The Harry Potter prequel that JK Rowling wrote for charity is now available online. To read it, click here, then click ‘Read our authors’ stories,’ and then click JK Rowling.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841. Poe referred to it as a ‘tale of ratiocination’ featuring the brilliant deductions of C. Auguste Dupin; it is today regarded as one of the first detective stories and is almost certainly the first locked room mystery.

My Review

Hmmmmm… Despite this short story being read by one of my favourite Librivox readers I was still disapointed.

The first half of the first chapter/section is a rather long and slow lead up to introducting the investigative character. Frankly I was about to give up on the story as being too boring, when the story started.

I’m a Sherlock Holmes fan so the idea of listening to the first “Locked Room Mystery” appealed to me. However towards the end of the story as the clues started to fit together and the who and the how became clear I was disapointed.

I am glad I listened to it, because of its vintage and standing, and the reader is an absolute delight on the ears. Shame about the story!

Reading 3/3
Production 2/3
Story 1/3

Total Score 6/9

Available from Librivox.

‘I wish to give you the opportunity to purchase a very valuable artifact from the great age of Ja’ardi civilization,’ he said. ‘We stole it from a rival tribe, who revered it as possessing divine powers. I am prepared to offer it to you at a very reasonable price.’

I rolled my eyes. If I had a nickel for every time someone tried to sell me an artifact with divine powers : Zhee must have seen the eyeroll, for he hastened to add:

‘It is reputed to bestow upon its owner the ability to create flowing rivers of God Juice.’

I tilted my head slightly to see if some sense might roll downhill from his words. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong,’ I said, sucking on the wedge of flesh-colored fruit, ‘But isn’t God Juice the stuff that caused your civilization to collapse?’

Zhee shifted, scratching the back of his head. ‘Well : yes.’

Rated R. Contains strong language and sexual tomfoolery.

By M.K. Hobson.
Read by Christiana Ellis (of Christiana’s Shallow Thoughts).
First appeared in Polyphony 6, ed. Deborah Layne and Jay Lake.

http://media.rawvoice.com/escapepod/media.libsyn.com/media/escapepod/EP162_GodJuice.mp3

What does one have to do for a great story? One must only wait for FRIDAY. Yay, another reason why Friday is my fav. day of the week. This story was a lot of fun. Star Gate meets Indy Jones kinda fun. Keep em’ comin’, Steve.

Source: Cthulhu Podcast, Episodes 13, 14 and 15
Length: 1 hr, 42 min
Reader: Mark Nelson

The story: Imagine discovering papers concerning a shadowy religion, dedicated to the downfall of order and civilization. Sure, it’s just a conspiracy theory, you think, but evidence begins to mount until you can’t deny it any longer. Then you realize that you might have learned too much. . .

This is the premise of “Call of Cthulhu”, one of many stories in H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu mythos,” but strangely enough the only story that features the squid-headed being Cthulhu himself. Lovecraft gradually builds the narrative in three parts, each touching closer to the source of a eerie cult that spans the globe. I’ve been told that Lovecraft’s mythos was one of the inspirations for The X-files, and this story has the same queasy feeling of not-rightness. This is not such a scary story that you’ll be staying up at night, but it is a piece of narrative that takes hold of the imagination to envision further scenarios. Indeed, many authors have built their own version of Lovecraft’s imagery. If you’d like to hear an example, check out Neil Gaiman’s story “A Study in Emerald” which features Sherlock Holmes in Lovecraft’s world.

Rating: 7/10

The reader: Mark Nelson is an internet audiobook superstar. In addition to his recordings at Librivox and WonderAudio, he has his own podcast SciPodBooks that features classic science fiction. Here, he does a superb job of building suspense as the story delves deeper into the cult’s secrets. Lovecraft is known for difficult sentence structures and vocabulary, but Nelson does an excellent job of making it understandable, even pronouncing the cult’s unpronounceable gibberish. The recording is clear and enhanced by sparse use of mood-setting music at the beginning and end of each episode. My only misgiving is that Nelson’s voice may be a little too wholesome for such a dark story, but that’s not something he can help short of taking up a pack-a-day cigarette habit (please don’t, Mark).