New dramatization, Peters' Crocodile on the Sandbank.

Graphic Audio will release in June a new full-cast dramatization of Elizabeth Peters' Crocodile on the Sandbank, the first in her series with 19th-century Egyptologist Amelia Peabody (later Emerson). The intrepid Amelia, armed with her trusty parasol, faces skullduggery on an archaeological dig, including a rampaging mummy.

New audiobk of Elizabeth Linington's first Mendoza novel.

LibriVox has released a new free audiobook of Dell Shannon's Edgar-nominated Case Pending (1960), the first in her Lt. Mendoza series. Shannon was one pseudonym of Elizabeth Linington (1921–88), who was an early female writer of police procedurals; her other pseudonyms included Anne Blaisdell and Lesley Egan. Anthony Boucher wrote in the 24 Jan 1960 New York Times that in Case Pending, "Miss Shannon tells of murder gone mad in the near-slums of Los Angeles, deftly (if almost over-precisely) tying a number of other plots in with her murders" (BR43).

New audiobook: The D'Arblay Mystery by R. Austin Freeman.

A new free audiobook from Librivox is The D'Arblay Mystery by inverted mystery pioneer and physician R. Austin Freeman. First published in 1926, the novel features forensic expert Dr. John Thorndyke looking into the death of a sculptor that appears to be suicide. A reviewer in the 26 Sept. 1926 New York Times praised its "exciting climax." The 13 Oct. 1926 Punch reviewer deemed it "engrossing enough, but it is also a little intricate." H. C. Harwood in the 4 Sept. 1926 Outlook declared, "'The D'Arblay Mystery' is the best detective story I have struck of late; so elaborate, so logical, so persuasive."

Illustration from R. Austin Freeman's
"The Blue Sequin," June 1910 McClure's Magazine

New mystery audiobooks from Librivox.

Librivox, which marshals volunteer readers to produce free audiobooks of works in the public domain, has some new mystery-related offerings:

• A Modern Mephistopheles by Louisa May Alcott
  (an Alcott "blood and thunder" tale)
• The Tower Treasure by Frankin W. Dixon (the Hardy Boys debut)
  
• The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Moon Rock by Arthur J. Rees (man with an aristocratic title claim is murdered)
  
• The Unholy Three by Tod Robbins (carnival performers become criminals)
  
• Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter's brother is accused of murder)
  
• Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter looks into a potential murder)
  
• The Fellowship of the Frog by Edgar Wallace (cop and prosecutor chase a dastardly secret society)

Want to volunteer as a reader? Visit this webpage. 

British Library Fellow on the first audiobooks.

Matt Rubery, an Edison Fellow at the British Library, provides an interesting account of the first audiobooks in the United States (1934) and Britain (1935). One of the earliest British audiobooks? Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Brilliance, Hachette end audiobook cassettes.

Within the Library Journal coverage of the 2008 ALA Conference was Raya Kuzyk's report that both Brilliance and Hachette are ending the cassette format for their audiobooks.

According to 2007 statistics from the Audio Publishers Association, 77 percent of audiobook sales were on CD, 7 percent on cassette, 1 percent via MP3, and 14 percent via download.

Speaking as the owner of a car with a cassette player (no, not an 8-track; my car is not that old), I had thought my audiobook choices were becoming more limited.

About the photo: Fred & Friends' retro-cassette totebag