[DR][Murder Mystery] Gold-Killer by John Prosper (a pseudonym) - thw

[BrianFullen]

Gold-Killer, by John Farrar (1896 - 1974) and Prosper Buranelli (1891 - 1960)

Volunteers outside the USA: John Farrar died in 1974. This person's work may still be protected by copyright in countries where copyright duration is determined by the author's death date. In Europe this is 70 years; in Canada it is 70 years for authors who died after 1971; and in Australia it is 70 years for authors who died after 1955.

Volunteers outside the USA: Prosper Buranelli died in 1960. This person's work may still be protected by copyright in countries where copyright duration is determined by the author's death date. In Europe this is 70 years; in Canada it is 70 years for authors who died after 1971; and in Australia it is 70 years for authors who died after 1955.

The 1920's are off to a R.I.P. Roaring start as a serial strangler dubbed "Gold-Killer" is squeezing the life out of New York's wealthiest men. The police search for a crazed, socialistic anarchist while the daughter of one of the victims and her gallant begin their own hunt among members of the "new" underworld that has risen with the dawn of Prohibition. Who will be the first to identify the monstrous "Gold-Killer"? My bet is on you, dear listener, because solving murder mysteries is your forte! (Summary by Brian Fullen)

Source text (please read only from this text!): https://archive.org/details/goldkillermyster00pros/mode/2up?view=theater
Annotated script: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xZ63Ne2QobAKpMGhAv9Zg2IcSRi-c9De?usp=sharing

Deadline: Please submit your recording within 2 months of placing your claim. If you cannot complete the recording within this time, please post in the thread to relinquish your claim or to ask the BC for an extension. If your recording is not completed by the deadline, your claim may be reassigned at the BC's discretion.

Claiming roles: Look in the Magic Window below for the list of available roles. Post a reply in this thread asking for the role you would like to record.
Please note: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. When you submit your recording, you will be placing your recording in the public domain as well.

New to recording? Please see our Newbie Guide to Recording for further instructions. A quick guide to our required technical settings can be found here. When you post your file, please tell the BC what name you would like to use in our catalog.

Prooflistening level: Standard
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Magic Window:

BC Admin
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This paragraph is temporary and will be replaced by the MC with the list of sections and reader (Magic Window) once this project is in the admin system.

• Project Code: BPeTlSNd
• Link to author on Wikipedia (if available): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Farrar (John Farrar)
• Link to title on Wikipedia (if available):
• Number of sections (files) this project will have: 82
• Does the project have an introduction or preface: No
• Original publication date (if known): 1922
• If you are a new volunteer, how would you like your name (or pseudonym) credited in the catalog?
• Do you have a URL you would like associated with your name?:

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Genres for the project: Crime & Mystery Fiction/Detective Fiction

Keywords that describe the book: murder mystery, underworld, roaring 20's, drug culture

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LibriVox recording settings: mono (1 channel), 44100 Hz sample rate, 128 kbps constant bit rate MP3. See the Tech Specs

For individual roles:
Submit one file per part. At the beginning of the first file, say:

"Character, read by your name."

Leave 3-5 seconds of space between your lines (room noise, not generated silence).

For narration/stage directions:
Leave 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning.

Say:

"Part # of Gold-Killer, by John Prosper. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org."

At the end of each file say:

"End of Part #."

If you are recording the final section of the book, add:

"End of Gold-Killer, by John Prosper."

Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end.

Filename:
For individual roles: goldkiller_role_#.mp3 where # is the part number. (e.g. goldkiller_annerice_1.mp3)
For final files: goldkiller_#_prosper_128kb.mp3 where # is the part number. (e.g. goldkiller_1_prosper_128kb.mp3)

Upload to the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader

(If you have trouble reading the image above, please contact an admin)

MC to select: toddhw

Copy and paste the file link generated by the uploader into a new post in this thread along with the file duration (mm:ss). Watch this thread for prooflistening notes.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Just post in this thread.

Please note that This Post provides a grouping of source text chapter to script Part

[redrun]

Hello Brian!

I know you've probably already read the Dramatic Works best-practice guidelines. So, just to be sure:

• I assume you're editing, as you've done before.
• I assume you're also willing and able to give readers feedback, unless/until someone else volunteers to do parts-PL
• Do you have a narrator lined up? One big difference between plays and DRs is that one reader will usually have an enormously and disproportionately large role. Our guidelines say: post in the DR Suggestions forum to find a narrator in advance.

One other thing I should ask: was your (nicely formatted and searchable ) script created from the Archive scan you linked, or was there some other source that you copy/pasted and then formatted? If the latter, I think we'd need to check whether that second source was PD.

[BrianFullen]

Hello Brian!

I know you've probably already read the Dramatic Works best-practice guidelines. So, just to be sure:

• I assume you're editing, as you've done before.
• I assume you're also willing and able to give readers feedback, unless/until someone else volunteers to do parts-PL
• Do you have a narrator lined up? One big difference between plays and DRs is that one reader will usually have an enormously and disproportionately large role. Our guidelines say: post in the DR Suggestions forum to find a narrator in advance.

One other thing I should ask: was your (nicely formatted and searchable ) script created from the Archive scan you linked, or was there some other source that you copy/pasted and then formatted? If the latter, I think we'd need to check whether that second source was PD.

Thanks, my friend.

In fact I did read the best practices guide and I paid particular attention to the suggestion that it's a good practice to line up narrator, DPL and editor in advance. When I did the launch post late yesterday about posting on those matters, but it was late ... I had just finished the script ... I wanted to put a bow on it with a launch ... and other weak excuses. In retrospect I'm sure I could and probably should have deferred launch a bit. The later gets the poorer my judgement. That's why I try not to watch infomercials before bedtime because Lord knows what I'd buy that I don't need.

I would like to PL all role recordings. I am willing to provide feedback. I will try to be "tough and fair and instructive" and will probably fail to some degree on all counts but I'll try my best. I really want to do better even if I sometimes don't.

I would also like to edit the final files so obviously I cannot DPL those. But I figure it will be some time (months at least) until I'd have to go begging for a DPL for any of the completed parts. I was thinking I'd ask someone whose work I respect if they'd be willing to DPL those completed files. Of course I'm talking about you here. Just kidding. Or, maybe I'm not kidding. I'm never that sure.

I would like to do the narration unless someone else feels that they'd really enjoy doing narration in whole or in part in which case I'd step aside. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't in some small way rehearsing all of the narration and all of the roles in my head as I was scripting. But I'm honestly trying to work on becoming more of a sharing person. I actually do think that having different narrators on the different parts might work. I just don't know how well. All that said, I can put my name down for all narration at such tine as there might be an MC -> MW. Or, I could leave narration unassigned for some relative short period of time (a couple of three weeks seems reasonable) to see if someone fancies doing narration and then, if no one does, I would certainly sign up myself for all of the [unclaimed] narration. But let me take this opportunity to ask you: what to you think about the concept of multiple narrators for the different parts? Do you think that could be desirable / workable?

For the next few days and into early next week I will be fairly busy on The White Christmas. Starting mid next week I will work diligently on catching up The Ring Cycle, i.e. doing all of its narration that is not yet done and catching up editing to include what's been submitted for its roles up until this (plus the next two weeks or so) - it's a fairly large project so I don't want to defer editing by too much. So, that puts me about 3-4 weeks I should think. I'll be celebrating holidays with family and friends but there's no travel involved (for me, anyway) so I'll work around festivities. So, I'm thinking that early in January I will claim any unclaimed narration for this project.

Thank for for your kind words on the script. In making it I used only the reference [read only from source text] at Gold-Killer. But the fact is that I first came across the story while skimming issues of Detective Story Magazine in which the story was published at around the same time as the hardcover but in 5 successive weekly issues beginning with Volume 46, Issue 3 published on 1922-01-21. I'm of the opinion that the hard cover scan is superior to the magazine scan which is why I'd prefer to use the one I used for scripting.

Even though I prefer the hard cover scan, I like the "episodic" approach of the magazine. I just think it will work well for audio book treatment. Like an old time radio program in sense. Anyway, and either way, there are 29 chapters in total. My first thought was that I wanted to mirror the serialization in Detective Story Magazine. But I had some concern right out of the gate with a word count for the mag's part one that looked to be well in excess of 10k words. I'm trying to keep the parts in what I suppose are manageable lengths. For the eight parts, as currently constituted in the scripting the approximate word counts, in ascending order, are: 8.6k, 8.1k, 8.6k, 7.6k, 8.5k, 8.5k, 5.2k, 7.0k. Obviously these are rounded to nearest hundreds place. They do include "role headers" so they are all on the high side by, I'd estimate 2-3 hundred words depending on number of "role headers". I did keep chapters in tact. As I mentioned there were 5 parts (essentially episodes in the radio/TV analogy) in the mag publication. Word count was not my only consideration for partitioning; I wanted to maintain some sense of cohesion in the flow of the story and I liked the idea of "cliff hanger" transition which I employed when I could. Of course if you, or someone else, would like to suggest some restructuring (re-partitioning) I would be happy to work with you on that.

I hope that I have responded to all that you asked about. Sorry about my lengthy response. I do have a tendency to run off at the mouth. I know this from years of experience with my wife and kids. I see their eyes glaze over when I give an over long and involved answer to a simple question. Over the many years they've gotten better at giving me non or even verbal cues to indicate that I've said way more than enough. Anyway ...

Since there was no wikipedia article on the book I started to put together an About file with plot synopsis and character sketches. But as I just said above I'm too wordy. When the about file's synopsis got to 3 pages and still going I decided that I wasn't doing a synopsis so much as a re-write of the book. I don't think I have a future as a person who does synopses whatever that job is called

Thanks for taking the time and for hanging with me here. I should ask if there's any chance that you might MC but that'd be poor form on my part so I won't do that. See what I just did there. Yeah, you did!

Have a good one.

Thanks,
Brian

PS, there's probably a ton of typos and other errors in this reply. But I don't feel like reading it and fixing them before I hit Submit. Who has that kind of time?

[redrun]

Well, I've gotten a little bit better myself about considering what I'd like to say... and then just posting a synopsis of that.

Answers I gather from your post:

• You'll be editing.
• You'll also do the parts-PL. You have chosen "Standard" PL, but it's not too late to change this if you expect to be more exacting.
• The Archive scan you linked is the source for the script, and you typed it from there. That addresses my alternate-source concern.
• You're perfectly willing to narrate the whole book, but you'll leave it for about a month to see if anyone else is interested (and another note below).

Then some responses to points you raise...

Divying the job up for multiple narrators:
Sounds like an interesting aesthetic (does seem like an old radio play!), but if there's one reader you want available for fixes come editing time, it is the narrator. Just something to keep in mind.

Length of the sections:
Those word counts sound about right. In my own reading, I have to split chapters at about the 9000 word mark, so this seems like a workable length.

Eventual PL for finished chapters:
I suppose we'll find out later whether and whom you're serious about asking. I'll remove the tilde from the thread title, as you're not really looking for a DPL right now.

Who will MC:
I pick up new projects when I have both immediate time and interest, and can also commit to the expected follow-up work. It's usually a more manageable task to ask a couple questions, so you'll have answers ready for the next MC - whether myself, or someone else.

[BrianFullen]

Well, I've gotten a little bit better myself about considering what I'd like to say... and then just posting a synopsis of that.

Answers I gather from your post:

• You'll be editing.
• You'll also do the parts-PL. You have chosen "Standard" PL, but it's not too late to change this if you expect to be more exacting.
• The Archive scan you linked is the source for the script, and you typed it from there. That addresses my alternate-source concern.
• You're perfectly willing to narrate the whole book, but you'll leave it for about a month to see if anyone else is interested (and another note below).

Yes, to all above. Neat mark up trick with "[*]"; I'll have to remember that one!

Then some responses to points you raise...

Divying the job up for multiple narrators:
Sounds like an interesting aesthetic (does seem like an old radio play!), but if there's one reader you want available for fixes come editing time, it is the narrator. Just something to keep in mind.

Excellent point that I had not thought about. If someone else were to claim narration part(s) I would pledge to PL those ASAP so narrator could be 'released' from project before it's end.

Length of the sections:
Those word counts sound about right. In my own reading, I have to split chapters at about the 9000 word mark, so this seems like a workable length.

Eventual PL for finished chapters:
I suppose we'll find out later whether and whom you're serious about asking. I'll remove the tilde from the thread title, as you're not really looking for a DPL right now.

Who will MC:
I pick up new projects when I have both immediate time and interest, and can also commit to the expected follow-up work. It's usually a more manageable task to ask a couple questions, so you'll have answers ready for the next MC - whether myself, or someone else.

Yes! I can dream. Thanks for not dashing my dream!

[BrianFullen]

Seems as good a time as any to sell the project a bit to anyone who is feeling it out. I'll try not to oversell (at great length).

I haven't lied or deliberately misled. This is a murder mystery. In the end there is a human culprit identified as "Gold-Killer".

But as I see it the real murderer in the story can be considered to be an addiction to a drug. Sure the setting is the Prohibition but the killer is not limited to alcohol. Just as the arch-villain in this story has multiple guises, you could say that alcohol addiction is but one guise of drug addiction (as the killer).

In this story it is the designer of an unnamed drug - first extracted and then enhanced from the essence of an unnamed exotically beautiful, aromatic and rare flower - who is deemed (by the protagonists) to be the "Gold-Killer" at the end of the story. But it is those addicted to his drug who perform murders, albeit at his behest (in all but one instance).

I don't think it unusual that a crime novel includes social commentary. Maybe it's typical that the commentary or "message" is the real point of the story. I do think that's true for this book.

[jennlea]

You had me at “ R.I.P. Roaring”…

Very tempted to claim Anne Rice if you feel that would work.

[BrianFullen]

You had me at “ R.I.P. Roaring”…

Very tempted to claim Anne Rice if you feel that would work.

Oh, heck, yes! I think you just might be Anne Rice. Would you say that you are an heiress of 20 million bucks, a mansion in NYC and an estate on Long Island Sound? But none of that really matters so long as you can protect your murdered father's good name from being dragged through the mud! Well, I hope none of that is really true, except maybe for the part about the 20 mil, the mansion & the estate! That could be true and I'd be happy! The main thing is can you make me believe it's all true. And you gotta be bright, sophisticated, somewhat naive when it comes to criminal ways, but you catch on quick because we've already established that you are brilliant. Brave as you need to be, even if you have to buck up the courage a tad. Also, very intuitive. And protective of the men and boys in your pretend [and possibly real] life, because gosh darn it, they need that. It doesn't really matter what you answer, Jenn. You've claimed her and she's yours! And you can't back out now! Thanks for the claim.

[JHedrick]

I would love to jump in and claim Policeman and, if you are taking doubles, I could do Dr. Blackton

[ToddHW]

I'll MC. MW in a couple minutes.

EDIT: MW ready.

Thanks, Todd

[BrianFullen]

I would love to jump in and claim Policeman and, if you are taking doubles, I could do Dr. Blackton

Doubles are fine! Except for Tom Ware, Dos Anfros, Pop Morgan, Baldy McManus, Jack West, Billy Harty and Flash Montague, I also don't think that Chcikie should be doubled.

The "flower-snatcher" is of course "The Chief" but "we" (including the audio book listener) are not supposed to know that until the "reveal" in Part 6 (I tend to think of parts as acts). I'm going to say I figured it out long before Part 6, but you don't have to believe me. I mean maybe I did.

"The" Policeman is a traffic cop in the "Robbery on the Plank Road" chapter (I actually think of chapters as scenes) and he's more of a beat cop in "Am I the Gold-Killer" - but I think that's OK (maybe he's pulling some overtime or maybe he got a promotion or demotion. I'm not sure whether a traffic cop outranks a beat cop, but I know which I'd rather be.

I'll put you down for The Policeman and for Dr. Blackton.

Thank you for your claims!

[BrianFullen]

I'll MC. MW in a couple minutes.

EDIT: MW ready.

Thanks, Todd

Thanks Todd. Of course I was hoping all along that it would be you would MC! Of course I'd be even if you also claimed a role ...

And thanks for the MW!

[BrianFullen]

I'll MC. MW in a couple minutes.

EDIT: MW ready.

Thanks, Todd

Thanks Todd. Of course I was hoping all along that it would be you would MC! Of course I'd be even if you also claimed a role ...

And thanks for the MW!

Thank you Todd. I've data-filled the MW. I haven't added sections for completed parts yet. I thought I'd wait a bit to see if I'll be doing all of the narration. I hope that's OK for now. Cheers, Brian

[BrianFullen]

The chapter headings in the script hyperlink to those chapters within the source text. These are the groupings of chapters by Part within the script:

Part 1
Chapter I, THE MURDER AT THE OPERA
Chapter II, A POLICE HYPOTHESIS
Chapter III, WARE UNDERTAKES A QUEST
Chapter IV, THE NEW UNDERWORLD

Part 2
Chapter V, THE MYSTERIOUS FLOWER
Chapter VI, CLUES OVER TOAST
Chapter VII, THE GANG GATHERS

Part 3
Chapter VIII, ROBBERY ON THE PLANK ROAD
Chapter IX, WHAT ABOUT JOYCE?
Chapter X, TEA AND ROMANCE

Part 4
Chapter XI, THE CHIEF
Chapter XII, THE LAND OF THE FLAMING PETALS
Chapter XIII, JEALOUSY

Part 5
Chapter XIV, PROHIBITION RUM
Chapter XV, ENTER THE UNPLEASANT CARLOS
Chapter XVI, THE TRAIL OF THE APE
Chapter XVII, ABDUCTION

Part 6
Chapter XVIII, JOYCE
Chapter XIX, THE CHIEF COMMANDS
Chapter XX, THE STRANGLING HANDS
Chapter XXI, IT BECOMES NECESSARY TO DEFY THE CHIEF
Chapter XXII, THE GOLD-KILLER AGAIN KILLS

Part 7
Chapter XXIII, THE PURSUER PURSUED
Chapter XXIV, AM I THE GOLD-KILLER?
Chapter XXV, THE CRYSTAL FLASK
Chapter XXVI, SURMISES AND CLUES

Part 8
Chapter XXVII, A GRIM BET
Chapter XXVIII, NOSE-DIVE!
Chapter XXIX, SOLUTION AND COMPROMISE

I'll add a pointer (link) to this post at bottom of the first post just after "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Just post in this thread."

[ToddHW]

May I read Bobby Merritt?

Thanks, Todd