Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American contralto. Referred to as The First Lady of Radio, Smith is well known for her renditions of "God Bless America" and "When the Moon Comes over the Mountain". She became known as The Songbird of the South because of her tremendous popularity during World War II.

Notes:

More on Kate Smith:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Smith

The novel opens with mystery author Harriet Vane on trial for the murder of her former lover, Phillip Boyes: a writer with strong views on atheism, anarchy, and free love. Publicly professing to disapprove of marriage, he had persuaded a reluctant Harriet to live with him, only to renounce his principles a year later and to propose. Harriet, outraged at being deceived, had broken off the relationship.

Following the separation, the former couple had met occasionally, and the evidence at trial pointed to Boyes suffering from repeated bouts of gastric illness at around the time that Harriet was buying poisons under assumed names, to demonstrate – so she said – a plot point of her novel then in progress.

Returning from a holiday in North Wales in better health, Boyes had dined with his cousin, the solicitor Norman Urquhart, before going to Harriet's flat to discuss reconciliation, where he had accepted a cup of coffee. That night he was taken fatally ill, apparently with gastritis. Foul play was eventually suspected, and a post-mortem revealed that Boyes had died from acute arsenic poisoning. Apart from Harriet's coffee and the evening meal with his cousin (in which every item had been shared by two or more people), the victim appeared to have taken nothing else that evening.

The trial results in a hung jury. As a unanimous verdict is required, the judge orders a re-trial. Lord Peter Wimsey visits Harriet in prison, declares his conviction of her innocence and promises to catch the real murderer. Wimsey also announces that he wishes to marry her, a suggestion that Harriet politely but firmly declines.

Working against time before the new trial, Wimsey first explores the possibility that Boyes killed himself. Wimsey's friend, Detective Inspector Charles Parker, disproves that theory. The rich great-aunt of the cousins Urquhart and Boyes, Rosanna Wrayburn, is old and senile, and according to Urquhart (who is acting as her family solicitor) when she dies most of her fortune will pass to him, with very little going to Boyes. Wimsey suspects that to be a lie, and sends his enquiry agent Miss Climpson to get hold of Rosanna's original will, which she does in a comic scene exposing the practices of fraudulent mediums. The will in fact names Boyes as principal beneficiary.

Wimsey plants a spy, Miss Joan Murchison, in Urquhart's office where she finds a hidden packet of arsenic. She also discovers that Urquhart had abused his position as Rosanna's solicitor, embezzled her investments, then lost the money on the stock market. Urquhart recognised that he would face inevitable exposure should Rosanna die and Boyes claim his inheritance. However, Boyes was unaware of the will's contents and Urquhart reasoned that if Boyes were to die first, nobody could challenge him as sole remaining beneficiary, and his fraud would not be revealed.

After perusing A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad (in which the poet likens the reading of serious poetry to King Mithridates' self-immunization against poisons) Wimsey suddenly understands what had happened: Urquhart had administered the arsenic in an omelette which Boyes himself had cooked. Although Boyes and Urquhart had shared the dish, the latter had been unaffected as he had carefully built up his own immunity beforehand by taking small doses of the poison over a long period. Wimsey tricks Urquhart into an admission before witnesses.

George Valentine’s case started with a book of poems by Robert Burns a valuable early edition from Four Dials Press in Edinburgh a book that someone broke into Mr Humber’s shop just to read, a book that an agent wanted to buy for a collector named Emery Whitsill. And who is Emery Whitsill? Well lieutenant Johnson from homicide has an opinion on that because now it seems the little book may have been the cause of murder. . .

Duration: 30:34

Starring: Bob Bailey, Virginia Gregg, Ken Christie,

Robert Griffin, William Conrad, Jack Kruschen, Lillian Buyeff

Broadcast Date: 11th December 1950

San Francisco, the Barbary Coast, 1913 and the man with the belligerent voice is a beefy gentleman known as “Dirty Eddie” proprietor of Dirty Eddies Cafe, pride

of the coast. The gentlemen reclining on the sidewalk committed an unforgivable sin; he sang a sour note while entertaining Eddies select clientele composed

mostly of thugs from the waterfront. As Eddie stands glowering in the swinging doors a girl comes from the street stepping carefully over the fallen tenor. . .

Duration: 44:03

Broadcast Date: 3rd June 1940

A million dollars in cash provides the bait for two enterprising thieves who find themselves bankrupt before they have finished the chase.

Duration: 29:43

Starring: Leon Janney, Kathleen Cordell

Broadcast Date: 29th June 1952

George is sitting in his office when he hears a commotion outside. Jimmy Jones, an actor in western pictures, is outside signing autographs. Jimmy Jones enters the office. He has a confidential matter he needs George’s help with. Jimmy goes on to say, the kids like me, maybe because I like them and I would never want to let them down. Jimmy was brought up at Brookdale Orphanage, and every year Jimmy and Thunderbolt (Jimmy’s horse) put on a benefit performance for them, but now there’s a problem, and it’s a very serious problem for a cowboy movie star, he’s afraid of his horse.

Duration: 30:31

Starring: Bob Bailey

Broadcast Date: 25th October 1946