The Penumbra Podcast

(Note: this episode is a rewrite, recasting, and remaster of the original "Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask (Part 1)," and is our recommended jumping-on point for the series. If you're curious about changes made, the original version of "Murderous Mask" can be found on our website at thepenumbrapodcast.com.)

Juno Steel has had a lot of clients in his time, high-profile and low. But when he’s called i...

In the hunt for a crime boss's murderer, Detective Juno Steel and Agent Rex Glass have ended up somewhere very peculiar: a game show.

Well, it should be peculiar. But in the house of the Kanagawas, Hyperion City's premier crime-family-slash-entertainment-network, nothing is peculiar so long as it's caught on camera. In the eyes of a camera you can sell anything: a mad genius's horrific game show; an ancient death mas...

Louise Serling is a talented young painter with a bright future and promising artistic career in front of her. But Louise's family history holds a dreadful secret; can she conceal it from the world, or will the truth shake her life to its very foundations?

Welcome to the Penumbra, dear Traveler. We hope you enjoy your stay. If you miss us between episodes, remember to follow us on Facebook (The Penumbra Podcast), Twitter (@thepe...

After an explosive murder case gone wrong, Detective Juno Steel is in the market for some slower work. His next client promises something quiet: a routine find-the-cheating-husband job. Well… it should be routine. But if your missing man heads one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies on Mars, his biggest secret always runs much deeper than an affair. Before he knows it Juno Steel is in a race against the clock and a mysterious s...

The Prince of Mars, the mascot of Saffron Pharmaceuticals, is the worst witness a detective could hope for. The Prince has an imagination like a runaway train: when he tells the story, drizzles come out hurricanes and a fender-bender comes out three weeks in traction. Only problem: the Prince is the only witness to a vicious crime, everyone thinks he did it, and he’s the one lead Juno has.

His story’s nonsense, of course. Flashing l...

They warned her about the bandits, but Mary Anne didn’t listen. She was engaged, she said; her fiancée was moving to Crossroads, and even if Crossroads was crawling with bandits, she didn’t have much of a choice. Sheriff Beau Richmond asked her to marry him; Mary Anne said yes; and that, as far as Mary Anne knew, was the end of it.

It might have been the end to Mary Anne’s entire story, too – decades married to a man whom she liked ...

They thought they’d gotten away with it.

They were just kids when it happened. Juno Steel, Sasha Wire, and Mick Mercury – they were just kids when they did it. It was supposed to be a game, the kind kids play when there are no adults around to talk to… when there’s nobody around to tell them just how deadly their little game could be.

Detective Juno Steel has had that game on his mind a lot lately. Today is the twenty-fifth anniversa...

It’s been a day of unpleasant surprises for Detective Juno Steel. He didn't expect to spend his day off down in the sewers, that’s for sure. He didn’t expect to go back to the town he’d grown up in and run away from, either. He didn’t expect to hear from his old friends Mick Mercury and Sasha Wire… and one friend who shouldn’t be able to call him at all from where she’s gone.

Surprises come with the territory when you're a P...

Sir Marc and Sir Talfryn of Second Citadel aren’t technically knights. They do all the knightly things, sure – killing monsters, saving the innocent, bickering about breakfast meats – the only problem is that the other knights don’t agree that they’re… y’know, knights.

So what are a pair of free lancers to do? Get some respect, of course! Take down a monster so big that the Knights of the Crown have to let them join! The Janus Beast...

You can’t blame them for thinking the Janus Beast was dead. Most of the time when you cut a creature’s head off, it doesn’t get back up again… and it definitely doesn’t start whispering in the night about secret treasures.

But this one did, and it was very, very persuasive. By the time Sir Marc and Sir Caroline wake, its whispers have already lured Sir Talfryn away. Can they find him before the Janus Beast reveals what other deadly ...

Valles Vicky’s Vixen Valley is your one-stop shop if you’re interested in fine dining, good conversation, beautiful people, and contraband from across the galaxy. Juno Steel needs the last on that list: he’s after a killer with an eye for Ancient Martian artifacts, and only Valles Vicky herself can help Juno catch that killer.

But a favor from Valles Vicky always comes at a price… and if Juno’s not careful, the bill might end up mor...

Detective Juno Steel didn’t want to end up at a party tonight – in fact, he never wants to end up at a party – but he’s not exactly in a position to turn down the invitation. Juno's client, Valles Vicky, is here, too, and her former lover Ingrid Lake has made her a promise: either Vicky leaves her family for Ingrid… or Ingrid kills Vicky at midnight.

It’s eleven, now, and the clock is ticking. In one hour, Valles Vicky could be ...

Lily doesn’t want to move. This house is the only home she’s ever known, and she loves it – but in a few days her family is leaving, and her older brother Jake says she’ll never see it again. Dad says not to worry about it, that it’s okay to be sad when you’re leaving home, but sadness isn’t what Lily’s worried about. Lily’s scared.

Because for the last few weeks Lily’s been having nightmares, strange dreams about a thing in the dar...

What does Rita do when Juno Steel, Private Eye, is out of the office? Why, everything she's not supposed to, naturally.

Welcome to the Penumbra, dear Traveler. We hope you enjoy your stay. If you miss us between episodes, remember to follow us on Facebook (The Penumbra Podcast), Twitter (@thepenumbrapod), and our website (thepenumbrapodcast.com) for updates, information about the cast and crew, and irresistible witticisms.

We’d l...

He arrived in the night: Peter Nureyev, the burglar who got away, the thief Juno Steel couldn’t catch.

Until he returned, things had been so simple: solving crimes, chasing a killer with her eye on Ancient Martian artifacts, and not letting personal business get in the way. With Nureyev, though, things always seem to get personal very quickly.

But Juno has no choice. Nureyev’s the only one with a lead on the killer Juno’s after. He k...

Somewhere in this desert lies the greatest weapon Mars has ever seen. It’s on board the Utgard Express, a mobile lockbox that shatters the speed of sound at its slowest setting, a train that no one has ever entered… until today.

The plan is set. Juno and Nureyev know exactly what they must do to board that train. If there are no surprises they’ll just wake up, drive to a drone launch site in the desert, hijack a drone, and then ride...

In the Second Citadel's Hall of Trophies lie remnants of hundreds of monsters... and some of them are livelier than others. The head of the Janus Beast, for example: it's been here for weeks, and it's growing bored. Very bored. Can the Janus Beast's head break out of its case using nothing but its two faces, magic spells, and one tiny, tiny, little, really-just-impossibly-small brain?

Welcome to the Penumbra, dear Tr...

Who is Peter Nureyev?

The question has dogged Juno Steel, Private Eye for six months now, ever since he first met that master of disguises. It doesn’t help that he changes identities like most people change clothes: Rex Glass, Duke Rose, Miasma’s anonymous “the Thief…” How is Juno supposed to know who he is? How is Juno supposed to trust him?

He needs to know he can, because the clock is ticking. Miasma’s experiments on Juno won’t la...

Who is Peter Nureyev?

The question has dogged Juno Steel, Private Eye for six months now, ever since he first met that master of disguises. It doesn’t help that he changes identities like most people change clothes: Rex Glass, Duke Rose, Miasma’s anonymous “the Thief…” How is Juno supposed to know who he is? How is Juno supposed to trust him?

He needs to know he can, because the clock is ticking. Miasma’s experiments on Juno won’t la...