Vaudeville For The Frightened

The sleep of Dr. Mark Sturgis, a popular professor in a small, Midwestern university, is disturbed by a recurring nightmare the same hour as one of his graduate students is murdered in his office. Based on the intuition of a dogged by inexperienced local detective, Mark becomes the primary suspect. But is this a case of investigative tunnel vision that could let the real killer go free?

The first clues for the listener to piece...

The lead detective takes a new tact in her investigation until Mark's wife, a professor of criminology on the same campus, has to un-ring some bells.

Which boxes contain what clues?

Attorney and host of the American Injustice podcast, David Rudolph explains how police investigators' errors lead to tragic outcomes. Dr. Judith Orloff indicates that the unconscious mind challenges our waking selves to get real about who we are.

Even w...

As Mark is cleared, sort of, and more of the circumstances leading up to this suspicious murder are explained, the detective questions Mark about any enemies from his past that might have killed the graduate student by accident?

There is only possible candidate, and Mark has to be sure he trusts others to share the engaging story of his childhood encounter with Solomon Talbert.

What is the meaning of the title of the series? Or thi...

The neighborhood predator, Solomon Talbert, was on the local police radar ever since Mark lied to the cops. It was a “big little lie” that taught Mark how easy it was to fool police, one that may or may not have inspired Solomon Talbert to track down Mark after all these years. From a child’s perspective, it’s a horror story.

This part of the story is informed by interviews with FBI profiling legend, John Douglas, and a police acad...

In this part of the story, in some respects, the police have to start over. If not Mark, and not somebody else already explored, then who? What would be the motivation to shoot somebody sitting at a desk in the middle of the night. Acting on a hunch, progress is made.

The police, suspects, and false leads: Famed, former FBI profiler John Douglas, serial killed researcher, Dr. Katherine Ramsland, and real-life detective instructor G...

So, what was on "bottom of the box?" Do we know? Could it have been two things? A Wildcat Community Theater of the Air double feature: Two cold-case detectives several hundred miles away make an eerie discovery.

Dr. Dan Friedman, Jack the Ripper researcher, puts the finishing touches on what we thought we knew.

But then, just as we thought the story is resolved, the true, horrible meaning of “The Bottom of the Box.” Check your answ...