From Dead Men to Dead Air

I missed it yesterday, but editor-writer-interviewer Elizabeth Foxwell announced that she’s signing off from her popular weekly radio program It’s a Mystery, a production of WEBR radio in Fairfax, Virginia. “The last program,” she writes, “will be May 21st with Roberta Isleib, plus ‘The Bruce-Partington Plans’ with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson as Holmes and Watson.” As Foxwell explains in her blog, The Bunburyist:

It’s a Mystery was my attempt to apply my past experience as a WMUC newscaster to capture the varied voices of mysterydom (often ones that found it difficult to garner media attention), bring back gems of mystery radio theater, and play themes from mystery-related films and TV programs. For more than two years, I’ve interviewed many authors, including Julie Smith, Robert B. Parker, and Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz. Alas, with various publishing commitments and a posse of friends who are prodding me to finish my novel, I just can’t keep up with the workload that a quality program demands.

In addition to those three interviews that Foxwell mentions, there are many more to be heard (via MP3 files) at the It’s a Mystery site, including discussions with Louis Bayard (The Pale Blue Eye), Max Allan Collins (Black Hats), Linda Barnes (Heart of the World), Bill Crider (Murder Among the Owls), Margaret Coel (The Drowning Man), and the ever-effervescent Peter Lovesey. Fortunately, Foxwell says that the archive of her radio interviews “will remain online for the foreseeable future, and there are a few interviews that will be posted after they are edited.” We’ll keep an ear out for them.