S5E6 Scorching the Back Seat

Published: March 17, 2023, 5:30 p.m.

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Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. Some episodes are original stories, others will be classics that helped shape the mystery genre we know today. All are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes (unless it\'s really bad)

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This is Season 5, Move It or Lose It. This season contains original stories paying homage to the vehicles that propel mysteries forward. A train was the setting for Agatha Christie\\u2019s famed Murder on the Orient Express. A river boat then took center stage on Death on the Nile. Cars have been prominently featured in American crime stories with the glory of the get-a-way vehicle. Then there are the heists from carriages to trains to armored trucks.

For Episode 6, 1960s era Volkswagen is the featured vehicle. This is Scorching the Back Seat by Craig Faustus Buck

ABOUT Craig Faustus Buck

Craig Faustus Buck has been a journalist, a nonfiction book author, and a TV writer-producer. He currently writes short stories, crime novels, and feature films. His noir novel Go Down Hard and his short stories have been nominated for or won multiple awards. Of his six nonfiction books, two were #1 New York Times bestsellers--one pop-psychology the other pop-gynecology. His short film Overnight Sensation, was nominated for an Academy Award. He was one of the writers on V: The Final Battle, the most watched science fiction event in television history, and wrote the famous episode where The Incredible Hulk dropped acid. Based in Los Angeles, he is an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Writers Guild of America, International Thriller Writers, and Barbecue Brethren.

http://www.craigfaustusbuck.com/

DELIBERATION

Craig Faustus Buck has given us a Cold War enigma to solve for our friend Slate. Here are the characters he\\u2019s met since his eyes have been open, in the order of appearance:

\\u2022\\tDr. Hermann, the attending physician who pegged Slate as an American

\\u2022\\tLeutnant Fleischer, the red-headed investigator from the People\\u2019s Police who suspects Slate is more than just unlucky

\\u2022\\tDr. Kohl, the psychiatrist whose job it is to make sure Slate\\u2019s mind is as healed as his body

\\u2022\\tRommy, an American from a Southern state who claims that Slate knew him previously as a drug dealing associate, though this strikes Slate as unlikely

\\u2022\\tCharlene, another American who has trouble keeping her shirts buttoned

\\u2022\\tAlex, a bartender at the DK who busted Slate and Charlene in a private moment

Here is what we know about what happened to Slate:

\\u2022\\tHe was shot in the head at close range. The Stasi found him and took him to the hospital, where he woke up without a memory, his wallet or his identification papers.

\\u2022\\tSlate\\u2019s body shows evidence of other injuries, including knife wounds. None are reported as being new.

\\u2022\\tSlate speaks German but defaults to English. His accent is American, with no specification of a region.

\\u2022\\tRommy finds out that Slate is in the hospital and goes to meet him. He does not share how he learned Slate was in a East German hospital.

\\u2022...'