Author: Charles J. Daly

There are a number of subplots going on in this play. The Professor has unearthed a play that he wrote back in his University days. He has read it to his housekeeper while his wife was away at the expensive spa ... she disapproves of the theatre ... and said housekeeper was so fascinated by it that when a travelling dramatic troupe manager lobs into town, the Professor is receptive to the manager's manipulative and unscrupulous offer to put on his play. Meanwhile, one of the Professor's daughters (Angelica) has chanced across a page from Balzac which states "Every bride that lives if she could but know the past and secret life of her husband would renounce him even at the steps of the altar.". Her husband, a real Boy Scout of a man, gets sick and tired of her pestering him to "reveal his sordid past" to her, and substitutes the actual past of his visiting University buddy, so that she'll leave off. His wife is then so enraptured by her vanilla husband's supposed womaniser past that ... - Summary by Son of the Exiles <BR><BR>Cast list:<BR> PROFESSOR JUSTINIAN BABBITT, Professor of ancient history in the Camptown university: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a><br> HARRY DAMASK, his son-in-law: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/5872">realisticspeakers</a><br> JACK MULBERRY, in pusuit of fortune, under the name of Chumley: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13577">Adrian Stephens</a><br> LORD MULBERRY, in pursuit of Jack: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><br> MARCUS BRUTUS SNAP, in pursuit of fame and fortune under various legitimate aliases: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8011">Greg Giordano</a><br> PROWL, usher at the university: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/16205">James R. Hedrick</a><br> MRS. ZANTIPPA BABBITT, Professor of conjugal management in the Professor's household: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10179">Sonia</a><br> NISBE, the youngest "imp" of the household: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13140">Jenn Broda</a><br> ANGELICA DAMASK, the eldest: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13717">Matea Bracic</a><br> SUSAN, the "brassiest": <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7026">Michele Eaton</a><br> MARIA, servant at Damask's: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/15898">Adrienne Prevost</a><br> Stage Directions: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/15829">TR Love</a><br> Editing: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a><br>

Carroll John Daly, enormously popular in his day but has since faded into obscurity, is often credited with penning the first hard-boiled crime story in 1922 and creating the first hard-boiled detective in 1923. The Snarl of the Beast is his popular gumshoe Race Williams' first full-length novel and features Daly's classic P. I. as fast-thinking, hard-nosed smart aleck who finds trouble at every turn and isn't afraid to sling some lead to get himself out of a tough spot. This story begins with Race being tailed and assaulted by a hulking beast of a man, only to be chased by cops when he's mistaken for the murderer of a sergeant he wasn't on the best of terms with. Can Williams track down the beast and stop him before anyone else dies? - Summary by Ben Tucker