AUDIO-BRIEFING

by Steve Steinbock

Nope. It isn’t Friday. But it’s Agatha Christie Week. And that’s giving me an excuse to plug a few mystery short-story listening opportunities.

If you happen to be in the English Riviera, you can take part in a variety of events (plays, films, gallery presentations, tours, lectures, etc.) as part of the Agatha Christie Festival.

But if Torquay is too far to travel, consider surfing over to AudioFile Magazine, which is celebrating the week by offering a free download of David Suchet reading Christie’s story, “The Case of the Missing Will.” (Due to special arrangements with the BBC, the offer is only available in the U.S. And you will have to answer a two-question survey in order to have the file emailed to you). The AudioFile website also has a biography of Christie, an interview with Hugh Fraser (Captain Hastings from the BBC TV “Poirot” series), and if you click on the “Audiography,” you’ll be taken to an archive with 120 reviews of Agatha Christie audiobooks. Tell ‘em Steve sent you.

If Christie isn’t your thing, I’ve got news of something new at the Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine websites. Both magazines have begun posting podcasts of short stories. The AHMM site is offering Will Ludwigsen’s “In Search Of”, read by actor and playwright Daniel John Kelley. It’s a fun, unique story, and one of the few to succeed at being told from second-person. Over at the EQMM website you can listen to editor Janet Hutchings introducing a full cast recording of “The Myna Birds”, adapted from a 1956 story by Ellery Queen.

Each month AHMM and EQMM will be posting news stories. Stay tuned.