Dashiell Hammett created the character Sam Spade for his crime story The Maltese Falcon. Spade was a hard-boiled detective with cold detachment, a keen eye for detail, and an unflinching determination to exact his own justice. For most people, Spade is most closely associated with actor Humphrey Bogart, who played him in the third and most famous film version of The Maltese Falcon. In 1946 one of radio's top producers, William Spier, brought Sam Spade to the airwaves in a radio show starring newcomer Howard Duff.

Philo Vance is a fictional character featured in numerous crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine, published in the 1920s and 1930s, who was later revived in film and on radio and television. During that time Vance was immensely popular. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant with a highly intellectual bent - America's Sherlock Holmes. He worked closely with his secretary and right-hand woman, Ellen Deering, and his pal, John Markham, New York County district attorney.

The golden age of radio had incredible detective shows that kept Americans glued to their sets. Families gathered around their living room radios to hear their favorite Hollywood stars voicing fiction's most famous gumshoes. This collection includes Dick Powell as suave detective Richard Diamond, Vincent Price as the Saint, Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday on Dragnet, Richard Kollmar as "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend" on Boston Blackie, and much more!

The world-weary private investigator Harry Nile is one step ahead of the mob, but one step behind the bill collectors. That's why he takes pretty much any case he can catch—from robbery to kidnapping to murder. Phil Harper stars as Harry in twenty-one mood-filled mysteries, aided and assisted by Pat French as Murphy, his secretary extraordinaire. This is classic radio noir for a new generation, created and produced by Jim French.

Created by Frances and Richard Lockridge, Mr. & Mrs. North were fictional amateur detectives appearing in novels, motion pictures, radio, and television. The Norths were not professional detectives but simply a well-to-do New York couple who stumbled across a murder or two every week and felt compelled to solve the crimes. A 1942 MGM movie starred William Post, Jr. and George Burns' wife, Gracie Allen.

No bigger fad swept across postwar radio than that of the hard-boiled private detective - and nobody had more fun with their wink-and-nudge take on the genre than the producers, writers, and cast of The Adventures of Sam Spade. Dashiell Hammett's legendary private eye had a sardonic sense of humor, which wavy-haired, rugged-voiced Howard Duff played to perfection.

Hard nosed, hard drinking, but never hard boiled - here's the crusading cameraman of the Morning Express hot on the trail of 16 rip-roaring cases: It's Casey, Crime Photographer! Staats Cotsworth stars as Casey, with Jan Miner as Ann Williams, Bernard Lenrow as Captain Logan, and John Gibson as Blue Note bartender Ethelbert - who doles out the drinks while jazz great Herman Chittison plays the piano.

Explore 16 classic adventures of Rocky Jordan, hard-boiled proprietor of the Café Tambourine, as he solves crimes and mysteries in Cairo “where modern adventure and intrigue unfold against the backdrop of antiquity.” This fascinating series of foreign follies makes full use of its exotic locale and music score to deliver a memorable listening experience. If you liked movies like Casablanca, you’re sure to enjoy this series. Starring Jack Moyles as Rocky Jordan and Jay Novello as Captain Sam Sabaaya. Digitally remastered and restored for your listening enjoyment.

Created by author Jack Boyle, Boston Blackie was a master safecracker and hardened criminal who served time in a California prison. Rehabilitated, he decided to use his knowledge of the underworld to fight crime as an amateur detective. Known as "an enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend", Boston Blackie's exploits were adapted to film, radio, and television.

Red-hot and redheaded, he's looking for adventure on the mean streets of San Francisco and New Orleans! He's Brett Halliday's hard-boiled creation Michael Shayne. This rough and reckless Irishman is letting loose in this collection of 16 pulse-pounding dramas starring tough guys Wally Maher and Jeff Chandler. Cathy Lewis co-stars as Phyllis Knight, with Joe Forte as Homicide Inspector Faraday, and Jack Webb as Homicide Inspector LeFevre.

Here are 12 episodes from the greatest detective shows ever broadcast during the golden age of radio, with the legendary stars that made them great. You'll hear Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson, Sydney Greenstreet as Nero Wolfe, Howard Duff as Sam Spade, Chester Morris as Boston Blackie, Dick Powell as Richard Diamond, and Jack Webb as Dragnet's Sergeant Joe Friday, plus more gumshoes like Philip Marlowe, Bulldog Drummond, Michael Shayne, and Johnny Dollar.

Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the overweight detective genius. In total, Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's residence, a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street, features prominently in the series. Many radio, television and film adaptations were made from Stout's stories.

Cherub-faced, blue-eyed World War II hero Les Damon played detective Michael Waring - better known as The Falcon. Damon played the role with style, pulling off the character's transition from private eye to army intelligence operative with panache. This collection of 16 digitally remastered episodes begins with Waring's wars against domestic enemies, including gambling bosses, arsonists, con artists, drug dealers, and killers.

Beginning with A Study in Scarlet and concluding with The Hound of the Baskervilles, this epic project took over 8 years to complete - and this landmark collection contains the extraordinary result. Here is the world's first ever fully dramatised Sherlock Holmes canon: 56 short stories and 4 novels, all made by the same team of directors, producers, dramatists and leading actors, and packed with the high production qualities of a film or TV drama that set it apart.

Tough, yet compassionate - and a first-class detective besides - that's Boston Blackie. The infamous safe cracker turned private eye will lead you through 16 hard-hitting crime classics from 1947-48! Richard Kollmar stars as Blackie, with Lesley Woods as Mary Wesley, and Maurice Tarplin as Inspector Faraday. The race is on for our hero to capture the killers, recover the diamonds, and clear his own name!