The Black Star: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Black Star, credited to Johnston McCulley, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Black Star by Johnston McCulley. Read by Roger Melin. The Black Star was a master criminal who took great care to never be identifiable, always wore a mask so nobody knew what he looked like, rarely spoke to keep his voice from being recognized, and the only mark left at the scenes of the crimes which he and his gang committed were small black stars which were tacked as a sign of their presence, and an occasional sarcastic note to signify his presence and responsibility. Even those who worked for him knew nothing of him, all of which were making his crimes virtually unsolvable. The police were at a complete loss as to his identity and at a method of stopping his criminal activities. He seemed to have the perfect strategic setup and all advantages were in his favor. He even somehow knew where the wealthy kept their jewels and money, and knew when they would remove valuable items from their safes and deposit boxes. Thus Roger Verbeck decided to take on the case of the Black Star using his own methodology. The Black Star will keep you guessing from beginning to end, just as he kept the police and Verbeck guessing. Johnston McCulley was a prolific writer in the pulp fiction vein, and his Zorro series would become immensely popular. However, prior to Zorro, the Black Star was among his first repeating characters which kept readers of the day in continual suspense until his next appearance. McCulley also wrote mysteries and detective stories using various pseudonyms, including Harrison Strong. (Introduction by Roger Melin)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Black Star
• Author credits: Johnston McCulley
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 36
• Listed recording duration: 8:06:44

Catalogue topics

• adventure
• fiction
• mystery

Opening tracks: first 24 of 36

1. 01 - An Aided Escape — 19:15
2. 02 - The Black Star — 10:48
3. 03 - Into the Pit — 22:06
4. 04 - Rogue For a Day — 15:48
5. 05 - Muggs on Guard — 10:37
6. 06 - An Unprofitable Afternoon — 11:11
7. 07 - Identical Orders — 10:54
8. 08 - The Police Get a Tip — 13:14
9. 09 - 'Chickens Come Home To Roost' — 19:26
10. 10 - Caught In a Net — 11:08
11. 11 - Close Quarters — 12:39
12. 12 - At the Charity Ball — 15:07
13. 13 - Muggs - Great Little Man — 11:23
14. 14 - Unexpected News — 5:05
15. 15 - The Challenge — 14:40
16. 16 - A Nocturnal Visit — 17:21
17. 17 - Interrupted Conversation — 12:05
18. 18 - Mysteries — 18:15
19. 19 - Suspicion — 20:47
20. 20 - The Voice on the Wire — 17:05
21. 21 - The End of the Wire — 15:40
22. 22 - On the Scent — 9:55
23. 23 - Into the Vault — 8:00
24. 24 - How It Ended — 13:31

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.