30 Discs Hath November #17: The Mystery of Karmina Sonata

Dark Shadows: The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries 1.4:

The Mystery of Karmina Sonata

written by Aaron Lamont

Why did I think listening to a mystery box set would be a good idea for a daily review project? Why did I do this to myself? Especially as, being a box set, the fourth one was always going to not only be a minefield of spoilers for itself but for at least one of the episodes before it.

So, anyway, like Sherlock it took this series a strangely long time for a client to actually turn up at the main characters' place of work to hire them and explain the situation. In this case it is celebrity medium Karmina Sonata, who Cassandra not only pegs as a fraud straight off and Karmina admits it. She's a conwoman who gets money out of the rich and desperate (or the rich and bored) by putting on a show. Again, its nice to have a supernatural series with a place for skepticism.

Anyway, Karmina the fraud found herself actually possessed by a spirit during a recent séance and now her clients are being picked off, murdered in spectacularly symbolic ways.

What follows is a pretty standard detective set up with Tony talking to Karmina, Cassandra researching the supernatural side of the case and secretary Rita researching Karmina. Tony and Cassandra also do a tour of the crime scenes and homes of the survivors in order to get some idea of why they're being targeted outside of simply being at the séance.

The answer, of course, refers back to the solution of a previous adventure that I wouldn't spoil then and won't spoil now.

So, what else to say? Tony and Cassandra are as fun to listen to as ever as they bicker their way through the case, though the conclusion pushes them as close to emotional honesty with each other as they've ever been. I do wonder what will happen to them once we get to that point when they're properly, honestly able to admit their evident feelings to each other. On the one hand, it will be a very cathartic moment but on the other their past relationship is so unhealthy, so linked to trauma for both of them that I wonder if it can be addressed healthily.

Whatever else, they're a fun enough ride that I'm in no hurry to have them get together which is probably for the best. 

30 Discs Hath November #16: The Mystery of Flight 493

Dark Shadows: The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries 1.3:

The Mystery of Flight 493

written by Alan Flanagan

Tony Peterson should just give up on mass transportation, shouldn't he?

Funnily enough, after making suck a big thing about the inspiration behind the last two episodes, this one strikes me as being pretty much pure Dark Shadows. Again I stress that I've seen basically nothing of the original show and I know the Burton movie is hardly representative but this episode deals with a confined space and a lurking, unseen threat which has been the basis of most of the audios I've heard from this series.

Today's confined and not quite real environment is a domestic flight trapped in a time loop. I'm not usually fond of time loop stories but a recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery convinced me they can be done well so I decided to give it a fair hearing. Like the aforementioned Discoery episode, The Mystery of Flight 493 dispenses with the total loss of memory when the time loop resets relatively quickly. After all, its something that's obvious to the listener and frustrating to sit through time and time again. Instead, Flanagan uses the repetitions to slowly build an idea of who his one-off characters are and what motives drive them, which is pretty tight writing considering the brief period he has to write each development into and the pre-set events that have to take place around it all.

Not to spoilt the conclusion but the other thing that makes me feel this is the most Dark Shadows-esque episode of the set so far is that the threat, when eventually revealed, is not completely explained or defeated but rather survived. There's always seemed to me a touch of Lovecraft about the Dark Shadows universe and this, perhaps more than any audio I've listened to so far, carries that sense that the uncanny is not only there but impossible to truly fight.

Honestly, of the three stories in the set so far this is my favourite by a long chalk and that's why this is a short one. Time loop stories, by necessity, sacrifice having a lot of plot for their central gimmick and I'm reluctant to discuss the actual important events of the story (which are, naturally, loaded towards the conclusion) for fear of spoiling what I genuinely think is a great little story. 

30 Discs Hath November #15: The Mystery of La Danse Macabre

(As with yesterday, SPOILERS for plot but NO SPOILERS for the mystery's solution.)

Dark Shadows: The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries 1.2:

The Mystery of La Danse Macabre

written by Zara Symes

Yesterday's story was a take on Agatha Christie, this one is riffing on the Scooby Doo format. Tony and Cassandra are brought in to investigate the supposed haunting of a music hall inherited by the friend of a friend of their secretary Rita from her recently deceased father. The friend, Peggy, and her brother have been trying to restore the music hall but they've been getting offers for the land. Peggy wants to rebuild the hall that was her father's obsession, Russ wants to sell the damn place.

Naturally, Tony puts the hauntings and small fires that have been breaking out on Russ in classic Scooby Doo fashion. Cassandra, meanwhile, believes that something more supernatural is going on and keeps sensing “something” as they explore the old music hall. Meanwhile, there's the preserved dressing room of a ballerina who committed suicide on the premises, a perfect candidate for a haunting.

Honestly, its a perfect scenario for Tony and Cassandra's first official case together because it plays to both their strengths. The transparent motive of the brother means that Terry, a man who has seen more than enough supernatural shit, has a reason to be cynical and go for the debunking explanation over trusting the powers he knows full well Cassandra has. Whether or not he's right or the ghost is real I'll leave unsaid but needless to say the resolution revolves around both partners using their unique skill sets at the same time.

The main conflict of the story comes from Tony and Cassandra learning to work together as partners, actual partners instead of the temporary alliances of previous adventures. Of course we come back to the deep trust issues that exist between the two as Tony questions Cassandra's sense of romance given her past manipulating him. Cassandra, meanwhile, has ample reason to question whether Tony actually wants her as a partner or merely an assistant. For his part, Terry ignores her supernatural senses continuously, urging her to think in terms of evidence and motive rather than her instincts.

It does the job that the second story of these four part box sets do: we got the team together in the last story and this one fixes or addresses the lingering issues before we move into the “status quo” story of the third and the blow everything up phase of the fourth. So it should be said I heartily look forward to hearing what the status quo version of this team works. 

30 Discs Hath November #14: The Mystery at Crucifix Heights

[This one's a murder mystery. As far as SPOILERS are concerned, I don't say whodunnit but I do talk about the plot a bunch so if you want to go in totally unspoilt do not read and that goes for the next three days and all]

Dark Shadows: The Tony and Cassandra Mysteries 1.1

The Mystery at Crucifix Heights

written by Philip Meeks

In have no real interest in Dark Shadows. Not a judgement on the show or the fandom, just something I never got in to. However, the audios have a supernatural detective sub-series starring Jerry Lacy as private detective Tony Peterson and Lara Parker as the witch Cassandra Collins. I love supernatural detective fiction and I picked up their adventures cheap in various sales. Now they have their own box set series.

Its clear that Big Finish are expecting to draw in new listeners with the box set as Tony and Cassandra start the first story separated and not talking to one another. In fact, the truth behind why they're not talking to each other is probably more important to the story than the resolution of the murder mystery. Actually, talking of the murder...

This story makes a lot of reference to Agatha Christie, mainly through Tony's secretary Rita who spends much of the story (for complicated reasons) undercover as an English aristocrat whose entire idea of the English aristocracy comes from Christie novels. She even offers sage advice based on the format of Christie mysteries. Its clear that Philip Meeks wants to at least evoke the feel of a Christie mystery but, sadly, the hour format doesn't really give him enough opportunity to flesh out his characters before they die.

One of the important things about Christie is that we usually get to know the victim or victims as well as the suspects pretty well before the murder happens. Given the time limit and the lack of a visual element, an audio like this is at a distinct disadvantage. In fact, at one point the team discuss suspects and mention people who have not actually “appeared” in the story who are obviously not the killer because, from a listener's point of view, they don't exist.

Of course, the meat of the story isn't the murder of participants at an occult auction but the renewal of Tony and Cassandra's partnership. Tony is at the auction working undercover security whilst Cassandra has been engaged by a mysterious third party to bid on a particular item, a large preserved wing of unknown origin. We're introduced to other bidders: a Swedish psychic child; a pompous crypto-zoologist; a missionary sister from some Louisiana convent; and, a soothsayer amongst others.

Then, as they say, the murders begin...

To go back to the Christie thing again. It isn't possible, as it theoretically is in a Christie novel, to work out who did it through logic and considering motive. Its a twist ending because this is Dark Shadows and the author (probably correctly) works out its more interesting to study Terry and Cassandra's relationship through the idea that Tony isn't sure she hasn't been the one killing people on behalf of her client. Its not a bad thought for him to have given their past but its also, obviously from the listener's perspective, not true as we've heard unseen forces messing with Cassandra at various points before this. So we know that Cassandra is innocent and we get to enjoy how she reacts to the serious accusation after a few scenes of more comfortable, friendly bickering with Tony.

Its the relationship that sold this series to me back when it was an occasional divergence in the monthly range and Meeks perfectly captures what made me fall in love with these two characters in the first place.

Let's hope the rest of the box set gives me as much to talk about without needing to discuss whodunnit.