S2E5 Sgt Cuff and the Moonstone Conspiracy

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For. Before the Story  I 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 loyalty, wrong assumptions, and a prize worth more than money. This story is told in two parts. This is the first, Episode 5A Sergeant Cuff and the Moonstone Conspiracy, an adaptation of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.Tina: Today’s story is set in Yorkshire, England. The location of Lady Verinder’s country estate was not given a name. It was described as being on the coast. As you’ll see, the coast has a role in this one. Two towns were named in the story: Frizinghall and Cob’s Hole. Searching for Frizinghall, England, I found one that is a district in the City of Bradford. Not on a coast. Cob’s Hole I didn’t find at all. Sooo, given my freedom, I picked a coastal Yorkshire town of Ravenscar. Yes, I picked it for its name. Seemed to fit a mystery.Ravenscar is on the eastern coast of England, 10 miles north of Scarborough. In the late 4th century, it was the location of a Roman signal station. Ravenscar is some 250 miles north of the Royal Observatory, home to the prime meridian. According to Wikipedia, at the turn of the 19th–20th century, plans were made to turn the village into a holiday resort to rival nearby Scarborough. Roads were laid out, some houses were built and sewers were laid. Because of the long trek to its rocky beach, Ravenscar never achieved popularity, and the development was left unfinished – a town with sewers and streets but no houses. Fascinating. Every time we do one of these, I find a new place I want to go.The Moonstone was published in 1868 and the story is set 20 years earlier. It was considered one of the first detective novel. This is an incredibly long story, told by multiple story tellers – one article said 11 tellers (I didn’t count.) With over 81,000 ratings on Goodreads, the average rating is 3.9.  Here’s one review, a 5 star: 4.5 stars, rounding up, for this 1868 Victorian-era mystery, often considered the first English-language detective novel. Wilkie Collins spins a literary web that starts out slowly but then inexorably pulls you in; I finished the last half of the book in one extended readathon. He has a gift for writing as vastly different characters, who each take a turn telling or writing their part of the story, and a droll, sometimes very sarcastic sense of humor. Here's a 3-star review: I ended up liking the story of the diamond stolen from an Indian sacred statue but mostly I liked it for some of the characters who tell the story in 11 different narratives. My special favourite is Betteredge the old steward of the country house where much of the story takes place who relies on Robinson Crusoe for advice (it works for him) and the wonderfully imagined and named Ezra Jennings who turns up quite late in the proceedings but ultimately has a hand in the resolution of the case.If you want a Victorian (the "first" ) mystery complete with a detective, lots of villains, a suicide, a murder, a stolen jewel, a trio of Indians, an unrequited love and more then this is for you. If however you want a punchy, fast paced police crime book then give it a miss. All in all I'm glad I read it but it was very tough going in the middle though the denouement was very satisfactory. :) Jack: William Wilkie Collins dropped the William in his writing. He was a writer and playwright. His most famous novel was The Woman in White (1859) was his fifth novel and is considered among the first mystery novels. (It was a DNF for my mom). Wilkie was a professional writer. The other author’s we’ve featured- Poe, Pinkteron, Bulwer-Lytton, Twain- all had profession outside of writing. Wilkie didn’t seem to. He wrote a lot. He wrote over 20 novels, a hundred short stories, and then a bunch of plays, essays, and articles. In 1980, The Wilkie Collins Society was created to promote interest in Wilkie and his work. Officially, Wilkie never married. Unofficially, he had two families. He lived with Caroline and her daughter from her first marriage, Harriet. Tens years later, he met a woman named Martha. She would have three children with Wilkie. For the last 20 years of his life, he split his time between the two families. Tina: 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. The language from the 1800s is hard. The commas alone can have me reaching for a nice Moscato.Second, the style and length of the stories were not created for listening, they were created for reading. This one today is over 200,000 words in it’s original form. That’s just right if you are reading every night because movies, television, and everything else hasn’t been invented yet, but it’s way to 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 tried to be a little bit of everything. A satire. An adventure. A romance. A mystery. Needless to say, we are honing in on the last bit.And so we are ready for Sergeant Cuff and the Moonstone Conspiracy. Jack, that’s your cue.Down & Out Featured Release Mysteries to Die For is brought to you by Down & Out Books. This episode’s featured release is It’s Ugly Because It’s Personal by Ryan Sayles In the city of Carcasa, gunshots devastate the night as a patrol officer makes a traffic stop. The occupants—three dealers caught in the act of muling—set into motion a course of actions that can only end badly. Now, one is dead, another fleeing on foot and the third tearing through neighborhoods in a bumper car-style chase. Furious, grief-stricken officers on their heels with their brother fighting for his life on the side of a road. The shooter escapes, and the PD begins their hunt to find the shooter before he lucks out, fades into memory. With what information they have, they dig; the dirt that is the shooter’s life getting thrown over their shoulders by the shovel-full. Family, friends, employment, any avenue of refuge for him begins to burn. Things get complicated along the way. The kind of complicated that goes into a body bag. The art of flushing out the enemy is a sacred practice, best done with smoldering rage. But, after a man has nowhere to hide, having him out in the open might be worse. It’s Ugly Because It’s Personal is available from Down & Out’s website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or ask for it from your favorite book seller.Episode MaterialsRead the original: There are several places where you can find The Moonstone. Gutenberg is one of them. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/155Cast of Characters: Sergeant Cuff: our hero. Experienced detective, close to retiring to raise rosesThe older generation (40-50s)Sir John Herncastle: Dead by natural causes. Stole the Moonstone from India, bequeathed it as a birthday gift to Rachel Verinder, his nieceLady Julia Verinder: Sister to Sir John Herncastle, sister-in-law to both Black and Ablewhite. Rachel’s mother.Roderick Blake: Member of Parliament, hires Cuff to investigate the theft of the Moonstone DiamondThe younger generation (Late teens - Mid-twenties)Rachel Verinder: Owner of the Moonstone Diamond, for about 12 hoursFranklin Blake: Roderick’s son, delivered Moonstone to Rachel VerinderGodfrey Ablewhite: Rachel’s cousin, Lady Julia’s nephewDruscilla Clack: Rachel cousinThe StaffGabriel Betteredge: Lady Julia Verinder’s butler and a wealth of information.Penelope Betteredge: Gabriel’s daughter and Rachel’s maidRoseanna Spearman: Lady Julia’s maid and a woman with a pastMr. Bigbie: the gardenerCook: The cook (female, if it matters)OthersMr. Matthew Bruff: lawyer, custodian of the Moonstone, family friend, attended Rachel’s partyDr. Candy: Area physician, attended Rachel’s birthday partyMr. Murthwaite: An Indian friend of the Late Sir Verinder, attended Rachel’s birthday partyInspector Seagrave: Copper who started the investigation and irritated the entire house.Mrs. Yolland: Verinder’s nearest neighbor, mother of LucyLucy Yolland: Good friend of Roseanna SpearmanThe Three Indians: Maybe performers,...