Mystery is My Hobby Presented by the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio · Adam Graham Radio Detective Podcasts

Mystery is My Hobby: Death is a Grain of Sand

·30 min·1 clip

Barton Drake reconstructs the murder using three holes, a tin pail, and the sand itself.

1. Mystery is My Hobby: Death is a Grain of Sand centers on a Rajah Bidrami stage performance that turns into a murder case. 2. Glenn Langan plays Barton Drake, Ken Christie plays Inspector Danton, Junius Matthews plays Dr. Tree, John McIntyre plays Raja Vadrami, and Betty Lou Gerson plays Mildred. 3. The episode asks how a woman buried under two feet of sand on a spike bed could end up shot during the act. 4. Barton Drake opens by mocking the theater show while Inspector Danton watches for 'monkey business' and fortune-teller fraud. 5. Raja Bidrami introduces himself as a former University of Hague psychology professor and promises a night of 'experiments.' 6. The act has Loretta bound, placed on sharpened spikes, covered with a sheet, and buried in sand while the audience waits for proof she is alive. 7. After the sand is removed, the performance collapses into a murder scene when Loretta is found dead with a gunshot wound. 8. Drake and the inspector notice a hollow spike, a bent metal tube, and holes in the stage that point to a concealed mechanism. 9. Drake later follows the evidence downstairs, where a smashed little tin pail and sand on the floor suggest something moved under the stage. 10. Dr. Tree says Loretta was his wife, which changes the argument from simple stage fraud to a personal motive. 11. Mildred tells Drake that Loretta threatened to expose the Rajah and that the act was tied to a $100,000 racket. 12. The story keeps returning to whether jealousy, greed, or fear of exposure is driving the people around the Rajah. 13. Drake explains that the gun barrel was pushed through a hole from below the stage and that sand filling the attached pail could pull the trigger. 14. The episode makes the murder depend on timing, because the weapon fired under the stage while Loretta stayed hidden above it. 15. The Rajah's claims about mind control matter less than the mechanical tricks Drake identifies in the stage floor. 16. Inspector Danton gets trapped in a mummy cage, which gives the scene a comic interruption before Drake finishes reconstructing the crime. 17. The tone mixes fast banter, old-fashioned stage-show theatricality, and procedural explanation from Barton Drake. 18. The format is a studio-era radio drama with sharp dialogue, a public performance, and a final explanation scene. 19. Best for listeners who like Golden Age radio mysteries with stage-show gimmicks. 20. Skip if you want modern pacing or subtle character realism.

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