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

The groom loses his bride 10 minutes after the wedding and Holmes must find her.

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' search for Neville St. Clair has lead him to the opium dens of Upper Swandam Lane, where the 'disappearance' of many souls in this vile alley is a sobering fact of life. Not simply those whose lives are consumed and cast into perdition by the drug, but sudden, violent exits from the mortal plane at the hands of others. St. Clair's distraught wife has seen him here in one of the dens, but he has vanished just as suddenly. Police have found his clothes and bloodstains upon an open windowsill.

E. F. Benson's ghost story In The Tube is posited as an exposition of a vast metaphysical question that we as human beings cannot understand. Our suppositions of time and space are taken to task. This is fiction with historical significance.

Tales from Shakespeare was written by Charles Lamb (1775-1834) and his sister Mary Lamb (1764-1847) in 1807 as a prose adaptation for children. Mary wrote most of the comedies, about 14 of the 20. One Voice Recordings presents for your entertainment stage and voice actor David Ian Davies portraying all the characters in this charming retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream

As Dr. Watson commits to history in his journal, "... in reviewing my notes for the year 1890, I have come across a case that, while seeming at the outset to be one of the most mundane ever brought to him, had one of the most inexplicable endings that I have been privileged to record."

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been claimed as the first detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination".

In a sleepy, coastal, New England town, three men decide to rob and, if need be, torture a very old sea captain to learn where he keeps his wealth - a man who is so old no one ever remembers him being young; a man who pays for his purchases not with dollars but with ancient gold and silver coins minted over two centuries ago; a man who speaks to spirits in bottles; a man who may not be a man at all.

When an Englishwoman receives mysterious gifts of pearls and a letter promising to right wrongs done to her, she calls upon Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to investigate. This classic work of detective fiction is the second of Conan Doyle's books to feature Holmes and Watson.

While still grieving over his great friend's death, Watson is stunned, relieved and joyful when Holmes suddenly appears and reveals that he has escaped an untimely end in that fatal struggle with his mortal enemy, Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls. The criminal underworld suspects this, says Holmes, and Watson is drawn anew into Holmes's plot to deceive his enemies and foil a probable attempt upon his life.

Mr. Hall Pycroft has no sooner found a new position to replace the job he lost than he is approached by an unknown gentleman who offers him even better and higher paying employment. Pycroft accepts the offer and is told to contact the gentleman’s brother. After traveling to what have been called the temporary offices of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, what he sees and hears during his interview raises alarms in his mind. Uncertain of what the strange events all mean, he has come to Sherlock Holmes.

Hilton Cubitt, from Derbyshire, consults Holmes about a series of dancing men picture-messages his wife is receiving. On their wedding-day, she had made Cubitt promise he would ask her nothing about her past, but she now seems to be terrified. Holmes has to decipher the code of the matchstick men and get to the bottom of the dreadful murder that lies behind it.

Dr. Watson's account of the strange death of Captain Peter Carey begins one morning with Holmes returning to Baker Street with a "huge barbed-headed spear tucked like an umbrella under his arm." The instrument, the facts unfold, duplicates the weapon which has been driven so violently through the victim's body that it has been discovered pinned to the wall like an insect.

A doctor hires out to a whaling vessel bound for the Arctic, where the ship becomes icebound. Strange moanings are soon heard on the Polar wind, and ghostly apparitions appear out on the ice. The ship's senior officers are convinced they have something to do with the captain's mysterious past, but who can say for sure, since he appears to be slowly going insane?

This evocative play is the true story of the stormy romance between the playwright Bernard Shaw and the actress, Mrs Patrick Campbell. She first caught Shaw's eye in 1893 when, young and stunningly beautiful, she created a sensation as the heroine of The Second Mrs Tanqueray. Dear Liar offers an intimate portrait of Shaw, providing far more telling clues to his private personality than any of his plays could hope to do.

A pair of casual paranormal researchers are experimenting with the idea of astral projection. One night, one of them inadvertently succeeds in projecting his spirit from his body, which is then taken possession of by a malevolent entity in his absence.

England, 1893. Chief Inspector Roderick Langham of Scotland Yard is asked to investigate the discovery of a Russian cargo schooner whose crew has vanished except for its captain, who is found dead, tied to the ship's wheel. The captain's log speaks of strange cargo aboard and the crew members disappearing one after another.

When he takes his young son to a magic shop as a birthday present, a father finds it ever more difficult to separate what is illusion from what he begins to wonder is real magic. This is a wonderful trip into the world of fantasy for young listeners and parents alike.

After George McWhirter Fotheringay discovers that he is able to perform miracles in a local bar after he professes not to believe in them, he experiments in his home with whimsical results. He seeks the advice of local clergyman, Mr. Maydig, who decides to begin a campaign of using Fotheringay's powers to reform the world. But with best of intentions, Mr. Fotheringay has little knowledge and less foresight. Before long a miracle backfires and he must use his power one last time to undo the cataclysm.

Although written from a child's perspective, this is not a kids' book but a series of funny, poignant, and sometimes disturbing stories about life in a late nineteenth-century Russian-Jewish village.