Showing results by narrator "John Rayburn" in All Categories

The chief character, Lord Peter Wimsey, goes to the Bellona Club to have a meal with an old friend of his, ninety-year old General Fentiman. In great surprise, he finds the aged man fully dressed by the fire in full rigor mortis. A question arises concerning the time of death and the situation develops into a serious murder investigation. Wimsey sometimes seemed to have a supercilious attitude as a monocled aristocrat and sometimes became a sort of professional detective. His family motto was, “As my whimsy takes me.”

The fiction world of today needs a “Saint” more than it ever did. For years now that scene has been dominated by the “anti-heroes"—those grim gray operators in a sunless sub-culture where global issues are worked out with totally unemotional pragmatism, those hapless uninspired puppets manipulated and expended by ruthlessly dedicated little brothers of Big Brother. It made morbidly fascinating narrative, but it never gave anyone a lift until it climaxed in the hyper-gadgeted parodies of 007 extravaganzas.

The story you’re about to hear is the second Charlie Chan novel, and it features a parrot named Tony who is witness to a crime. The unusual bird spoke Chinese and had a less-than-perfect use of English grammar but was killed by the criminals as a precaution. Chan himself was a friend of a family selling jewels and agreed to deliver them on his first trip to mainland California. While there he masquerades as a pidgin-speaking cook during his undercover investigation. His profound and original intelligence offers genial humor and witty dialogue.

This is a whodunit that neatly fits into the history of detective fiction. It features artist Philip Trent as he unexpectedly becomes an amateur detective. Some of his carefully collected information often proved erroneous. It begins when a wealthy American plutocrat, Bigsbee Manderson, uses his finances in attempt to establish rules controlling society. When Manderson is found murdered on the grounds of his country house in England, Trent is hired as a reporter by a press association to investigate and file reports.

It gives us considerable pleasure to be able to offer to the public the “inside” record of those of former District Attorney Markham’s criminal cases in which Mr. Philo Vance figured so effectively. The true inwardness of these famous cases has never before been revealed by S. S. Van Dine, Mr. Vance’s lawyer and almost constant companion, being the only person who possessed a complete record of the facts and has only recently been permitted to make them public.

A late-night murder of a diamond merchant’s veteran employee in London’s Hatton Gardens has Scotland Yard calling on Inspector French to investigate. When French gets there he finds not only the victim but missing diamonds and money from an open safe. There are meager clues as the Inspector follows a trail to mainland Europe and back. There are many false clues and several suspects with much of the searching leading to nothing but dead ends. We can listen as French sorts it all out, finding the missing diamonds and nabbing the murderer.

The words of Kahlil Gibran give his book The Prophet a broad range of inspiration and philosophy. They provide exceptional insight into human desires and understanding. The vivid observations are vibrant with feeling and acceptance of life’s many questions and hopes. One review saluted the story as being untouched by the harshness of life. Gibran’s other two books, The Forerunner and The Madman, are of deep assistance in the same manner.

A weapon used to murder a wealthy business man was apparently an ancient dagger stolen from a museum. It supposedly was from Peru and had a centuries-old inscription that was thought to tell whereabouts of a massive gold stash in the South American country. It was said to have a curse on it for anyone using it to track down the treasure. Professor Craig Kennedy, noted user of science to solve such cases, was contacted to see what he could do. Would his thinking prowess be enough? The finger of blame points at several possibilities as to the guilty party, or possibly parties.

This the story of the unplanned adoption of an eleven-year-old girl orphan by an elderly brother and sister farm couple: Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. They had requested a young boy orphan to help with farm chores, so the girl was unwanted at first. However, she was very intelligent, imaginative and quite a chatterbox. She gradually made her way into the unexpected adoption that brought love and respect, creating a warm and wonderful association. This delightful classic takes place in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.

It was a lonely English courtyard where attorneys received traditional apprenticeship … one of the ancient Inns of Court. The bludgeoned body of a well-dressed elderly man was found there at midnight, an apparent murder victim. Investigative newspaper reporter Frank Spargo was one of the first to arrive at the crime scene and he was puzzled about why such a prosperous looking man had been wandering there at that time of night. The only item found on the body was a small paper with a young barrister’s address.

The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the Joyce-Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by some unknown person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of humor, has now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter. The most macabre and imaginative of plotters would hesitate before linking his morbid fancies with the unquestioned and tragic facts which reinforce the statement. Though the assertions contained in it are amazing and even monstrous, it is nonetheless forcing itself upon the general intelligence that they are true.

There were times when Bertie Wooster, the fictional narrator of these stories, was thought of as being at least a trifle feather-brained. However, he had a valet who seemed to know everything about everything. These are among more than 300 short stories written by a man who began a short-lived career in banking after his college days. However, it didn’t take long for P. G. Wodehouse to decide he didn’t like that kind of job, and he began writing in whatever spare time he had.

The writing of P. G. Wodehouse put him among the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. He began his post-collegiate career working in a bank. Very dissatisfied with the job, he began writing magazine articles when he had any spare time. What an outstanding professional decision that turned out to be. A Damsel in Distress is a prime example of the Wodehouse trademark of elaborate quirks of hilarity.

In truth the mastery of flying was the work of thousands of men—this man a suggestion and that an experiment, until at last only one vigorous intellectual effort was needed to finish the work. But the inexorable injustice of the popular mind has decided that of all these thousands, one man, and that a man who never flew, should be chosen as the discoverer, just as it has chosen to honor Watt as the discoverer of steam and Stephenson of the steam-engine.

Broadcasting veteran John Rayburn presents a historic reenactment of the classic 1956 World Series championship games between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. Don Larsen’s perfect game, the only in World Series history, was in Game 5, Monday, October 8, 1956. This was the final Series for the Dodgers while still in Brooklyn. Their next Series appearance came after moving to Los Angeles. The Dodgers scored only one run in the final 28 innings of the Series. Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra each hit three home runs for the Yankees.

This is the story of two young brothers from the backwoods of Maine … Randy and Earl Portney. Having a difficult time financially, unable to pay their rent, even how to keep on eating, they weren’t sure how to resolve their dilemma. Then, virtually out of the blue, they got an unexpected invitation letter from their Uncle Foster. He was going to head out for the big search for gold in Alaska and he wanted to know if the boys would go with him.

It seems very unreal but the author is not only top-notch with his plot handling but he never strays from the bounds of reason. It isn’t easy to fool someone like detective sergeant Blick of Scotland Yard, but he does it. Blick is called in by an archeologist named Mr. Fransenmery to help solve the killing of Guy Markenmore, who had been away from the area for seven years and had returned because of the expected death of his father.

This book marks an epoch in my literary career. It is written in blood. It is the outpouring of a soul as deeply seared by Fate’s unkindness as the fairway on the dog-leg hole of the second nine was ever seared by my iron. It is the work of a very nearly desperate man, an 18-handicap man who has got to look extremely slippy if he doesn’t want to find himself in the 20s again.

This is a very unusual book, wherein the majority of the story is contents of an ancient diary found by two friends on a fishing holiday while on the grounds of an old dilapidated house. The moldy manuscript has inscribed tales of strange things seen and heard. There are horrible creatures and huge monsters described as though they were old gods of mythology.

Humor and overall literary style have changed a lot in the 132 years since this book was published in 1889. However, the information remains informative, primarily because there is a certain amount of truthfulness about it that manages to disregard the passage of time. It takes in some unusual events that either did happen, or could have. It involves three men and a dog that is sometimes smarter than any of them. Between them, they come up with some depth of thought and at least a minor ability to understand human nature.