage That Was Closed
55:43 - A Living Man in the Gallery
1:09:15 - The Hand Behind the Ghost
1:23:18 - Epilogue
1:38:31 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
https://www.patreon.com/posts/156573383

🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
https://nocturnaltalespod.gumroad.com/l/ebookvol2

❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales

🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
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❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
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💛 PayPal — one-time tip
https://paypal.me/nocturnaltalesprod

🎧 Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nocturnal-tales-mystery-audiobooks-and-crime-stories/id1896195848

🧾 CREDITS
Written by Nocturnal Tales. Narrated by Nocturnal Tales.

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
golden age mystery audiobook, irish country house mystery, haunted castle mystery, ireland 1929 mystery, captain arthur mystery, anne foster mystery, ghost hoax mystery, black ribbon lady beresford, irish big house history, full length mystery audiobook, classic detective story audiobook, original golden age mystery, vintage detective fiction

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #GoldenAgeMystery #IrishMystery #HauntedCastle #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Whodunnit #DetectiveFiction

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales
🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

It opens in the Whitechapel Road, and Freeman spends his first paragraph on the street itself before he spends a word on the crime.

A young woman has been found dead in her room with her throat cut. A man has already been arrested. There is a witness, there is a motive, and the police are perfectly satisfied.

Dr John Thorndyke — physician, barrister, and the first true forensic scientist in detective fiction — arrives with his research case and asks to see the pillow.

What he finds on it would not have interested anybody else in England in nineteen nine.

In nineteen nine that was close to a manifesto. Forensic science as we understand it barely existed, and Freeman — a doctor himself — was arguing through fiction for a kind of proof that could not be argued out of.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is a complete, unabridged reading of A Message from the Deep Sea by R. Austin Freeman, collected in John Thorndyke's Cases (1909) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries.

🗳️ YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT
The Archive is deep — more Dr Thorndyke? Max Carrados? Loveday Brooke? Judith Lee? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Lady Molly? Raffles? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
An innocent man is very nearly convicted on a witness, a motive and a coincidence, and what saves him is a few grains of sand. How far did you get before you stopped trusting the eyewitness? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
01:55 - A Message from the Deep Sea
19:34 - A Message from the Deep Sea
36:06 - A Message from the Deep Sea
53:46 - A Message from the Deep Sea
1:08:38 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
https://www.patreon.com/posts/156573383

🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
https://nocturnaltalespod.gumroad.com/l/ebookvol2

❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales

🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
https://rumble.com/c/c-7820714

❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
https://buymeacoffee.com/nocturnaltales

💛 PayPal — one-time tip
https://paypal.me/nocturnaltalesprod

🎧 Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nocturnal-tales-mystery-audiobooks-and-crime-stories/id1896195848

🧾 CREDITS
Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by R. Austin Freeman (public domain).

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
r austin freeman audiobook, dr thorndyke audiobook, a message from the deep sea audiobook, john thorndyke's cases 1909, forensic detective story, scientific detective fiction, whitechapel london mystery, wrongful arrest story, early forensic science, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #MidnightArchive #DrThorndyke #RAustinFreeman #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Unabridged #ForensicMystery #TrueDetection #PublicDomain

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales
🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

Two cases from the second Raffles collection — the book E. W. Hornung wrote after the one we finished last week.

NO SINECURE is how it opens. Bunny is alone. He has served his sentence, he has come out to nothing at all, and he is reading the advertisement columns in the way men do when they have stopped expecting anything from life. One particular advertisement catches his eye.

That is as much as we will say about it. It is the most carefully built opening in the whole collection, and it deserves to be heard rather than described.

A JUBILEE PRESENT is lighter by a very long way. The Room of Gold at the British Museum, in the summer of eighteen ninety-seven, with the whole Empire in London for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and a gold cup on display that has already survived one attempt. Raffles has views about it. Bunny, who really ought to know better by now, goes along.

It is the closest Hornung ever comes to writing pure farce, and it is a useful reminder of why Bunny keeps coming back.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is a complete, unabridged reading of these two stories by E. W. Hornung, collected in Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman (1901) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries.

🗳️ YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT
The Archive is deep — more A. J. Raffles? Max Carrados? Loveday Brooke? Judith Lee? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Lady Molly? Raffles? Dr Thorndyke? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
Two cases, one bleak and one very nearly a joke, in the same evening. Which of tonight's two did you prefer? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
02:07 - No Sinecure
17:04 - No Sinecure
31:54 - No Sinecure
45:16 - Interlude
46:06 - A Jubilee Present
1:01:21 - A Jubilee Present
1:16:30 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
https://www.patreon.com/posts/156573383

🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
https://nocturnaltalespod.gumroad.com/l/ebookvol2

❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales

🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
https://rumble.com/c/c-7820714

❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
https://buymeacoffee.com/nocturnaltales

💛 PayPal — one-time tip
https://paypal.me/nocturnaltalesprod

🎧 Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nocturnal-tales-mystery-audiobooks-and-crime-stories/id1896195848

🧾 CREDITS
Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by E. W. Hornung (public domain).

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
e w hornung audiobook, raffles audiobook, no sinecure audiobook, a jubilee present audiobook, raffles further adventures 1901, gentleman thief mystery, gentleman burglar story, british museum heist story, raffles and bunny, classic crime story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #MidnightArchive #Raffles #EWHornung #GentlemanThief #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Unabridged #VictorianCrime #PublicDomain

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales
🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

Mayfair in the late afternoon, and one of those stately London houses where the wealth is real and the display is not — a marble hall, dark polished wood, and the settled warmth of a place that has been lived in for a very long time.

The lady of the house is silver-haired, upright, and entirely composed until she is asked about her grandson. Then the composure goes.

Edward Winslow is twenty-five. Charming, clever, too easily liked. He has been missing for a fortnight. The police have been informed and treat the matter lightly — young men disappear, they say, and young men come back.

There is a note. Eight words, scribbled in haste, left by hand with the servants and signed with a single letter. His grandmother does not believe he wrote it in the spirit it pretends, and she says so to the Belgian Detective with Arthur sitting beside her. They have never had silence between them, and this silence is terrible.

There has also been talk. Gambling debts. Questions of money. And an attachment of which the family does not approve.

High Society Scandal is an original Golden Age-style mystery about a world that would far rather manage a scandal than solve a crime — and very nearly gets its way.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
An original mystery written by Nocturnal Tales, inspired by the spirit of the great Golden Age crime writers. Plot, characters and text are entirely our own; all characters and events are fictional. This story first appeared in the second volume of our collected mysteries, revised here and recorded as a full audiobook. No affiliation is implied.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
The whole thing very nearly works, and it fails for one reason: a grandmother who knew exactly how her grandson wrote to her. At what point did you stop believing the note? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
02:20 - A Grandmother’s Anxiety
17:34 - The Ballroom’s Glitter
35:46 - Whispers in the Rain
52:50 - A Secret Exchange
1:13:04 - The Puzzle Takes Shape
1:27:38 - The Vigil
1:44:14 - The Truth Unveiled
2:01:34 - Reputation Restored
2:16:38 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
https://www.patreon.com/posts/156573383

🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
https://nocturnaltalespod.gumroad.com/l/ebookvol2

❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales

🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
https://rumble.com/c/c-7820714

❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
https://buymeacoffee.com/nocturnaltales

💛 PayPal — one-time tip
https://paypal.me/nocturnaltalesprod

🎧 Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nocturnal-tales-mystery-audiobooks-and-crime-stories/id1896195848

🧾 CREDITS
Written by Nocturnal Tales. Narrated by Nocturnal Tales.

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
golden age mystery audiobook, missing person mystery, mayfair london mystery, high society mystery audiobook, belgian detective audiobook, arthur mystery audiobook, 1930s london mystery, long full length audiobook, classic detective story audiobook, original golden age whodunit, vintage detective fiction

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #GoldenAgeMystery #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #MissingPerson #HighSociety #DetectiveFiction #Whodunnit

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
https://www.patreon.com/NocturnalTales
🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

Tonight, somebody new — and one of you asked for her without knowing she existed. After our Loveday Brooke episodes, a listener wrote asking for more from Loveday and, in her words, the other female detectives. Here is one almost nobody has heard of.

That is the whole idea, and it is a remarkable one. Judith Lee does not investigate crimes. She overhears them being arranged, by people who have no notion that the quiet young woman in the corner is taking down every word off their mouths.

Two cases tonight. THE MAN WHO CUT OFF MY HAIR is the first she ever tells, and it is the one in which she discovers, at twelve years old, what her gift is actually worth — and what it costs.

Richard Marsh wrote her in nineteen twelve. She is the earliest detective we know of whose gift is a disability turned round, and being able to read a conversation is not at all the same as being able to prove you read it.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is a complete, unabridged reading of these two stories by Richard Marsh, collected in Judith Lee: Some Pages From Her Life (1912) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries.

🗳️ YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT
The Archive is deep — more Judith Lee? Max Carrados? Loveday Brooke? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Lady Molly? Raffles? Dr Thorndyke? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
She has no laboratory, no method and no deductions. She simply cannot help understanding, and the stories turn on what a decent person is obliged to do once they do. Should we bring her back? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
02:20 - The Man who cut off my Hair
22:22 - The Man who cut off my Hair
41:52 - Interlude
42:40 - Eavesdropping at Interlaken
1:01:34 - Eavesdropping at Interlaken
1:20:41 - Eavesdropping at Interlaken
1:37:56 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

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🧾 CREDITS
Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by Richard Marsh (public domain).

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
richard marsh audiobook, judith lee audiobook, judith lee some pages from her life 1912, lip reading detective, female detective audiobook, edwardian lady detective, forgotten detective fiction, early women detectives, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #MidnightArchive #JudithLee #RichardMarsh #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Unabridged #FemaleDetective #ForgottenClassics #PublicDomain

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An English village where nothing can happen without being known within twenty minutes at the post office, thirty minutes at the butcher's, and, at the very latest, before evensong.

A young woman has come home to Little Wycham after seven and a half years away, and the village has the news by half past eleven on Tuesday morning. She left the October after her mother died. She is twenty-six now, London has polished her, and she is staying at the cottage her family never quite got round to selling.

Her mother's death was ruled accidental at the time. The coroner returned a verdict. The village returned several others, and enjoyed each of them for a season.

But that is not the extraordinary part.

Evelyn Bell has come back saying her mother was murdered. She says she knows who did it. And when the village sleuth asks, very gently, whether she intends to confront that person — she is told it has already been done.

The Girl Who Came Back from London is an original Golden Age-style mystery about what a village remembers, what it prefers to forget, and how much can be hidden inside a description of somebody who is no longer there to correct it.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is an original mystery written by Nocturnal Tales, inspired by the spirit of the great Golden Age crime writers and the English village tradition. The plot, characters and text are entirely our own creation. Little Wycham and everybody in it are fictional, and any resemblance to real persons or places is coincidental. No affiliation, endorsement, or official connection is implied.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
A village spent eight years enjoying this as a mystery — suicide for a fortnight, murder for considerably longer — without any of it costing one of them a night's sleep. Would you rather live somewhere that notices everything, or somewhere that notices nothing? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
02:02 - A Return to Little Wycham
11:25 - Squire’s Pond
21:44 - The Black Button
31:45 - The Other Mother
41:33 - The Letter Without a Name
53:19 - A Mother’s Love
1:02:48 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
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🧾 CREDITS
Written by Nocturnal Tales. Narrated by Nocturnal Tales.

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
english village mystery audiobook, golden age mystery audiobook, cosy mystery audiobook, village sleuth mystery, old lady detective audiobook, cold case mystery, accidental death mystery, english countryside whodunit, full length mystery audiobook, classic detective story audiobook, original golden age mystery, vintage detective fiction

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #GoldenAgeMystery #EnglishVillageMystery #CosyMystery #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Whodunnit #DetectiveFiction

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early ($2.99/month)
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🌐 Website — every story we've ever made, free to listen. No paywall, no account, no password.
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

It begins with Carlyle putting a question to his friend across the library: do you believe in ghosts, Max? He is not asking idly.

A block of flats has a haunted set. A tenant has fled it. The landlord's agent would very much like the business settled before the story reaches the newspapers, and the rents with it.

Max Carrados has not seen anything at all for many years. He is also the only person willing to ask the one question nobody has put: not whether the apparition was real, but what anybody stood to gain by its being seen.

A small announcement with this one. We have now read every story in Ernest Bramah's first Max Carrados collection. Four separate listeners wrote in asking for more of this author by name, so tonight we open the second book — The Eyes of Max Carrados, published in nineteen twenty-three. There are nine fresh cases in it, and this is the first.

Bramah's detective is never triumphant. He is curious, he is courteous to everybody including the guilty, and he treats a frightened tenant with exactly the same seriousness as a chief inspector. That is why people keep asking for him.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS
This is a complete, unabridged reading of The Ghost at Massingham Mansions by Ernest Bramah, collected in The Eyes of Max Carrados (1923) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries.

🗳️ YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT
The Archive is deep — more Max Carrados? Loveday Brooke? Judith Lee? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Lady Molly? Raffles? Dr Thorndyke? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS
Once you know what somebody wanted out of an empty flat, the sheeted figure stops being frightening and becomes rather sad. How long did you hold on to the supernatural explanation? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
02:07 - The Ghost at Massingham Mansions
21:12 - The Ghost at Massingham Mansions
33:41 - The Ghost at Massingham Mansions
49:28 - The Ghost at Massingham Mansions
1:05:27 - Closing

📖 GET THE EBOOK — $3.99

📌 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase
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🛒 Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included
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❤️ SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS

📌 Patreon — every new case first, ad-free and early
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🌐 Website — every story, free, no account needed
https://nocturnaltalespodcast.com

📺 Rumble — free, supports us with ad revenue
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❤️ Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support
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🎧 Apple Podcasts
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🧾 CREDITS
Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by Ernest Bramah (public domain).

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS
ernest bramah audiobook, max carrados audiobook, the ghost at massingham mansions audiobook, the eyes of max carrados 1923, blind detective mystery, haunted flat mystery, ghost hoax story, 1920s london mystery, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery

🏷️ HASHTAGS
#NocturnalTales #MidnightArchive #MaxCarrados #ErnestBramah #ClassicMystery #FullAudiobook #Unabridged #BlindDetective #GhostStory #PublicDomain