Archive of "It's a Mystery"

Elizabeth Foxwell's radio show "It's a Mystery" ran from February 2005 to May 2007 on WEBR (now Radio Fairfax) in Fairfax, VA, and featured interviews with authors, booksellers, and others in the mystery field. A partial archive of clips from past programs appears below. Contact Elizabeth if you wish to cite or reproduce any of this material.

Audio clips from "It's a Mystery" 

• Stan Freberg's hardboiled parody "Sam Splayed, Detective" (MP3 file)
• Bob Hope and Jack Webb's 1953 sendup of Dragnet (MP3 file)
• Donna Andrews talks about cybercrime in her Turing Hopper series (MP3 file)
• Maggie Barbieri talks about her debut academic mystery Murder 101 (MP3 file)
• Robert Barnard talks about Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, his novel Dying Flames,and more (MP3 file)
• Linda Barnes talks about Heart of the World with Boston PI Carlotta Carlyle (MP3 file)
• Edgar nominee Louis Bayard talks about his novels The Pale Blue Eye (featuring Poe) and Mister Timothy (featuring a grown-up Tiny Tim) (MP3 file)
• James R. Benn talks about his World War II mystery Billy Boyle (MP3 file)
• Simon Brett reads from Murder in the Museum (MP3 file)
• Jan Burke talks about the Crime Lab Project  (MP3 file)
• Nora Charles talks about Hurricane Homicide and other novels featuring senior sleuth Kate Kennedy (MP3 file)
• Margaret Coel talks about her novel The Drowning Man and others set on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation (MP3 file)
• Max Allan Collins, aka Patrick Culhane, talks about his novel Black Hats, Mickey Spillane, and other projects (MP3 file)
• Bill Crider talks about his character, Sheriff Dan Rhodes; his Westerns; and the subgenre of "geezer noir" (MP3 file)
• Deborah Crombie talks about Water Like a Stone featuring Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Met inspector Gemma James and her plans for a future novel in the series (MP3 file)
• Ellen Crosby talks about her novel The Merlot Murders, set in Virginia's wine country (MP3 file)
• Eileen Dreyer talks about translating her experiences as a 20-year trauma nurse into suspense (MP3 file)
• Stephen Duncombe and Andrew Mattson talk about their book The Bobbed Haired Bandit: A True Story of Crime and Celebrity in 1920s New York (MP3 file)
• Laura Durham reads from For Better or Hearse (MP3 file)
• Bruce Hale talks about inspiring children to read (MP3 file)
• Ellen Hart discusses the challenges of creating characters, including gay characters (MP3 file)
• Anthony Horowitz talks about his Alex Rider spy novels for young adults, the Alex Rider film Stormbreaker, and his PBS Mystery! series Foyle's War (MP3 file)
• Edgar nominee Steve Hockensmith talks about his mystery westerns Holmes on the Range and On the Wrong Track (MP3 file)
• Roberta Isleib talks about her novel Deadly Advice featuring psychologist-advice columnist Rebecca Butterman (MP3 file)
• Jonathon King talks about his thriller Eye of Vengeance (MP3 file)
• Richard Layman, trustee for the Dashiell Hammett estate, discusses recommended Hammett reading (MP3 file)
• Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower recommend Sherlock Holmes reading for young people (MP3 file)
• John Lescroart explains why he likes writing about San Francisco (MP3 file) and listen to this catchy riff from Lescroart's "Songs of the South" (on the "As the Crow Flies" CD)
• Peter Lovesey talks about his novel The Circle (featuring an eccentric writers' group) and more (MP3 file)
• Sujata Massey talks about the diverse cultural background of her heroine, Rei Shimura (MP3 file)
• Francine Mathews talks about her WWII thriller The Alibi Club and her Jane Austen mysteries as Stephanie Barron (MP3 file)
• McFarland & Co's Gary Mitchem talks about McFarland's nonfiction mystery books (MP3 file)
• Robert B. Parker discusses Spenser and Hawk, how he feels about Hollywood, his Western novels, and more (MP3 file)
• Rebecca Pawel discusses her leftist character Elena Fernandez (MP3 file)
• Louise Penny chats about the artistic milieu, tensions between Anglophones and Francophones in Quebec, and other elements in her novel Still Life (MP3 file)
• Deanna Raybourn talks about her Victorian novel Silent in the Grave with the eccentric March family (MP3 file)
• Barbara Rosenblat, award-winning audiobook reader and actress, talks about her favorite mystery roles in audiobooks (MP3 file)
• Laura Joh Rowland talks about her novel The Red Chrysanthemum and the political intrigues in her series set in 17th-century Japan (MP3 file)
• Walter Satterthwait explains the genesis of his novel Miss Lizzie (MP3 file)
• Julie Smith discusses her characters Rebecca Schwartz, Paul Mcdonald, Skip Langdon, and Talba Wallis (MP3 file)
• Dana Stabenow talks about going on patrol with the Coast Guard for her novel Blindfold Game (MP3 file)
• Daniel Stashower talks about his book The Beautiful Cigar Girl, which delves into the murder behind Poe's "The Mystery of Marie Roget" (MP3 file)
• John Straley talks about the influence of Theodore Roethke and other aspects of his "Alaska noir" mysteries with PI Cecil Younger (MP3 file)
• Publisher Maggie Topkis talks about Death in the Garden and other books by Elizabeth Ironside (aka Lady Catherine Manning) (MP3 file)
• Elaine Viets talks about her Dead End Job series (MP3 file)