Original mysteryNo. 1711 hr 3 minHercule Poirot
Patreon — ad-free, early access, bonus content (tiers from $2.99/month) A stout woman in a plain black dress writes to the Belgian Detective: she has seen a murder before it is committed — the man will die before midnight on Friday, the place is called Greycombe House, and there will be a clock stopped at eleven; at the heavy stone mansion in St John's Wood they find a rich, gouty old man purple with fury that the clairvoyant has dared to return, a pale young wife with restless hands, a nervous nephew and heir, a dark-haired ward whose beauty is spoiled by strain, and a composed doctor who says too little; last week at a séance in this house Madame Celestine Lorrimer went into a trance and said "the clock waits, eleven waits, the hand is on the throat" — then the lights went out and someone screamed; now the clock in the hall has stopped, the master lies dead beneath it, and the hands have been set to eleven, but the clock was meant to strike eleven, and those are not the same thing at all; inspired by the extraordinary case of Helen Duncan, the Scottish medium tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 at the Old Bailey (1944), while remaining entirely fictional, The Clairvoyant's Hour is an original Golden Age–style mystery about prophecy, fraud, and the discovery that the most dangerous person in the room is not the woman who sees the future but the man who heard her too well and used the vision as a stage direction for murder. FOR LISTENERSThis is an original Golden Age–style mystery presented as a respectful homage to classic detective fiction, inspired by the case of Helen Duncan, the Scottish medium tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 (1944). All characters and events in this story are fictional. No affiliation, endorsement, or official connection is implied. QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTSThe clairvoyant said the clock would stop at eleven. The murderer set the hands to eleven. But she had said the clock would strike eleven — and those are not the same thing. When a vision is turned into a stage direction, who bears the greater guilt — the woman who saw, or the man who listened? ───────────────────────────── GET THE EBOOK — $3.99 Patreon — included with Writing Table & Archive Society, or one-time purchase Gumroad — EPUB + PDF included Buy Me a Coffee — EPUB + PDF included Both formats included — EPUB for Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books · PDF for tablets. ───────────────────────────── SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS Patreon — ad-free, early access, bonus content (tiers from $2.99/month) Buy Me a Coffee — one-time support PayPal — one-time tip Spotify — follow the show Apple Podcasts Children's Book — Sherlock Paws and the Diamond of the Nile ───────────────────────────── CREDITSWritten by Nocturnal Tales. Narrated by Nocturnal Tales. TAGS / KEYWORDSgolden age mystery audiobook, clairvoyant séance murder, stopped clock mystery, Greycombe House whodunit, Madame Lorrimer medium, doctor murder mystery, prophecy turned murder weapon, Helen Duncan inspired fiction, Witchcraft Act 1735 inspired, spring evening London mystery, fuse box sabotage clue, walking cane evidence, classic whodunit audiobook, full-length mystery audiobook, 1920s London séance mystery
Free to listen, in full, with no account and no password. Your place is remembered in this browser, so you can stop and come back.
Every story on Nocturnal Tales is free, and stays free. Listeners who choose to give are the reason there is a new one tomorrow.
This is our work and what we live on: two of us, writing and producing a story every night. Giving here goes straight to us, rather than through a platform that can change its mind overnight. Why donations are important.
or
Give with PayPalPayPal opens in a new page. Monthly support is easiest to manage through the card option.
No story is ever locked. Payment is handled securely by Stripe — we never see your card details. You can change or cancel your support at any time, from this page, with no explanation needed.
Tell us what you made of this one. No account and no password — just a name.
Hercule Poirot
London in the fog, and a block of mansion flats in Battersea where a man has been found dead in his own bath. The dead man is an architect. He was seen alive the previous evening, the door was locked from within, and the water was long cold by the time anybody thought to look.
2 hr 18 minNo. 250
Lady Molly of Scotland Yard
The newspaper-reading public called it the Somersetshire Outrage, and to this day, as far as the public is concerned, it was never properly explained at all. A young shop assistant named Jane Turner is found in her lodgings at Weston, tied to a chair with a rope, a shawl over her head, half-slipping to the floor.
by Baroness Orczy
46 minNo. 249
Hercule Poirot
New Orleans, the spring of nineteen thirty-three. There are certain cities which, even before one has committed a crime in them, seem already to know the secret. Arthur and the Belgian Detective have come for a rest.
1 hr 14 minNo. 248
Max Carrados
It begins with Max Carrados greeting his friend Carlyle at the door and remarking that he has a mystery about him somewhere. He can hear it in the man's step. The mystery is a railway disaster.
by Ernest Bramah
1 hr 7 minNo. 247