Malcolm Pryce

The spoof hardboiled thrillers with Wales's top private investigator dramatised by BBC Radio This marvelous collection of Malcolm Pryce's acclaimed Aberystwyth Noir radio productions are set in an alternative version of Aberystwyth where the streets are filled with veterans of the Patagonian War (Wales's answer to Vietnam) the Druids are mob bosses and the ice cream is... unusual to say the least.

The first play Aberystwyth Mon Amour sees Louie Knight the town's top private investigator - maybe its only private investigator - in search of the schoolboys who have been vanishing with increasing frequency. To do it he'll need all his wits about him - and the guts to stake out a Punch and Judy show no matter the consequences...

In Last Tango in Aberystwyth Louise Knight and sidekick Calamity Jane are drawn into the seedy world of the town's 'What the Butler Saw' film industry complete with dead ventriloquists and Druid assassins. But when Louie receives a call from his long lost love and gets news of an old enemy what will he risk in the name of revenge?

In the final play Aberystwyth Noir - It Ain't Over Till The Bearded Lady Sings Louie and Jane look into the death of Mr Big Top another gunned-down victim of the Druids. It feels like trouble from the start but that doesn't mean Louie will stop; in fact he's half-way to the End of the Pier show before anyone knows he's even on the case. Between the balloon twister the bearded lady and the Amazing Mr Marmalade will Louie discover what's really going on? Or will his nemesis former games teacher turned lion tamer Herod Jenkins mean Louie's end once and for all? Featuring Richard Nicholls (News from Nowhere Burning Both Ends) Sara Lloyd-Gregory (Tourist Trap Doctors) and Matthew Gravelle (Broadchurch Silent Witness) these surreal and hilarious noir thrillers will have you questioning everything you know about the beloved Welsh coastal town - and what you'd do to uncover the truth in a topsy-turvy world...

Schoolboys are disappearing all over Aberystwyth and nobody knows why. Louie Knight, the town's private investigator, tries to find out what is happening. Is Lovespoon, the Welsh teacher, Grand Wizard of the Druids and controller of the town, more than just a sinister bully. And just who was Gwenno Guevara?

Jack Wenlock is the last of the Railway Goslings: that fabled cadre of railway detectives created at the Weeping Cross Railway Servants' Orphanage, who trod the corridors of the GWR trains in the years 1925 to 1947. Jack finds himself investigating a case that begins with an abducted great aunt, but soon develops into something far darker and more dangerous.

The perfect quirky nostalgic crime read - a tale of steam trains, giant squid, missing screenplays, missing mothers and a quest for the truth, from the inimitable Malcolm Pryce It's the winter of 1948. The four great railway companies have just been nationalised and Jack Wenlock - the last of a fabled cadre of railway detectives - is thrown out onto the street. Penniless, with new bride Jenny to support, and hiding from a murderous organisation called Room 42, Jack's prospects look bleak. But then a letter arrives from a mysterious Cornish Countess revealing that Jack's mother - long believed to be dead - may have survived a shipwreck off the coast of Java. Seizing the opportunity to track down his only remaining family member, Jack and Jenny board a boat heading East. The trail takes them to a run-down Siamese hotel where a motley assortment of drifters has washed up. Here a spy, an assassin, a deserter, an old soldier and a fading Hollywood movie star all await the arrival of a missing part for a flying boat and a journey that will take them into the realm of myth. But if Jack is ever to see his mother again, he has to stop them...