"The Devil in the Summer House" was written by "locked-room" mystery author John Dickson Carr and originally aired as an hour long program on BBC radio on October 14, 1940. (There does not appear to be a recording of that broadcast available.) Carr re-wrote the story as a half-hour program for Suspense but excluded the character of Dr. Gideon Fell, a sleuth who appears in many of Carr's novels. The short story of the version that aired on Suspense can be found in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September 1946.
As the episode opens, two men meet on the grounds of an uninhabited home on a dark and stormy night. Twenty-five years earlier, the summer house behind the garden was the scene of a death. Now, it is all grown over...
Joe Parker, an attorney, and Captain Burke of the homicide squad, enter the old house. Mr. Parker was the attorney for the family that lived here, and he has come back now because he recently received a letter from someone...who must surely now be dead.
But, why would a dead person send him a letter?
"The Devil in the Summer House" was directed by John Dietz and produced by William Spier. Martin Gabel starred. This episode aired on November 3, 1942.
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(Image of Martin Gabel)
This radio play was certainly full of suspense and it was also creepy with talk of the dead writing a letter and the Devil talking to a man as he kills himself. The solution was intriguing and I of course guessed it wrong. I would also like to mention that the part of Isabel Kenyon was played by Alice Frost.
Posted by: Cameron Estep | January 22, 2013 at 01:57 PM