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Nocturnal TalesMystery audiobooks for quiet evenings

Dr Thorndyke

A doctor and a barrister who solves cases at the laboratory bench, reading dust, pond weed and a smear of paint where others read motive. The first detective to work the way a forensic scientist actually works.

3 stories · every one free to listen to

Cover illustration for The Aluminium Dagger

A bell rings in the small hours, and Dr Jervis finds himself doing the one thing he thought he had left behind when he gave up medicine for the law: answering an urgent summons in the dark.

by R. Austin Freeman

1 hr 5 minNo. 242

Cover illustration for The Anthropologist at Large

More from the detective who joined the Archive last night: Dr. John Thorndyke, created by R. Austin Freeman in 1909 — a medical man and a barrister, and the first true forensic scientist in detective fiction.

by R. Austin Freeman

48 minNo. 233

Cover illustration for The Blue Sequin

The Blue Sequin

Dr Thorndyke

Tonight the Archive opens on a detective it has never opened before — and one who changed crime fiction more than almost anyone who came after Sherlock Holmes. Dr. John Thorndyke, created by R.

by R. Austin Freeman

43 minNo. 232