S2E6 Franklin Blake Returns

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 the determination of love to find a way…even if it’s through an ugly truth. This is Episode 5B Franklin Blake Returns, an adaptation of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.Jack: Part 1 of this story was told in Episode 5A by Sergeant Cuff, a London detective hired by Lady Verinder to investigate the theft of the Moonstone diamond. Here is a summary: The gem had been bequeathed by Lady Verinder’s older brother to her daughter Rachel as a birthday present. Franklin Blake arrived a month before her birthday, bringing the diamond. He deposits it in a bank. That same afternoon, three Indians call on the Verinder household posing as magicians. The steward, Gabriel Betteredge, runs them off. Outside the estate, they are overheard talking about Franklin Blake. Rachel received the diamond in the afternoon of her birthday, wore it to her birthday party that evening, and the next morning, it was missing. Cuff’s investigation never got off the ground. Rachel Verinder refused to talk to Cuff, Franklin, or anyone else. The clue of blue paint on a nightshirt dies on the vine when the search of the upstairs rooms is prohibited. Roseanna Spearman, a maid with a criminal past, has a cryptic conversation with the man courting Rachel, Franklin Blake, then kills herself the next day. The Verinder house is a mess. Rachel leaves her cousin, Godfrey Ablewhite, to stay with his mother. Lady Verinder goes after her daughter, later deciding they would go to London to make a fresh start. Heartbroken by Rachel’s rejection, Franklin Blake leaves England, determined to forget him. Sgt Cuff is dismissed, his questions never answered. Before leaving, he makes three predictions. One, Betteredge would receive a message from the near-by cottage with a beyond-the-grave message from the dead maid. Two, they would hear of the three Indian’s again. Three, they would also hear of a money lender named Luker.Tina: Got all of that? Check out the show notes for the cast of characters. 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. It’s like everything they tried to teach us in grade school grammar on steroids.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 with multiple narrators – like 7 or 11. 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. Episode 5A was definitely a mystery, with a police detective Sergeant Cuff investigating. This episode picks the story 1 year later and is told by Franklin Blake.And so we are ready for Franklin Blake Returns. Jack, that’s your cue.Down & Out Featured ReleaseMysteries to Die For is brought to you by Down & Out Books and imprint All Due Respect. This episode’s featured release is Trigger Switch by Bryon QuertermousDominick Prince has been a magnet for trouble his entire life. A series of poor life choices and their violent consequences have crushed his spirit. Desperate to outrun this burgeoning rage before it fully consumes him, Dominick accepts an offer he doesn’t trust from an old high school classmate. Dutchy Kent says he wants to make one last-ditch effort to prove his acting chops by mounting the New York City debut of a play based on one of Dominick’s stories, but the true story involves the real estate empire of a notorious Queens drug dealer and $1.2 million in cash. Dutchy would love to find that cash, but he needs someone else to do the dirty work, someone who attracts trouble and is easily manipulated.Unfortunately for Dutchy, the Dominick he knew in school is gone. The Dominick who shows up at his office is bitter, twitchy, and repulsed by the trash heaps and junk yards of Long Island City that don’t fit into his vision of a New York debut. None of that matters to Dutchy though who continues with his scheme, unaware that every insult, every passive aggressive comment, and every physical intimidation pushes Dominick one step further toward his rapidly approaching breaking point. Trigger Switch is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, 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: Franklin Blake: Our hero. Thought to have stolen the Moonstone by his almost affianced, Rachel VerinderThe 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: Franklin’s now deceased father, Member of Parliament. The younger generation (Late teens - Mid-twenties)Rachel Verinder: Owner of the Moonstone Diamond, for about 12 hoursGodfrey 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)OthersSergeant Cuff: Experienced detective, close to retiring to raise roses, was fired after everyone lied to himMr. 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, maybe thieves.Septimus Luker: notorious money lenderEzra Jennings: assistant to Dr. Candy My Two CentsLike we talk about, these stories are some of the first to be considered mysteries, so they aren’t always perfect fits in the genre. The Moonstone really was a little bit of everything, with the genre nearly changing with the narrator. I boiled many sections of this book into brief backstory. Parts are adventure. Parts are satire. Parts are romance. And yes, parts are mystery.Overall, the mystery was pretty well laid out. There were so many times this was one nearly a DNF. I’m glad I stuck through it but doubt I’ll pick up another of Wilkie’s anytime soon. It wandered too much for my taste. I guess some people found his tangents entertaining. For me, they took me out of the story nearly to the point I didn’t care. In the end, I did come to like Cuff, Franklin, Betteredge, and Bruff and was happy I got to know them.Wilkie used a few devices that I didn’t love. While it was a great twist to have Franklin find his own name on the nightshirt, it was a pretty long stretch to have him steal the diamond while sleep walking under the influence of laudanum and have zero memory of it. We don’t hear from Godfrey to learn exactly what happened that night.Again, it was a great twist to have Godfrey in costume dead in a pub room, I didn’t see it coming. It was a stretch on the assailants getting in and out by the roof. I added quite a bit to the original description to avoid the feel of coincidence. I do think the Indians were persistent to the point that they would have found a way into Godfrey’s room.For all the talk of Septimus Luker, no one in the original story talked to him. It nagged at me, so I added it in here, having him neither confirm nor deny.After the StoryThat wraps this episode of Mysteries...