Original mysteryNo. 1281 hr 29 minHercule Poirot
England, early 1930s: when a precise, chilling letter reaches the Belgian Detective seven days after its sender’s death, he and his loyal companion travel to Blackthorne Hall, where an anxious gentleman had warned that his coming end would be called natural and that a second death might yet be prevented; inside a house of strained inheritances, locked doors, overmanaged illnesses, and dangerous attraction, a woman in green, a compromised heir, a steady young woman burdened with duty, and a doctor who seems too certain of his conclusions all move through drawing rooms and corridors thick with fear; from a study locked from the inside to coffee trays, medicine books, and a death arranged to resemble the work of nature, the case becomes a battle between performance and truth, until the dead man’s final act speaks more clearly than the living ever dared.
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