The Unseen Hand | M. McDonnell Bodkin | A Bitesized Audiobook
42,056
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 (1850–1933) 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 (1892–95), 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 © 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... 😉
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I look forward to each story with delight
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Always a very pleasant surprise to see another one has appeared.
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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 👍
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What a joy to hear beautifully written English being beautifully read.
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I really enjoyed M. McDonnell Bodkin's short story and so I looked for more of his and found just one that you read - "How He Cut His Stick". I would love it if you would read more of his stories. Thank you for spending time in your small sound proofed studio and doing another fantastic reading! I listened to "How He Cut His Stick" again and it was fantastic. He definitely put his legal expertise to good use in writing these stories! I even looked up the term "nolle prosequi". So interesting! Thank you so much, Simon!
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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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Your voice made the rough day I had melt away. Thank you Simon.😊
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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 me…. Much ) about the couple of Alzheimer’s patients that were screaming for their mother’s all night even tho both dear’s 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 🧳 in that one! Thank you so much for another great story! 🌟🙏🌟
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Marvelous, but surprisingly free of twists. I imagine the audience then was not so sophisticated as we are now.😊 I was afraid, for one terrible minute, that the butler did it! Thank you Simon, always a treat!
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Oh my gosh! Another one that got past me when it was uploaded! Well unlike Justice, a treat delayed is not a treat denied, lol. And with this one, not only did I learn a new word, actually a new spice type substance, asafoetida, I happily just realized that this is by the same author as one of my top five favorite of all the stories, thus far, "How He Cut His Stick", M. McDonnell Bodkin. The heroine in that one has a line near the end that I just fell in love with, I'll have to go search it out and return here to edit it in presently..... "Don't whine, you played a bold game and lost the odd trick, and you'll have to pay up, that's all" Genius!
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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. 💜
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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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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! 😊
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Stanhope does an excellent job.
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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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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. ♥️♥️🇦🇺✌️
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What a wonderful surprise of a treat! Thank you!
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Excellent , Simon. Thank you!!!!!
