Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills [Paperback]

Jr. Martin Grams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

This 460 page book was published in 1998 and documents the entire history of the radio and television series SUSPENSE, broadcast over CBS from 1942 to 1962. Best remembered as the king of radio thrillers, bringing guest stars from both Broadway and Hollywood to star in roles never before heard of. Frank Sinatra was a psychopath in one episode, Lucille Ball danced with a murderer, Ronald Reagan was framed for murder and Dick Beals shrunk microscopic. This book features a history of the program, an episode guide with titles, airdates, casts, plots (even to the "lost" episodes), and complete documentation with photos of the SUSPENSE movies, mystery magazines and comic books.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Martin Grams, Jr., an ambitious young man from Pennsylvania, has just completed the most definitive book on the Suspense radio series that will ever probably need to be done. His book corrects all of the numerous mistakes made in previous attempts to document the series. -- Old Time Radio Digest, July/August 1997

From the Publisher

This was Mr. Grams' first book, written just after he graduated from High School. Since this publication, he has authored or co-authored eleven other books including "Gang Busters: The Crime Fighters of American Broadcasting," "The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion," "Inner Sanctum Mysteries: Behind the Creaking Door," "The Sound of Detection: Ellery Queen's Adventures in Radio" and many others - all available on Amazon.com.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 460 pages
• Publisher: Morris Pub; 1 edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575026759
• ISBN-13: 978-1575026756
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,052,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Superb Research, Poor Writing, July 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills (Paperback)

This is definitely a must-have for fans of the old "Suspense" radio series--in terms of raw information, it is absolutely definitive. But it really must also be said that this self-published book is so poorly written as to be difficult to read. Sentence fragments and comma splices abound ("Sad to say, 'Suspense' never made it to the airwaves in the fall, it was shelved for the next two years"). Awkwardness is everywhere: "There was no viewing audience since the show was broadcast from a small sound studio, plus the popularity of the program had not reached its peak." The author uses "its" and "it's" interchangably, and often incorrectly ("The show had lost much of it's prestige"). Incredibly, the word "Suspense" is even misspelled in the cover illustration.

"'Suspense': Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills" is essential as a research guide, and highly recommended as such. But anyone hoping for an enjoyable read should tread carefully here. Mr. Grams clearly needed a copy editor.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hire an editor!, September 26, 2004

By 

Anonymous (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills (Paperback)

This review has two parts.

1. The information about each episode is invaluable.
2. The writing, proofreading, and editing are so poor this book is physically painful to read. It also has no index.

If all you want is a list of episodes with information about broadcast dates and casts, do a Google search for the various radio logs available for free on the web. If you want other information about the show wait for the second edition of this book. While waiting, hope and pray that it is edited by somebody who can write proper English. Otherwise, u wil hav truble reeding the furst edition becuz it is writtun bad.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good info, horrible writing, December 6, 2003

By 

Thomas Mcdonald "McDuck" (NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills (Paperback)

First, this is an essential book for Suspense fans, with as much info as you could ever hope to find on the subject. It is, however, very clearly fan writing. The prose and binding are terrible. The grammar sets the teeth on edge (the misuse of its/it's being particularly annoying), and the structure is stream-of-consciousness free-association, drifting from one subject to the next and back again with nary a hint of transition. Even a labor of love often needs a midwife, and this author needed an editor badly. Hard reading, but full of info you will not find elsewhere. If you know and love Suspense enough to have read this far, then you really should buy it. It already helped me reorder my collection.