Nick Santa Maria has narrated 13 audiobooks on Listento.it by 10 authors. The most-rated is Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77.
The Spider
Summary
Up from the Devil's Coast swarmed a hooded horde, rioting to lay America under The Cobra's bondage. A frenzied, living Pharaoh raked Manhattan with madness and murder. Against a baffling human wall that dies but never betrays its menacing master, Richard Wentworth - feared Spider of the underworld - faces his fate alone. The most compelling of the classic pulp heroes, Richard Wentworth had a fiancé, a coterie of equally committed aides, and a tense relationship with New York Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick, Wentworth's best friend, but also a dedicated lawman sworn to send the Spider to the electric chair - no matter who he turns out to be. These riveting stories ran the gamut of incendiary thrillers to ultra-violent showdowns between an obsessed superhero and his depraved arch-foes. Manhattan is the backdrop for Wentworth's apocalyptic adventures. A new skyline has arisen over the penthouses, nightclubs, breadlines, and ghettos of the Big Apple. With the repeal of Prohibition, wealthy gangsters are in search for new rackets. And standing ready to keep them in check, the dreaded Spider. The stories plunge along head-first aboard an emotional roller-coaster, with scarcely a moment's pause for respite. Oriental death-traps, treacherously alluring women, and rabid, machine-gun toting gangsters are all part of a typical day for the hero; Wentworth is frequently suspected of being the dreaded Spider, his home is periodically destroyed, his servants and friends tortured. Everything Richard Wentworth holds dear is constantly at risk, yet he fights on as The Spider. Nick Santa Maria once again brings the Spider to life in "Reign of the Snake Men." Originally published in The Spider magazine, December, 1936.
©2012 Popular Publications (P)2017 RadioArchives.com
The Domino Lady
Summary
Back in 1936, an obscure New Orleans pulp writer named Lars Anderson created a remarkable character for an even more obscure girlie magazine, Saucy Romantic Adventures. She is the slinky sleuth celebrated today as one of the rare pioneering pulp heroines of the Great Depression, the Domino Lady! Clad in a shimmering evening gown, a black domino mask offsetting her golden blonde hair, daring socialite Ellen Patrick takes the trail to crime, motivated by the murder of her father, District Attorney Owen Patrick. Since the Hollywood beauty suspects that a powerful state political machine was responsible for her father's assassination, she targets high-society crime exclusively, hoping to bag a big shot. In the tradition of pulp heroes of that era, she left behind her calling card, which read Compliments of the Domino Lady. That famous masked protector of Old California, Zorro, would have recognized her M. O. instantly. Ellen packed an automatic, a hypodermic loaded with knockout serum, and her feminine wiles as she plunges into the social webs of extortion and murder, often teaming up with up-and-coming private investigator Roge McKane, more frequently tangling with suave big-game hunter turned blackmailer, Rob Wyatt, who is her recurring Nemesis. Or is it the other way around? The self-described "young avenger" appeared in every issue of Saucy Romantic Adventures until it folded with the October, 1936 issue, popping up in Hollywood, San Francisco, and on the high seas, in her pursuit of swift justice. A month later, glorified by a stunning Norman Saunders cover, she made her final bow in "The Domino Lady Double," for the November, 1936 Mystery Adventure Magazine, where she matches wits with an equally gorgeous impostor. The Domino Lady faded from the pulp scene, but was not forgotten. Fondly remembered by fans of the genre, she has been revived in new stories for a new century. And how she appears in her first audiobook.
©1936 Fiction Magazines (P)2014 RadioArchives.com
The Spider
Summary
Deep-hidden in evil, Satan's Suicide Club sat in council - and men died. What dreadful force drove these men, leaders of society with everything to live for, to end their lives at the behest of that sinister being who sardonically called himself Professor Mephisto? And why did men and women suffer the tortures of the damned, rather than defy this mysterious being? Richard Wentworth once more assumes the cloak of the Spider to free these lost ones from a living hell and a disgraceful death - and steps into the jaws of a devil's trap that casts his life among the lives in pawn! In a letter to a Spider fan, Author Norvell W. Page once wrote, "Think of me as Wentworth, if you will. The line between us is not too distinct." A transplanted Virginian, Norvell. W. Page took Spider readers on a roller-coaster ride of wild action and fevered emotion, unlike anything ever published. Once he got going, he painted a portrait of a tortured superhero, one more emblematic of the 21st century than of the Great Depression. For Richard Wentworth saw himself as a man on a holy mission, a self-appointed messiah with a martyr complex. Norvell W. Page's mark on The Spider as a messiah-like figure would remain, even in his absence. While other authors, such as Emile C. Tepperman, thrust Wentworth into adventure after adventure. Although each writer brought his own style to the tales, all had to work with the madness and panicked-pacing Page had infused into the character for all time. Nick Santa Maria again takes on the dual role of Richard Wentworth, aka the Spider, Master of Men, for this powerful story, Devil's Pawnbroker. Originally published in The Spider magazine, May, 1937.
©2012 Popular Publications (P)2017 RadioArchives.com
Spider #25, October 1935 (The Spider)
Summary
The Spider - who was really Richard Wentworth, a true American aristocrat - had fought a hundred battles and faced a thousand foes…. But never before had a more brilliant criminal genius challenged him. For the Boss, employing a horrible new weapon, ruled the Underworld with an iron hand, slaughtering, maddening, and loosing maniacs to ravage the nation! Nick Santa Maria takes on the dual persona of Richard Wentworth and his arachnid alter ego for this nail-biting audio rendition of Overlord of the Damned, originally published in The Spider magazine, October 1935. Chapter 1: The Faceless Death Chapter 2: A New Terror Chapter 3: "Compliments of the Boss" Chapter 4: A Secret Revealed Chapter 5: Kirkpatrick's Trail Chapter 6: To Kill a Friend! Chapter 7: Battle of the Brewery Chapter 8: Blow on Blow Chapter 9: Meet the Boss Chapter 10: Death in Albany Chapter 11: The Spider Calls Chapter 12: The Boss' Promise Chapter 13: Disaster Chapter 14: The Catapult
©1935, 1963 Popular Publications (P)2016 RadioArchives.com
G-8 and His Battle Aces, #18 March 1935
Summary
Will Murray's Pulp Classics G-8 and His Battle Aces eBook#18 March 1935 Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully narrated for easy listening as an audiobook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. As a special bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of audiobooks. G-8 and his Battle Aces rode the nostalgia boom ten years after World War I ended. These high-flying exploits were tall tales of a World War that might have been, featuring monster bats, German zombies, wolf-men, harpies, Martians, and even tentacled floating monsters. Most of these monstrosities were the work of Germany’s seemingly endless supply of mad scientists, chief of whom was G-8’s recurring Nemesis, Herr Doktor Krueger. G-8 battled Germany’s Halloween shock troops for over a decade, not ceasing until the magazine folded in the middle of World War II. G-8 and his Battle Aces return in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
©1935 Popular Publications (P)2013 RadioArchives.com
G-8 and His Battle Aces #13, October 1934
Summary
They called G-8 the Flying Spy. History never recorded his exploits - and for good reason! No one would ever believe World War I was that wild! "Be warned! Each night with the setting of the sun the giant Tarantula Spider will spin his web across the Front. If you send your ships out tonight - he will eat them!" HQ scoffed at this warning. But G-8 saw it carried out, saw four Yank planes devoured by the most ghastly creature that ever stalked the skies. What was this new horror? How could Yank bombers hope to get past its net of death? Among the heroes of the pulps who soared through their adventures, G-8 flew higher and farther than any of his contemporaries. His true name unknown, the Flying Spy was no mere flyboy, but the champion ace of World War I. It was the summer of 1933, and despite the Great Depression, Popular Publications was booming. Part of their autumn expansion plans entailed launching the Spider, and a companion title to be aimed at the legions of readers who drank up fictionalized accounts of World War I Allied aces versus Imperial Germany's various bi-winged counts and barons, red and otherwise. One of Popular's star writers, Hogan was doubtless the first writer publisher Harry Steeger considered when casting about for a suitable scribe. The unnamed magazine was on the schedule as a monthly. Hogan had been an air cadet during World War I, although the armistice came before he could ship out and see action. Steeger and Hogan hashed out an idea. It was part Eddie Rickenbacker and What Price Glory? which was a popular Maxwell Anderson stage play turned into a motion picture. Price stressed the horrors of war as counterpoint to the sentimental comradeship of the Allies in the trenches. Nick Santa Maria brings G-8 and His Battle Aces to vivid life in this exciting audiobook. Nick DeGregorio composed the music for the G-8 and His Battle Aces series of audiobooks.
©1934,1962 Popular Publications (P)2015 RadioArchives.com
Necroscope: The Plague-Bearer
Summary
Harry Keogh is moving on. Though the search for his missing wife and child continues, his heart now lies in Edinburgh with Bonnie Jean - a beautiful Scottish werewolf whose friendly pack and flourishing pub have given him a place he can almost call home. But from the rocky heights of Sicily, the diabolical Francezci brothers plot the wolf-pack's destruction; and down in the terrible Pit beneath Le Manse Madonie, an ancient evil schemes. The vampires conspire. They reach a decision. They choose a vector. Mafia thug Mike Milazzo is no good to anyone, anytime, anywhere…which makes him perfect. Disposable. The brothers infect him with a deadly poison - an engineered plague that even a werewolf could never survive - and they offer him a terrible bargain: successfully contaminate the wolf-pack, and receive the antidote. Fail, and die! Mike has everything to lose. So does Harry Keogh. But the Necroscope lost everything once before, and he isn't about to do it again....
©2010 Brian Lumley (P)2014 RadioArchives.com
A Necessary End
Summary
This is the way the world ends; not with a bang, but with a whisper - a whisper of wings! Death has come out of Africa in the form of swarms of vicious African flies. A living plague, these monstrous bugs cannot be battled like some ordinary disease. Medical science is unable to prevent the deadly autoimmune reaction caused by the bite of these insects. Across the world, billions are dead and more are constantly dying. Governments are falling everywhere, and civilization is collapsing. The flies are everywhere and everywhere they swarm, they bring death. A few claim that the bugs are a freak mutation, while others believe that they are a man-made plague. Still, as all hope disappears, mankind ceases to care. The fatal flies are a plague sent by God, or so many of those dying claim. However, not everyone is dying. A small number of people seem immune. They name themselves Mungus and they teach that man should accept the judgment of the flies, allowing themselves to be bitten by the "flies of the Lord". Into the land of the dead and dying comes Nigel, an investigative reporter, searching for a kidnapped African boy named Bandora. Nigel, who is married to Abby, seeks redemption in a world where there is no such thing as forgiveness. On a quest for the truth, his journey takes him down a long road of self-discovery into the world of the head Mungu, a strange man who speaks the truth in riddles and is not afraid of the deadly flies. Here is a novel about the end of the world, of the apocalypse; a story about the fragile bonds that hold not only marriages, but also civilizations together. It's also a story about truth and how we treat it. Do we embrace it with our soul or reject it completely. And most of all, it is about how we face truth in ourselves.
©2014 Sarah Pinborough and F. Paul Wilson (P)2014 RadioArchives.com
Necroscope: The Mobius Murders
Summary
A Necroscope as defined by Brian Lumley, the British author of the Necroscope series, is a person with an ESP power that allows him to communicate with the dead. A Necroscope contacts the minds of corpses, which do not perish at death. Communication is two-way and peaceful. Harry Keough is the greatest Necroscope in the world. Harry Keough always considered himself a master of the Mobius Continuum - another dimension existing parallel to all space and time. It served as his personal instantaneous gateway to anywhere in the known universe, past or present. But Harry's knowledge was not unique; two other intelligences, with powers similar to his, existed. One was the long-dead August Ferdinand Mobius himself, the German astronomer, mathematician, and discoverer of the Mobius Strip. Only after death was Mobius able to mentally explore his previously theoretical Continuum. The other was Harry's son, who not only inherited his father's mathematical skill, but also the metaphysical talent by means of which the Necroscope conversed with dead people in their graves. Thus, it was a major shock to Harry, when returning home via the Mobius Continuum from an adventure in Las Vegas, he observed for an instant an unknown human hurtling uncontrolled through the endless coils of the Mobius Continuum. Who was this stranger and how was he rocketing through the darkness of the mind-numbing dimension? More to the point, if he was not someone who entered the dimension on his own, who sent him there? Was this an attempt at murder by Mobius? Harry felt sure that neither his son nor Professor Mobius was responsible for this outrage. Then who was? It was a question that Harry felt he had to answer, even if it meant putting his own life in danger. It's an all-new, stand-alone adventure, set in the incredible world of Harry Keough, the Necroscope.
©2013 Brian Lumley (P)2014 RadioArchives.com
G-8 and His Battle Aces #17, February 1935
Summary
G-8 and his Battle Aces rode the nostalgia boom 10 years after World War I ended. These high-flying exploits were tall tales of a World War that might have been, featuring monster bats, German zombies, wolf-men, harpies, Martians, and even tentacled floating monsters. Most of these monstrosities were the work of Germany's seemingly endless supply of mad scientists, chief of whom was G-8's recurring Nemesis, Herr Doktor Krueger. G-8 battled Germany's Halloween shock troops for over a decade, not ceasing until the magazine folded in the middle of World War II.
©1935, 1963 Popular Publications (P)2016 RadioArchives.com
G-8 and His Battle Aces #33, June 1936
Summary
Will Murray's Pulp Classics #42 G-8 and His Battle Aces #33 Audiobook Patrol of the Cloud Crusher by Robert J. HoganRead by Nick Santa Maria. Liner Notes by Will Murray G-8 and his Battle Aces rode the nostalgia boom ten years after World War I ended. These high-flying exploits were tall tales of a World War that might have been, featuring monster bats, German zombies, wolf-men, harpies, Martians, and even tentacled floating monsters. Most of these monstrosities were the work of Germany’s seemingly endless supply of mad scientists, chief of whom was G-8’s recurring Nemesis, Herr Doktor Krueger. G-8 battled Germany’s Halloween shock troops for over a decade, not ceasing until the magazine folded in the middle of World War II. G-8 and his Battle Aces return in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
©1936, 1964 Popular Publications, Inc. Assigned to Argosy Communications, Inc. Popular Publications (P)2014 RadioArchives.com
The Proteus Cure
Summary
In medical ethics, the line between right and wrong is often blurred. Who is to decide what is for the good of humanity? Changing the world. One person at a time... That is the mission statement of Tethys Hospital, run by Dr. Bill Gilchrist and his deformed sister, Abra. VG723, their revolutionary stem-cell-based therapy, appears to be capable of doing just that for the cancer patients who come to Tethys. VG723 is often their last hope. But if they match the protocol, they're virtually guaranteed a cure. Dr. Sheila Takamura, a young, dedicated oncologist, is proud to be involved in the clinical trials. Once the FDA approves it for widespread use, VG723 will revolutionize cancer therapy. That is why she's alarmed when former patients return with bizarre syndromes. Yes, they're cancer free, but they're experiencing dramatic changes in their hair and skin and general appearance. When she investigates a possible link to the protocol, those patients start dying. As the body count grows, Sheila finds her own life in danger. She comes to suspect there might be a literal meaning behind the Tethys motto - but can she learn the truth in time to save herself and millions of others?
©2013 F. Paul Wilson and Tracy L. Carbone (P)2015 RadioArchives.com
Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77
Summary
Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77 Audiobook Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy was one of the first and most memorable of the adventure radio serials. Running from 1933 to 1951, it featured the resourceful high school student on a dizzying collection of adventures that spanned the globe. He often accompanied Colonel Jim Fairfield, an aviation industrialist, and Fairfield's brave niece and nephew Betty and Billy on their travels. Backing them up was two-fisted Vic Hardy, a brilliant scientist and sleuth. Now, for the first time, one of the Jack Armstrong serials has been novelized and is now available from Radio Archives as a 12-hour audiobook. Noted author Jeff Deischer adapts Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77 from the 1946 James Jewell production - a serial for which none of the original recordings exist. Jeff is known for his strong narrative, which gives this story an authentic flavor. In the post-war world, danger is not always so easy to see. But Jack Armstrong identifies it in the form of Dr. Romago, a unscrupulous scientist who abandoned his native United States before the war. After being mysteriously missing for several years, Romago has returned - and he is after the secret of U-77. What is U-77, and why does Dr. Romago seek it? Jack can only guess. But he does know that if Romago wants it, he can't be permitted to have it. Accompanied by his loyal friends, Uncle Jim, Betty and Billy Fairfield, Jack and Vic Hardy head down to the Sea Islands off the Southern Atlantic coast, where Romago has been driving away the local fishermen through his underling, Pachino the Eel, a gangster who has crossed paths with scientist Vic Hardy before. Aboard his schooner, The Gray Ghost, Romago squats, a fat spider pulling on the strands of his web like the strings of a puppet, manipulating the fishermen of Thunderbolt, Georgia, his own henchmen - and even Jack Armstrong! Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77 takes Jack and his friends from New York City to the coast of Georgia down to the bottom of the ocean in this exciting 12 hour long saga. Douglas Klauba has painted a gorgeous wraparound cover for this special audiobook. Nick Santa Maria took a break from being the Spider to do the voice acting for Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77.
©2013 RadioArchives.com (P)2013 RadioArchives.com