The Unseen Hand | M. McDonnell Bodkin | A Bitesized Audiobook
42,140
Published 2022-12-09
Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me:
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:20 The Story begins
00:41:19 Credits, thanks and further listening
Matthias McDonnell Bodkin (1850โ1933) was born in County Galway, Ireland, the second son of a doctor. Over the course of a long career he was a journalist, newspaper editor, barrister (QC during the reign of Victoria), county court Judge (for County Clare) and, for a brief period (1892โ95), a Member of Parliament for North Roscommon, sitting in the House of Commons as an Irish Nationalist during Gladstone's fourth and final term as prime minister. Somehow alongside all this he managed to find time to write fiction, which he produced quite prolifically from the 1890s through to the late 1920s.
In this capacity he created two popular "rivals of Sherlock Holmes": Paul Beck, "the rule of thumb detective", who made his debut in 1897, and Dora Myrl, "the lady detective", whose adventures appeared in 1900. He subsequently had the ingenious idea of having them meet and work together, get married and produce a son (Paul Beck junior) who became a detective in his own right, appearing in stories from 1911 onwards. His other fictional output included a trilogy of historical novels set at the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, one of which ('Lord Edward Fitzgerald', 1896) was dedicated to William Gladstone, as well as several other novels, both contemporary and historical. He also published plays, works of history and some political journalism.
'The Unseen Hand' first appeared in the Royal Magazine in December 1907, as part of the serial entitled 'The Quests of Paul Beck' which ran monthly from March 1907 to February 1908.
Recording ยฉ Bitesized Audio 2022.
All Comments (21)
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Those old railways were a godsend for detectives. Dangerous places. If it"s not objects dangling from bridges, it's thing being thrown from the next carriage... ๐
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Great stuff. I think these Edwardian detective stories, which bridge the gap between Sherlock Holmes and the 'golden age' are unjustly forgotten and underrated. Hope there are more to come ๐
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Always a very pleasant surprise to see another one has appeared.
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A concisely written story. No words wasted & yet so highly illustrative. The narration spot on as always. I loved this one. ๐
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Marvelous, but surprisingly free of twists. I imagine the audience then was not so sophisticated as we are now.๐ I was afraid, for one terrible minute, that the butler did it! Thank you Simon, always a treat!
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I look forward to each story with delight
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Your voice made the rough day I had melt away. Thank you Simon.๐
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There is no day-maker like a new story by Simon!! Take care. Cheers Pat in New Jersey
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Sergeant Death deserves a bonus for dramatic flair! Thank you for this.
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Ingenious method of murder, must have had a good eye, to make such a deadly connection between implement & skull while at speed, taking into account the variables of the up & down draft of the moving vehicle As ever a brilliantly narrated tale, Thank You
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Whilst I must admit that ghost stories are my favourites I do also enjoy a good detective story here & there. Thank you Simon for such quality entertainment. โฅ๏ธโฅ๏ธ๐ฆ๐บโ๏ธ
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I'm probably getting redundant, but it's always a treat to see a new story from you, Simon. Seems to be the sentiment of most, if not all, of your subscribers! ๐
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Thank you for this new story featuring an interesting new (in the sense of 'hitherto unfamiliar') detective. I do hope you will give us further adventures of Mr Beck.
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HI SIMON!!! Haven't even listened yet, but my eyes popped out of my head when I saw you have a treat for us๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ THANK YOU ๐
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I loved it! A wonderful whodunit with a healthy dose of karmic justice! Beautifully presented Simon! Thank you so much! โค
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Could not have come at a better time for me Simon! They released me from hospital after 5 weeks and unbeknownst to me this was going to be the start of the worst part as the sleeping pills they gave everyone to stop us complaining ( not meโฆ. Much ) about the couple of Alzheimerโs patients that were screaming for their motherโs all night even tho both dearโs were in their 90s! Calm as anything the next day so then I get home happy to be in my own bed when I woke up after having the shock of my life with withdrawal symptoms as apparently I should have been tapered off! Sorry for telling you all this, but I wanted you to know that your channel and Yt in general made it a lot easier being in hospital! Love this story and I think I may have heard it or something similar before, but maybe not! I think the corpse was in a suitcase ๐งณ in that one! Thank you so much for another great story! ๐๐๐
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What a wonderful surprise of a treat! Thank you!
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Excellent story, beautifully told. Thank you again, Simon you always come through with exceptional entertainment.โค
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Would love to hear more stories from this author if possible, I do love a mystery. Happy Holidays to you and yours ๐
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Immensely enjoyable as always. A journey back into time. Thoroughly enjoyed my 42.24 minutes with you. Was there ever a better companion? โค
