A young actress making her London debut in the west end becomes an overnight star after earning rave reviews on the opening night, even though she only plays a supporting role in the piece. But a few days later, her name is in the newspapers again for a very different reason. Inquiry agent Mr. Carlyle and his friend Max Carrados investigate...

Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me:

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00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:20 The Story begins
01:09:15 Credits, thanks and further listening

If you'd like to hear more stories featuring Max Carrados, I have a playlist in development, available here:    • Max Carrados stories by Ernest Bramah  
Or for a selection of other Victorian and Edwardian detective stories, do take a look at the "Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" playlist:
   • Rivals of Sherlock Holmes | Victorian...  

About the author: Ernest Bramah (1868–1942) was born Ernest Bramah Smith, probably in or near Manchester, where he attended grammar school. An intensely private man, very little information is known about his personal life. His early career included a stint as assistant to Jerome K. Jerome; his first success as a writer came as a contributor of humorous sketches somewhat in the manner of Jerome, to newspapers and periodicals, and he later became editor of one of Jerome's magazines. As an author he is best remembered for creating two characters: Kai Lung, a Chinese storyteller who appeared in a number of humorous stories from 1900; and Max Carrados, the blind detective, created in 1913. He also wrote science fiction, and his 1907 novel 'What Might Have Been' (also known as 'The Secret of the League') is a dystopian story which was acknowledged by George Orwell as a major influence on his own 'Nineteen Eighty-four'. Orwell was also a great admirer of the Max Carrados stories, bracketing them with Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Freeman's Dr Thorndyke as "the only detective stories since Poe that are worth re-reading". The character of Carrados appeared in more than 25 short stories and novels between 1913 and 1934, and by the 1920s was more popular than Sherlock Holmes (whose later cases appeared alongside Carrados in The Strand Magazine). His blindness proves no obstacle to his detective skills; indeed his other senses are heightened and he regularly outwits criminals and fellow detectives alike.

Ernest Bramah Smith died in June 1942, aged 74, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. He was survived by his wife Lucy Smith.

‘The Missing Actress Sensation’ first appeared in The News of the World, on 14th December 1913. It was subsequently published in book form in 1923 as part of the second volume of collected Carrados adventures, 'The Eyes of Max Carrados'.

Some textual notes:
Mr. Enniscorthy makes reference to offering a witness a "Bradbury"; Bradburys were the nickname given to special £1 notes issued by the British Treasury at the beginning of World War I in August 1914. The notes were issued as part of the war effort in an attempt to help the Treasury preserve its stock of gold bullion; they were known as "Bradburys" after Sir John Bradbury, the then Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, whose signature appeared on the notes. Intriguingly, this story first appeared in the News of the World in December 1913, some eight months prior to the war and the introduction of Bradburys, which indicates the text of the story was revised by Bramah after the original publication. The text read here is from the 1923 volume 'The Eyes of Max Carrados', the second collection of his adventures published in book form.

There's a passing reference in the story to the Boadicea statue on the Thames Embankment. I've pronounced it as it was spelt in the published text, which was the predominant pronunciation at the time of the story, although it's now generally acknowledged that this spelling and pronunciation are incorrect due to a misreading of old manuscripts, and the name is now more commonly known (and pronounced) as Boudicca.

Recording © Bitesized Audio 2023