Uncle Erich Presents™ - Classic Radio Shows, Crime, Suspense, Murder Mysteries · Uncle Erich

Uncle Erich Presents™ - Mister Keen - "Murder and the Star of Death." (1949)

·27 min·1 clip

Mr. Keene uses the house deed to identify Loretta Waynard as the person who knew the secret panel.

1. Uncle Erich Presents™ stages Mr. Keene Tracer of Lost Persons, "Murder and the Star of Death," a 1949 mystery about a stolen sapphire and a killing in a New York suburb. 2. Mr. Keene, his partner Mike Clancy, and Lieutenant Hale matter because they investigate Mark Adams' death and the missing "Star of Death." 3. The episode asks who stole the sapphire from Mark Adams' dinner party and how the killer hid it inside the house. 4. Mark Adams tells Loretta Waynard, Paul Dudley, and Edith Sims that he bought the stone from the Hancock estate and that it is the "greatest sapphire in existence." 5. The lights go out during the display, the sapphire disappears, and Adams threatens police action if the thief does not return it. 6. Moments later, Mr. King hears that Mark Adams has been stabbed to death with a ladder opener taken from the desk. 7. Kay Adams explains that her father was the fourth person associated with the stone to die violently, after hearing the sapphire's history. 8. Kay names the three guests as Edith Sims, Paul Dudley, and Mrs. Loretta Raynard, and says the servants had left for the night. 9. Mr. Keene notes that the police searched the suspects thoroughly and then decides the sapphire is probably still in the house. 10. Lieutenant Hale agrees to cooperate while stationing men at airports and railway terminals so the killer cannot flee. 11. Edith Sims says she overheard Loretta Waynard accuse Mark Adams of planning to marry her and tell him he would be better off dead than married to a "fortune hunter." 12. Loretta Waynard later says she heard Paul Dudley say he would give anything for the sapphire and that it was a jewel any man would murder for. 13. Mr. Keene gathers all three suspects together and tells them each is under suspicion for murder. 14. When Mrs. Waynard trips and falls, Mr. Keene notices Paul Dudley bending over the desk at the same moment. 15. A loose nail head opens a secret panel in the desk, and inside it Mike Clancy finds the Star of Death. 16. Mr. Keene keeps the discovery secret from the suspects and waits for a second break in the case. 17. He asks Kay Adams about the house and learns the furniture came with the property when her father bought it two years earlier. 18. Using the deed and a fake fire alarm, Mr. Keene sets a trap in the library to force the person who knows the desk to reveal herself. 19. The episode has a brisk radio-drama pace, with rapid-fire accusations, short exchanges, and a final confrontation in the darkened house. 20. Listeners who like classic detective radio and locked-room jewel mysteries will probably stay engaged; listeners wanting modern pacing or light comedy may skip it.

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