Showing results by narrator "David Ian Davies" in All Categories

Another of Wodehouse's frantic scrambles of characters to amuse us today as he did his fans of the '20s. This story is concerned with the obligation the rich have for the poor and may still feel that they have today.

The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow, and is the second and final appearance of Mycroft Holmes. Doyle ranked The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans 14th in a list of his 19 favorite Sherlock Holmes stories.

A visitor to Wisteria Lodge awakens one morning to discover everyone else has vanished.

On doctor's orders, Bertie Wooster retires to the village of Maiden Eggesford, but his rest-cure is interrupted by Aunt Dahlia, who wants him to nobble a racehorse; Vanessa Cook, who wants him to act as go-between for her and Orlo Porter; and Orlo Porter himself, who would tear Bertie limb from limb if he ever discovered that Bertie and Vanessa were once engaged. Throw in a dotty explorer, an unreliable poacher, an irascible father, and the stable cat, and the stage is set for a sublime farce.

Egbert Craddock Cummins, now dramatic critic to the Fiery Cross, is in a quandary. What happens when you are so suggestible that you take on the characteristics of your surroundings and begin losing your own identity? H. G. Wells explores his hidden, but rapidly growing, dilemma with great humor.

The Problem of Thor Bridge: A love triangle culminates in the shooting death of the wife and murder charges against the household's beautiful governess. The arrogant, combative husband seeks the services of Sherlock Holmes to clear the young lady in question. The case appears cut and dried, 'til a stroke of insight leads the detective to the solution to the perplexing evidence.

The fifth story from Doyle's Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes ( The Strand magazine, 1893) reveals the roots of the detective's foray into criminology and his very first case as a young college student, when the death of his school chum's father unearths a terrible, tragic series of events upon the high seas, of plotting and murder, of betrayal - and the man's long-hidden secrets of another life.

Holmes is brought into the investigation of what appears a simple, obvious case of a son murdering his father shortly after the son was seen by witnesses near, and at, the scene of the man's death.

"To call this only a 'reading' of the classic Sherlock Holmes story would be to devalue the beauty of the performance. Although you may have heard recordings of the Sherlock Holmes work before with distance and haughty affectation, none of that is present in Mr. Davies storytelling performance. This features one man, many voices and a hefty portion of talent. This performance is fresh, approachable and inviting." ( Storyteller.net Review)

One Voice Recordings' presentation of Matthew Elliott's excellent new Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Holmes is contacted by a cracksman, or thief, who has entered a residence to commit a 'routine' crime and found a decaying body stuffed in the chimney. Holmes' investigation leads him to the governmental office of his older brother, Mycroft, as the case takes on larger and more ominous dimensions.

The Adventure of the Creeping Man: The strange behavior of a family dog towards its master brings Holmes into a case involving the increasingly odd and disturbing behavior of the man himself, a respected professor.

When Pyecroft, an obese man who cannot stop eating, becomes a member at the club H.G. belongs to, his corpulence becomes a disturbance and a distraction. Soon, Pyecroft gets wind of the fact that H.G. has some mystical weight loss remedies given to him by his grandmother, and he begs H.G. to let him have one.

So often associated with science fiction and stories of the supernatural, H. G. Wells also had a flair for the comedic and the absurd. His short story "Mr. Brisher's Treasure" delights with a title character given to broad, slapstick behavior and mannerisms that could make one nearly drop their book chuckling. The treasure trove he discovers in the most unlikely of places leads to impromptu plotting to take possession of it right under the noses of others.

"A coppertop steam engine has disappeared," explains a train-boiler inspector as he visits Sherlock Holmes at 221B, "and not by the whim of drunken youths." Something sinister is afoot, and Holmes learns as he takes on the mystery that criminals have designs upon using the locomotive for purposes never imagined by its designers.

The narrator in this story vows revenge upon a man named Fortunato. He takes advantage of Fortunato's ego and lures him down into the recesses of an underground vault to taste a rare wine, a cask of Amontillado.

Prince Prospero invites several dozen of the local nobility to his castle for protection against an oncoming plague, the Red Death. Prospero orders his guests to attend a masked ball and, amidst a general atmosphere of debauchery and depravity, notices the entry of a mysterious hooded stranger dressed all in red.

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs: A perplexing mystery involving the search for three men with the surname of Garrideb in order to claim an eccentric American's $15 million estate.

Sir James Damery calls upon Sherlock Holmes, representing an exalted client who wishes his identity protected. Holmes' mission is to break up an engagement between Violet De Merville, the daughter of a prominent citizen, and her rakish fiancee, by exposing his true scoundrel character to her.

The excitement, adventure, and magical sense of time and place, outraying from the heart of Robert Louis Stevenson's 18th-century pirate tale, is captured in all its glory by actor David Ian Davies in this new One Voice Recordings release. Be swept away by the story of young Jim Hawkins, caught up in his journey to the Caribbean islands upon a ship with a memorable and explosive crew, and led by the cryptic map from a Dead Man's Chest.

Enjoy this wonderful collection of Sherlock Holmes' adventures.