ERNEST DUDLEY is an English author known to millions of crime fiction addicts for his weekly Armchair Detective radio broadcasts, and also for the Doctor Morelle series of stories (and radio plays) in which the shrewd detective-psychiatrist solved countless mysteries with the aid of his assistant, Miss Frayle. Dudley has revealed that Dr. Morelle has his genesis in a coal cellar in Bristol in 1940, where the author (who already worked for the BBC Variety Department) sat out German air-raids. "The character of Dr. Morelle," Mr Dudley has remarked, "was finally evolved from my memories of the silent film star Erich von Stroheim - who incidentally nearly played the part years later in a film version - and whom Hollywood used to bill as 'The Man You Love to Hate.' In order to point up the self-opinionated biting sarcasm of Dr Morelle, I gave him as a foil a pretty feather brained secretary, Miss Frayle. And so, Dr Morelle was let loose on millions of unsuspecting listeners, the first fictional character, I think, whom people hated so much they simply had to tune in and listen to him."

Johnny Destiny, a ruthless American killer, arrives in England to blackmail a former confederate. He aims to link up with this former accomplice, through the latter's daughter. Miss Frayle, Dr. Morelle's secretary, unwittingly becomes involved in the killer's quest. But Dr. Morelle learns of Miss Frayle's potential danger, and arrives at the deserted creek-side inn where they have foregathered in time to take a hand in the game...

At the time that Ted Patrick is planning to pull off his biggest house-breaking job, Dr. Morelle, aided as ever by Miss Frayle, sets up an off-beat criminological experiment, which is destined to have unexpected results. The success of Ted Patrick's coup, achieved with the inside help of a pretty blonde, Myra Campbell, is marred by the killing of a village policeman. Patrick gets away with the loot but runs into trouble when his cleverly planned alibi crumbles dramatically. In a last desperate effort to keep himself in the clear, he deliberately becomes involved in Dr. Morelle's strange scheme. At first it seems that Ted Patrick's luck will hold, but he reckons without Dr. Morelle . . . and without Myra Campbell herself!

In the fading but still tempestuous world of radio drama, Dr. Morelle finds blackmail and murder . . . And must ultimately take to the microphone and the airwaves himself to unmask the killer! A thrilling mystery by the BBC's famous Armchair Detective!