Like its predecessor Dragnet - Tales of the Texas Rangers adapted actual police case files for its broadcasts. Leading each week’s investigation of an actual Texas Ranger case was the same Texas Ranger, Jayce Pearson, portrayed by movie star Joel McCrea. Because the stories were set in present day, Pearson used the latest scientific techniques to identify criminals. Unlike Joe Friday, Pearson didn’t have a regular partner, typically working with the local sheriff instead (who was usually portrayed by Parley Baer).

Richard Diamond, Private Detective came to NBC Radio in 1949, starring film actor and crooner Dick Powell. Powell had recently played Philip Marlowe in the popular RKO film Murder, My Sweet and jumped at the chance to play a suave detective on the radio. Diamond was a lighthearted, New York - based private eye who enjoyed ribbing the cops and singing songs to his millionaire girlfriend, Helen Asher.

Radio Westerns were strictly for kids until 1952, when Gunsmoke hit the radio airwaves. The stories were grim, the deaths brutal, and life on the plains was harsh. Radio audiences had never heard anything like Gunsmoke, and they made it the number one Western on the radio. It soon made a successful transition to television, becoming the longest-running dramatic series in television history.

Presented here are Western stories of unparalleled realism and uncompromising emotional complexity. Marshal Matt Dillon (William Conrad) doesn't revel in violence, but he uses it because he lives in a violent place at a violent time, where only the violent can survive.

Tales of the Texas Rangers is a 20th-century Western old-time radio and television police procedural drama that originally aired on NBC Radio from 1950 to 1952 and later on CBS Television from 1955 to 1958. Film star Joel McCrea voiced the radio version as the fictitious Texas Ranger Jace Pearson, who uses the latest scientific techniques to identify criminals. His faithful horse Charcoal (or "Charky") helps Pearson to track down the culprits.

Thrill to the hardboiled adventures of Ellery Queen, Philip Marlow, Dragnet, The Man called X, Philo Vance, Rocky Fortune and so many more as heroes fight the bad guys. 100 great detective classics in one collection.

Webb's classic history of the Texas Rangers has been popular ever since its first publication in 1935. This edition is a reproduction of the original Houghton Mifflin edition.

It's a rainy night in postwar Seattle. There's a crime to be solved, and an investigator is needed. But it's a dangerous profession! Sometimes the source of a scream is elusive, sometimes a surveillance job goes south, and sometimes someone's got their gun sight set on you! From out of the Pacific Northwest come 24 more adventures produced by Jim French. Phil Harper stars as Harry Nile, with Pat French as his all-knowing assistant Murphy. It's new-time radio drama produced in the classic style.

Initially launched as Barrie Crane, Confidential Investigator on NBC in 1951, the series soon made a name change to Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. It starred movie and film veteran William Gargan as hard-boiled New York-based private eye Barry Craig. Gargan had been playing Martin Kane, Private Detective on both radio and TV. In the summer of 1951, Gargan cleared the decks for his role as Barrie Craig. Gruff, blunt and sardonic but with a good sense of humor, Gargan was perfect for the genre and in the role of Barrie Craig.

By the 1956-57 season, Gunsmoke had reached the peak of its dramatic power as radio’s foremost adult western, with its powerful scripts and careful characterizations. William Conrad leads the cast as Marshal Matt Dillon, along with Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty. The citizens of Dodge City, Kansas emerged as living, breathing embodiments of frontier America in radio dramas that represent the medium at its most potent. Experience 27 hard-hitting adventures from this landmark season in this collection!

Sergeant Joe Friday of the LAPD was arguably the most pivotal figure in radio drama's postwar shift toward ultra-realism. Just an ordinary plainclothes cop doing his job, and doing it with a meticulous attention to detail that revolutionized the way radio told its stories. Jack Webb stars Friday, with Barton Yarborough as Ben Romero, Barney Phillips as Ed Jacobs, and Ben Alexander as Frank Smith in this collection of 20 absorbing crime dramas!

"The man in the saddle is angular and long legged…the gun in his holster is gray steel - its handle unmarked." Lean of figure and tanned of skin, his steely eyes gaze out over the violent frontier of the American West. He's a quiet man - but one not to be crossed. He's film legend James Stewart in his only continuing radio role as Britt Ponsett: The Six Shooter. Here are twenty tense, exciting episodes from the 1953-54 series - including the original audition!

Here are Western stories with an adult sensibility - complex tales of difficult choices and moral dilemmas played out against the backdrop of frontier America. William Conrad is Marshal Matt Dillon in 20 thoughtful, exciting episodes of Gunsmoke!

Crime is everywhere in postwar Los Angeles—and so is Sgt. Joe Friday. From robbery detail to the Bunco Squad, from narcotics to homicide, he's on the job in radio's definitive police procedural series.

Out of the rain and fog of the teeming Pacific Northwest he comes - the tough, methodical, incorruptible private eye Harry Nile. He's the foe of corruption, enemy of gangland, and the best friend you'll ever have when you're up against the wall. Harry gives as good as he gets in this collection of powerful radio adventures, produced, written, and directed by Jim French. Larry Albert takes over the role of Nile from the late Phil Harper, with Pat French back as the detective's assistant Murphy, for 16 cases of back streets and bad news.

When Sasha receives a call from her old university friend Gabby inviting her to spend Christmas at Gabby’s remote Scottish lake house, Sasha knows she shouldn’t go. Twelve years ago, on Christmas Eve, when Sasha and her five closest friends were celebrating the festive season, something truly horrific happened that would change the course of their friendship forever. Something that meant Sasha hasn’t spoken to any of them since that night.

Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

After the killing of a prominent mob lawyer, NYPD homicide detectives Jacob Jackson and Caitlin Grimes start receive chilling, written “rules” for how to commit the perfect murder. "Rule number one for the perfect murder: Evidence is your enemy. Leave none behind." Jackson (Reid Scott) and Grimes (Cobie Smulders) race to find the killer, setting them on a collision course with the city’s crime underbelly, and a perpetrator who seems happy to toy with them. “Rule number two. No crimes of passion. The perfect murder is always business, never pleasure.”

Jenny sits in the same seat on the same train every week, seeing familiar faces come and go. Until a chance encounter shatters her world. Sixteen years ago, Jenny survived a traumatic ordeal that left her best friend, Susie, missing and presumed dead. The world has its theories about what happened to Susie Patterson, and one of those theories points the finger at Jenny. Now she lives a quiet life, volunteering at a crisis helpline while trying to deal with her own anxiety and the true crime fans obsessed with finding her missing friend.

Kidnappers grabbed Jenna in broad daylight, right in front of her children and their horrified classmates. Her family was issued an insane ransom demand: $25 million in cash and jewels, payable by the end of the school day, otherwise they’ll never see her again. As Jenna’s mother scrambles to gather the money, detectives Mo Butler and George Ortega follow the trail of the kidnappers, which will lead them through a sordid landscape of jealous lovers, broken dreamers, and twisted schemers. But every second counts, and there’s one thing Jenna Wade doesn’t have: very much time.

It’s been two years since Anna Cartwright’s life fell apart. During her first school trip as a young teacher, a student went missing and was never found. Not only was her career ruined, she was also accused of having an affair with fellow teacher and prime suspect Graham. Facing questions from journalists, police and family, Anna said she didn’t know what happened. She was lying. Now, Anna has returned to Australia. Her only hope is Land’s End Area School, an isolated concrete wasteland perched on the cliffs.

My fiancé brought me tea and scrambled eggs in bed that morning, and we snuggled together, talking about buying our rings, and about our perfect wedding next year. Then we headed into town. He held my hand and gazed at the ring I liked best, a smile spreading slowly over his face. Then a glass of bubbly to celebrate. I felt flushed, excited and ready for the rest of my life with the man I loved. We race to get on the train home. It screams to a halt and I run towards its open doors. Made it. I think he’s right behind me — but when I turn around, he’s gone.

England, 1914. The world is at war. Captain Hastings, injured and shaken, is invited to Styles Court to recover. It’s a grand old country house - the family home of his old friend - and a perfect haven. Or so it seems. But in the blistering summer heat, trouble is afoot. Simmering tensions are tearing the family apart, and it all comes to a head in the most horrifying way.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.