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Classic Detective Stories

Classic Detective Stories

By: John Anthony Walker
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Step into the shadows with Tony Walker in the captivating podcast, "Classic Detective Stories." From the intricate puzzles of the Golden Age to the gritty streets of the Hardboiled era, this podcast traverses the thrilling landscape of crime fiction. Each week, delve into timeless tales penned by masters like Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allan Poe, and Dashiell Hammett. Starting from Edgar Allan Poe’s groundbreaking "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," the series spans decades up to the 1950s, exploring the rich heritage of detective literature. Alongside a host of guest narrators, and occasional visits from the legendary Sherlock Holmes himself, "Classic Detective Stories" revives the intrigue and suspense of classic whodunits. Tune in for a weekly dose of mystery, where each story promises a twist that will keep you guessing until the very end.Podcast Episodes Copyright Tony Walker
Episodes
  • The Great Valdez Sapphire by Ellen Mary Clerke

    The Great Valdez Sapphire by Ellen Mary Clerke
    Oct 27 2026
    Not by Mary Agnes Clerke but her sister Ellen Mary Clerke... A country‑house dinner, a proud gem‑collector, and a bishop who turns suddenly pale at the sight of a certain blue stone. The menu is flawless, the conversation carefully civilised, yet something crooked sits at the table: a sapphire whose history is supposed to be locked away in an ecclesiastical strong‑room, not winking at the candles from the throat of a woman with altogether too much laughter and altogether too much past. As the evening lengthens, old scandals, forged loyalties, and the uneasy difference between knowing and merely believing begin to press in on the assembled guests, until the question of what is genuine—stone, story, or reputation—refuses to stay politely buried. The Great Valdez Sapphire, written by the Irish author, poet, and scholar Ellen Mary Clerke (1840–1906), first appeared in the April 1892 issue of the British monthly periodical The Argosy (Vol. 53, No. 317). It achieved a long afterlife in early twentieth‑century crime and mystery collections, including Julian Hawthorne’s multivolume The Lock and Key Library (1909) and Joseph Lewis French’s Masterpieces of Mystery (1920), and was often misattributed as “Anonymous” due to its frequent reprinting without a clear byline. Ellen Mary Clerke was a Skibereen born journalist, translator, and popular science writer who worked in several European languages and published on subjects ranging from Italian poetry to astronomy and world geography. Best known in her lifetime for essays and leaders in The Tablet and the Dublin Review, she also produced poetry, fiction, and informed, quietly incisive work on the cultural and scientific concerns of her age.v Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • The Story of the Czarina's Diamonds by Richard Harding Davis

    The Story of the Czarina's Diamonds by Richard Harding Davis
    Oct 13 2026
    Following on from The Story of the Naval Attaché last week, we move onto part 2 of Richard Harding Davis's novella: In The Fog, in which a Queen's Messenger has an encounter with the seductive, charming, ruthless, femme fatale, Russian spy Princess Zichy. It takes place not in the fog, but in an overnight train from Paris to the French Riviera. Oozing period charm, it reminded me a bit of The Lady Vanishes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    28 mins
  • The Story of the Naval Attache by Richard Harding Davis

    The Story of the Naval Attache by Richard Harding Davis
    Oct 6 2026
    On a winter night when London has quite forgotten the idea of light, an American naval attaché loses his way in the yellow murk near Knightsbridge. The streets are gone, the landmarks drowned; only an occasional scrap of gaslight or distant music proves the city is still there at all. Groping along an iron railing, he finds an open gate, a half‑closed door, and a silent, richly furnished house that should not be open to the fog or to him. Someone has just left in haste. Someone else, he soon discovers, has not left at all. In that strange, luxurious quiet, the fog outside begins to feel less dangerous than whatever is waiting in the rooms within. In the Fog first appeared in 1901, serialised in The Windsor Magazine, and was later collected by Charles Scribner’s Sons. It is now in the public domain and widely available, including in the Library of Congress Crime Classics edition. Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916) was an American war correspondent, journalist, and bestselling author of adventure and mystery tales. His work helped define the image of the dashing foreign correspondent and shaped popular fiction on both sides of the Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 15 mins
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