S2E4 T. Sawyer, Esquire

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.Mysteries to Die For is brought to you by Down & Out Books. This episode’s featured release is State of Shock by M. Todd Henderson.When Jante Turner is murdered just days before she takes the mantle as new dean of Rockefeller University Law School in Chicago, Royce Johnson is approached to help solve the murder. Recently released from prison, the ex-FBI agent has his own problems. Still, he takes the job.Soon, Johnson finds himself at the intersection of higher education, Chicago politics, big money, and murder. Johnson traces a river of corruption running from deep-pocket donors of the University to North Side developers and a South Side alderman who is heir to the throne in City Hall. In his desperation, he turns to the one lawyer who can help him—the former Rockefeller student whom Johnson mistakenly framed for murder on his last case. State of Shock is available from Down & Out’s website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indieboound, or asked for it from your favorite book seller.Before the StoryI am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Some episodes will be my own stories, others will be classics that helped shape the mystery genre we know today. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes (unless it's really bad) This is Season 2. This season contains adaptations of stories published in the 1800s. These stories are some of the first considered to be mysteries. For that reason, this season is called The Originators.Today’s story is about the costs of greed, arrogance, and pride. This is T. Sawyer, Esquire, an abridged telling of Tom Sawyer, Detective. Tina: This short story takes place shortly after Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn free their friend Jim from Tom’s Aunt & Uncle’s farm in Arkansas. Since that told me nothing about the setting for the story, went new school and googled “what was the setting for Huckleberry Finn”. The answer as far as date was “40-50 years ago”. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884, making the setting 1830-1840s. Tom Sawyer, Detective was published in 1896. Location was harder. Tom and Huck live in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, MO, which is said to be really Hannibal, Missouri where Twain lived. In Huck Finn, Huck and Jim sail down down the Mississippi from the St. Petersburg to Arkansas. Huck and Jim disembark near the Missouri-Tennessee-Arkansas boarder. Based on this, I picked Osceola, Arkansas as our pin on the map. Zip code 72370. Osceola was founded in 1837 and incorporated in 1853, growing with steamboat traffic. Travel time from the Royal Observatory, home to the Prime Meridian, is about 15, flying from Heathrow to Memphis, and then driving the hour north to Osceola. Osceola is only a 90 min drive from Senatobia, Mississippi, our pin for the 2nd story in this season.Jack and I are up here in Northeast Indiana. When I hear Missouri, I think south, like southern. So it blew my geographically challenged mind that Hannibal is no father south that Indianapolis, I city I travel to frequently AND its hours north of Evansville, Indiana, which is an incredibly cool town on the Ohio River. Jack, we need a road trip so I can get my mapping straight.Personally, I was surprised at the rating on Goodreads. With over 2,000 ratings, the average is 3.56. Vastly underrating it IMO. 30% rated it a 4 and 35% a 3. One 3-star reviewer wrote: I can see why this wasn't as successful as the first two books in the series. It took me a little while to get into it, I was a bit ho hum in the beginning. But I enjoyed it more as a went along. You have to stretch your mind a little to accept the plot. And of course, the book is a reflection of its times and setting.Another 3-star reviewer wrote: Fun little romp, and if I'm not mistaken the last written story featuring our friends Huck and Tom. I enjoyed these one-off tales -- the other being the fantastical Jules Verne-esque balloon ride Tom Sawyer Abroad -- and half-wish Twain had scribbled more of them, even knowing he was doing them for quick cash. But all things must come to an end eventually. Was good to know you boys, because there's nothing like reading Mark Twain adventures while you're in the middle of Mark Twain National Forest.Other reviews were similar in that the actual review seemed to like the story more than the star rating – but then, everyone has their own scales.Jack:  Everyone knows Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens, but not everyone knows his middle name was Langhorne. Everyone knows some of Mark Twain’s stories were set along the Mississippi, but not everyone knows he really was a steamboat pilot. It took him two years of training to earn the title and position. He took the name that the world would know him by from his time on the Mississippi and a Captain he knew who used the words to sign reports. The words “mark twain” would be called out when the depth of the river measured 12 feet or 2 fathoms, the safe water depth for the big steamboats.Over his life, Mark Twain did a little bit of everything. He worked as a printer’s apprentice, a typesetter, a steamboat pilot, a miner, journalist, writer, speaker, social activist. He earned a lot of money and he lost a lot of money in bad investments. He declared bankruptcy at one point. Once back on his feet, paid back his debt even though it had been wiped out by the bankruptcy.Mark Twain traveled the world. He was born and raised in Missouri, lived in Nevada, San Francisco, Elmira NY and Hartford Connecticut. He traveled to Hawaii when they were called the Sandwich Islands, worked for a bit in London, and did extensive traveling around the Mediterranean.Mark Twain was quoted alot and here are a fewIt’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dogDon’t let schooling interfere with your educationBuy land, they’re not making it any moreGo to Heaven for the climate, go to hell for the companyTina: We are nearly ready to begin our story. While Jack resets his microphone and warms up his fingers, I’ll explain why are we doing adaptations of these early stories instead of performing them as written. Two main reasons. Usually here is where I say these stories are very cool but the language from the 1800s is hard. Not true with Twain. His is very easy to read. In fact, today’s story is more abridging than adapting because the language was so smooth.Second, the style and length of the stories were not created for listening, they were created for reading. This one was shorter than many others but still too long for us.  With these adaptations, we keep the heart of the story, preserving the ground breaking narrative, but update the packaging for easier digester. This one definitely fits into our definition of mystery as Tom and a sometimes reluctant Huck are unraveling the mystery of who killed Jubiter Dunlap. And interesting note, Mr. Twain added a small forward saying this mystery was his retelling of real events from an old-time Swedish trial.And so we are ready for T. Sawyer, Esquire. Jack, that’s your cue.Episode MaterialsRead the original: There are several places where you can find Tom Sawyer, Detective. Gutenberg is one of them. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/93Cast of Characters: Huck Finn: Storyteller extraordinaireTom Sawyer: Huck’s best friend and a boy who pick a mystery over a pie every day of the weekAunt Polly: Tom’s Aunt. He lives with her in MissouriAunt Sally: Tom’s Aunt & Aunt Polly’s sister. She lives in Arkansas with her husband, Silas, on the childredUncle Silas: Tom’s uncle by marriage to his Aunt Sally. He’s a farmer and a preacher.Bennie: Tom’s 18-yr old cousin, daughter to Sally and SilasBrace Dunlap: Farmer, 36, richer than most in the area. Wants to marry BennieJubiter Dunlap: Working hand, 27. Not worth much. Uncle Silas hired him to smooth things over with Brace for not letting him marry BennieJake Dunlap: 27, Jubiter’s twin. Been gone 7 years and assumed deadBud: Thief and all-around bad guyHal: Another thief and another all-around bad guyLem Beebe, Jim Lane, Bill Withers, and Jack Withers: Local men who witness some events and testify to them.My Two CentsSo there you have it, a robbery-double cross- murder mystery. As I mystery, I took no exceptions to the plot (unlike the last one). And, No, I didn’t come close to figuring this one out.Twain was thorough laying out the facts and lies. I spent a lot of time thinking through the part where Jubiter came out of the woods as Jake’s ghost and Brace carried out Jake’s body. It seemed there were too many people coming out for the number going in. In the end, Twain covered that was a small line in Tom’s reveal that Jubiter and Brace doubled back, dressed Jake in Jubiter’s clothes, etc., etc.If I found any fault with the story, there were three small ones. First, Uncle Silas confessing to burying Jubiter when he was really asleep in his bed. Twain gave us nothing...