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DEATH MAKES A DATE

·42 min·2 clips

Anne forces everyone to write January 16 in numerals and compares the slips to the forged calendar entry.

1. Hot Copy Radio Theater's Death Makes a Date follows Anne Rogers as she returns from Europe to a wartime murder case. 2. Anne Rogers drives the inquiry, Spritely Poole adds support and banter, Inspector Collins controls the official case, and Editor Graham sends Anne after the story. 3. The episode asks whether Sir Thomas Bromley died by suicide or murder after a hotel-room revolver, a missing $200,000 deficit, and embassy politics collide. 4. Editor Graham tells Anne that Sir Thomas, who once helped them through red tape, was found dead in his hotel room on New Year's Day. 5. Graham says British officials found almost $200,000 missing from Bromley's accounts, which makes the suicide theory look unstable. 6. Inspector Collins explains that Bromley lived on the 14th floor of a hotel packed with clerks, bellhops, chambermaids, and maintenance men. 7. Collins also notes that a silencer was used, which makes the weapon details harder to reconcile with suicide. 8. The case is sensitive because the day's visitors include Joseph Valinsky of the Russian Consulate, Colonel Francois LeBlanc of the Fighting French Organization, and Harry Barston of the British Embassy. 9. Anne tracks the 3:45 p.m. Halifax call and points out that Halifax, Nova Scotia, is on Atlantic wartime, not Eastern wartime. 10. That time-zone correction moves the call back to 2:45 p.m. in the United States and removes the British Embassy aide's alibi. 11. Anne reacts strongly when she learns that Harry Barston is the son of Sir Henry Barston, the man who once saved her life in Great Britain. 12. The memo pad on Sir Thomas's desk lists four notations, and Anne notices that one entry is a date rather than a standard appointment. 13. She asks the men to write January 16 in numerals so she can compare their date format against the desk pad. 14. Spritely, Anne, and Inspector Collins then read the slips aloud, showing the difference between American and Continental date notation. 15. Anne confirms that the odd entry on the memo pad is a date-format trap, not an ordinary appointment. 16. She follows that lead to a hotel clerk, sketches a mustache onto a photograph, and identifies a former bellhop named Brown. 17. That hotel clue shows how someone could move through the building unseen, even though Collins had called it practically a fortress. 18. Anne gathers Joseph Valinsky, Colonel LeBlanc, Harry Barston, Robert Watson, and Inspector Collins in Sir Thomas's suite for the final comparison. 19. The episode plays as a tight radio detective puzzle, with quick dialogue, wartime bureaucracy, and a calendar clue driving the pace. 20. Listeners who like period mysteries built around wartime bureaucracy and date puzzles will get the most from it.

As heard by us

A compact radio mystery that keeps suspicion moving and lets Anne carry the case.

Hot Copy Radio Theater turns a murder investigation into brisk, polished radio suspense. Anne Rogers is back in the city, Sir Thomas Bromley is dead, and Harry Barston ends up under suspicion while Anne keeps pushing past the first explanation that sounds too neat.

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Why you'd press play

A young newspaper reporter follows a murder clue through a 1944 radio mystery.

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