Showing results by narrator "John Rayburn" in All Categories

Richard Viner is basically an average young man on the street who, more or less accidentally, finds a dead body in a dimly lit alley while he’s taking his usual nightly stroll. He calls police and when they arrive they figure it’s likely a robbery gone wrong because the dead man’s valuables are missing. However, a prime suspect is arrested trying to pawn some jewelry belonging to the victim. He happens to be an old school-mate of Viner. Viner discovers the old chum is down and out and needs the money, so he decides to investigate and try get his pal vindicated.

A German advocate of the Kaiser discovers he is a facial/physical match for young Englishman Everard Dominey, who is near death after harrowing experiences in Africa. The remarkable doppelgänger resemblance leads Major-General Baron Leopold Von Ragastein to infiltrate the UK in perfect disguise. He wants to lead his country’s efforts as Europe is racing toward war. Part of the plan is to murder Dominey and have the Baron take his place in English society.

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.

The Brass Bottle is the story of an architect who bought an antique brass bottle to give to a professor dealing in Mideast antiquities. After the purchase, the architect’s curiosity was aroused, and he removed the stopper in the bottle. And when he did, a big cloud of smoke was released, producing a major surprise when a genie emerged. His name was Fakrash el-Aamash, and he turned out to be a fairy-tale-type character who wound up trying to repay the architect, Horace Ventimore, for giving him release from what amounted to a brass prison.

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.

We begin with a story published in McClure’s magazine, December 1899. This was the first story published under the pseudonym O. Henry. Let’s listen.

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.

When a famous actor goes missing, the search leads playwright Richard Copplestone to the seaside town of Scarhaven. Every clue seems to bring about more questions as the intrigue goes much deeper than anyone suspects. Copplestone uncovers layer after layer of dark secrets, many of them involving the attractive Audrey Greyle and her family. If Copplestone does not discover the truth soon, he risks endangering the lives of the friends he has made in Scarhaven, including Audrey.

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.

Their instincts and intelligence were valuable assets for teenage brothers, Joe and Frank Hardy, as they followed in the footsteps of their well-known father, Fenton Hardy, a former police detective. They had wits and courage that gave them what it took to solve cases in their fictional home of Bayport in the upper east coast area of the US. They never lost their nerve despite being frequently confronted by danger. In this instance there is a robbery at the Tower Mansion and a friend of the Hardy Boys’ father is falsely accused. Young Joe and Frank take on the case.

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.

Teenagers Joe and Frank Hardy had ample mental ability to reach conclusions and act accordingly. Some of that ability was handed down by their former police detective Fenton Hardy, and the overall concept was enhanced by their perceptive cleverness. If you want to be tense with excitement, here’s a chance. They discover a counterfeiting operation in an old mill, are trapped and face a struggle to escape. Eventually, they overcome the misdeeds and wind up with some of the phony money.

A subtitle of this book is “The Lost World Under the Sea,” and it’s somewhat based on the famed legend of Atlantis. That was an ancient city or continent that was supposedly inundated by the sea. Whether it actually existed has been a question that has lasted for thousands of years. Greek philosopher Plato wrote about it around 360 BC, so even his possible information was second-hand. Tsunamis (sea storms) have existed for centuries and if there really was an Atlantis, any survivors may have fled inland and built new cities.

Seeing justice done in your own way of thinking is not the wisest path to follow. However, it was indeed how one individual managed his life. He did it in such a way that criminals at all levels feared him, as did Scotland Yard as they tried to put a halt to his actions. The Yard itself hadn’t the slightest idea of what he looked like because this man, who came to be known as The Ringer, had a baffling way of disguising himself.

Just who was Edgar Allan Poe? Of course he was an author, but there were parts of his life that were shrouded in mystery, like many of his stories. The differences between fact and fiction were intermingled and became even more so after his death. Readers around the world had their imaginations stimulated by his tales of mystery and sometimes horror. This book features two of his horror variety tales, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, as well as two of his more famous poems, “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee”.

Back in 1900 author L. Frank Baum says he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to please children of his time. He called it a modernized fairy tale, totally unlike older stories often filled with blood-curdling events. He left out the heartaches and nightmares. He pointed out youngsters have long had a love of fantastic stories, but times change and they look forward more to entertainment that still has the wonderment and joy of time gone by. His fantastic creation of Oz provides exactly that.

One January day, many years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings huddled on the gray prairie, under a gray sky. The dwelling-houses were set about haphazard on the tough prairie sod; some of them looked as if they had been moved in overnight, and others as if they were straying off by themselves, headed straight for the open plain. None of them had any appearance of permanence, and the howling wind blew under them as well as over them.

Shore Road has a bunch of auto thefts outside Bayport, home territory of the Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe. They find out that one of their friends, Jack Dodd and his father, have been accused of the thefts. This bothers the lads because they feel certain there has been a big mistake and they intend to do something about it. As a result of their intentions and investigation the Hardy Boys wind up helping in capture of the actual car thieves who had framed and kidnapped their friends. It’s exciting listening as they work hard to aid the Dodds, father and son.

Frank, age sixteen, and Joe, age fifteen, are confronted with one of their most baffling cases. It becomes truly exciting to follow them as they seek a solution. Will they get it? If so, how? It becomes very exciting to follow them in their efforts as they try to live up to the exceptional detecting abilities of their professional detective father.

Part of a mystery series featuring renowned detective Fleming Stone. He is called on to decide whether it was suicide or murder in the case of a future college president. Stone has remarkable ingenuity for unraveling cases. Can he do it again? A young girl student is suspected. Was she guilty or was it just rumor? Several clues point both ways. Small footprints in the snow lead to a boarding house where the mystery girl is lodging and love letters between the two point to her guilt. Listening to the unusual tale will have you thinking both ways.