Private Eye-Lashes: Radio's Lady Detectives

by Jack French

This book examines radio and mystery drama from about 1932 to the genre's final appearance in the late 1950's. While its focus is on women detectives, French provides minute and fascinating details about dozens of mystery programs and includes a comprehensive listing of source material ranging from magazine articles, to dime detective novels, to film noir. Each lady detective appearing under one of eight cleverly conceived categories gets handsome, multi-page treatment. The author traces the chronological appearance of the subject's show, examines the program's history and origins, and details with substantial documentation the manner of the show's presentation and production. He intersperses the text with actual dialogue taken directly from the program scripts.

200 pages, Perfect Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Helen Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect when starting to read this book. As I am an admitted old time radio junkie, I knew it would be interesting, but was not prepared for the level of detailed research. I thought I knew a lot about the female detectives as I have listened to many of them in their radio roles, but had no idea there were so many females who played in shows I have never heard.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book as it gave me so much information on the female stars and the shows they were part of. Despite the wealth of information, it was not a dry, boring read and, in some cases, read almost like a novel.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves old-time radio or is interested in the roles that women played in the golden age of radio.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using the female characters in detective series that were aired or meant to be aired on radio, the author provides brief entertainment bios of several radio actors, both male and female. Some of these characters appeared in dime novels and serializations before becoming radio characters. Thus it is also somewhat literary criticism. While the author alludes to chapter numbers in his text, none of the chapters are numbered. As he relates the history of these radio shows the author reminds us of how much has been lost in the way of historical documentation.