Showing results by narrator "Richard Henzel" in All Categories

When ex-sheriff and watermelon farmer Bud Shumway learns his wife, Wilma Jean, wants to sell her cafe and become a backcountry pilot, he senses his world is about to change, and not necessarily in a good way. But Bud never guesses he’ll soon be deeply involved in trying to solve the mysterious death of a crusty old Scotsman who, as he was dying, told Bud his killer was a witch’s tongue. Bud soon becomes an unwilling witness to the frenzy surrounding the hunt for the old man’s hidden treasure, and it soon appears Sheriff Howie is also getting involved.

For the first time in recorded history, the complete short stories of the infamous Chinle Miller have been compiled in a book that the publisher hopes won't get anyone arrested (especially the publisher). Come sit around the campfire with an archaeologist after he unwittingly brings a unique curse upon himself; watch Ernie, the county road supervisor, accidentally bomb his own highway shed; discover a cryptic form of rock art just in time for it to save your life.

The self-centered director of a small Shakespearean troupe has been killed on the flanks of a remote Utah bluff, and ex-sheriff Bud Shumway knows it has something to do with someone in the Witness Protection Program, even though his bumbling replacement, Sheriff Howie, suspects a mysterious prospector who has just arrived from the Superstition Mountains.

Merton Clivette once dominated the 1920s and 1930s art world. He ruled the Orpheum Circuit as a magician, shadowgraphist, mindreader, and acrobat. He performed in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Clivette worked with Houdini and PT Barnum, and he inspired Mark Twain. He taught Sir Arthur Conan Doyle how to be a medium. He went by names such as Clivette the Great, The Man in Black, The Mysterious Stranger, and many others. Clivette led a remarkable life then, like the magician he was, he disappeared from the history books after his death in 1931.

In this unabridged recording of one of Mark Twain's lesser-known short stories, the "campaign of crime" referred to was a rash of robberies, arson, racketeering, and murders in Connecticut, where the author was living at that time. Alternatively funny, disturbing, and self-revelatory, an abridged performance of this piece has been part of Richard Henzel's Jefferson Award nominated stage show Mark Twain In Person since 1979.

Hank Morgan is a mechanic, an engineer, and a foreman at the Colt Arms Factory. One day he gets into an argument, "conducted with crowbars," with an employee known as "Hercules." A blow to Hank's head sends him back to King Arthur's England in the Sixth Century.

When ex-sheriff Bud Shumway and his wife, Wilma Jean, decide to vacation in a scenic Colorado town near Aspen, they never guess they’ll soon be immersed in solving the murder of a famous country-western singer. And even though Bud’s bumbling replacement, Sheriff Howie, is far away in the small town of Green River, Utah, he still manages to play havoc with everyone’s peace of mind when his sheriff’s vehicle is stolen and he finds out he’s on the wanted list of Utah’s FBI.

An old rock hound has been killed in Utah’s wildlands, and ex-sheriff Bud Shumway knows it has something to do with black-market dinosaur bone thieves, even though his bumbling replacement, Sheriff Howie, thinks it has something to do with aliens.

Is it impossible to be lonely, or is loneliness an impossibly difficult thing? In the first part of this book, Chinle Miller wanders the desert and mountains with her dogs, exploring nature and an inner life of solitude, until an event happens that shakes her life to its core - her best friend and cousin Janie is killed by a grizzly in Alaska.

The death of Mark Twain's daughter, Jean Clemens, occurred early in the morning of December 24, 1909. A few hours later Twain was writing steadily. "I am setting it down," he said, "everything. It is a relief to me to write it. It furnishes me an excuse for thinking."

When ex-sheriff and watermelon farmer Bud Shumway agrees to help out his friend, Sheriff Hum Stocks, as a deputy for the winter, he never guesses he’ll soon be deep in the rugged and wild Dolores Triangle, trying to solve not only the mystery of a skeleton wearing knee boots, but also the murder of rattlesnake-hunter and wannabe rodeo clown, Chicken Bottoms.

One of Mark Twain’s most famous books for young people. As children, his daughters loved to act out the story in their library. It’s a carefully researched and written story, which incorporates all of Mark Twain’s signature humor, evil villains, and compelling plotlines. Yes, it was written with young people in mind, but it is surely enjoyable to listeners of all ages.

Bob Davidson's father, Joe "Pops" Davidson, has died. After selling the estate, Bob goes on the road, but he has a passenger along - Joe's ashes, sitting in an urn in Bob's camper, riding in the bed of his old Chevy pickup. Joe's last wishes were for Bob to spread his ashes on top of the Grand Teton in Wyoming - a request Bob's not sure he can accomplish.

Jack Erthmun does not believe that the dead actually speak to him. But in their own way they tell him so much. Jack is a New York City police detective with his own very peculiar ways of solving homicides, and those ways are beginning to frighten his colleagues. He gets results, but at what cost? What's happening to Jack Erthmun? This may be Jack's last case - he's assigned to a series of unspeakable killings, gruesome murders with details that make even seasoned detectives queasy.

Time is running out for America. Solomon “Rose” Rosenberg was a veteran of C Street, a government lawyer, and a bipolar CIA assassin, who sacrificed everything - even his sanity - for his country. Rose documented his many B6 missions and Jacqueline has proof that the very essence of democracy is being tested. There is nowhere in the world to hide as the men of C Street are advancing with each step - Jacqueline races toward the cataclysmic finish as espionage, sex, drugs, and murder haunt her at every turn.

This is a "What if…?" novel. What if Mark Twain actually dictated secrets on the recordings he made toward the end of his life? What if he had hidden them for a future generation to find, then laid a trail of clues for their discovery? The real Sam Clemens - Mark Twain - was a very complex man who led a fascinating, diverse life for nearly 75 years. The man is much more interesting than I have been able to portray him in fiction.

Following on the success of his first published novel, The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) published two short stories. With his farcical "burlesque autobiography", he describes a series of disreputable characters all of whom he claims were his ancestors. The second story, A Medieval First Romance, satirizes romance novels with a yarn about the cross-dressing daughter of a duke who thanks to her disguise is in line to inherit male privilege.

Mark Twain expected to create a new form of autobiography in which "I shall talk about the matter which for the moment interests me, and cast it aside and talk about something else the moment its interest for me is exhausted." These transcriptions of his off-the-cuff telling of his own history allow one to feel as if he is listening to the great storyteller one-on-one.

Douglas Howard's career as a small-town physician is crumbling. Enraptured by Mrs. King, the calculating wife of a wealthy but dying patient, they settle behind closed doors, determined to stave off loneliness and save his career. Equally desperate is Dr. Howard's beguiling secretary, Miss Derringer, whose own troubles become their own. What follows is a fatal scandal and an exploration of human expression, desire and manipulation all in the name of love.

A modern 13-year old boy, Zane Rasmussen, falls into a coma and wakes up on Jackson’s Island in the Mississippi River where he is found by Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and freed slave, Jim. It is June, 1849, and Zane gradually accepts that these are living characters from Twain’s novels, while they finally conclude he’s a traveler from a future time. He agrees to accompany them as they prepare “for howling adventures” into Indian Territory. Their plans are halted when Becky Thatcher is kidnapped and criminals demand a $12,000 gold ransom.