Suspense 550913 615 A Story Of Poison (128 44) 23666 24m54s

# A Story of Poison

As the opening theme swells into that unmistakable, heart-stopping cascade of notes, listeners are pulled into a shadowy world where trust becomes a weapon and the familiar becomes sinister. In "A Story of Poison," a seemingly ordinary domestic situation curdles into something far more sinister—where whispered conversations in dimly lit rooms carry the weight of mortal consequence, and a single glass of liquid might conceal the ultimate betrayal. The invisible audience watches helplessly as characters navigate a web of suspicion, desperation, and the cold calculation of someone willing to cross an irreversible line. With only their imaginations to fill in the menacing details, listeners of this September 1940s broadcast experienced the particular terror that only radio could deliver: the knowledge that danger lurks not in shadows we can see, but in the spaces between words, in the pregnant pauses, in the clink of a glass that might be someone's last drink.

*Suspense* became CBS's crown jewel of terror precisely because it understood this principle. Premiering in 1942 and running for two decades, the show pioneered the art of psychological horror for the mass audience, eschewing monsters and mayhem for the more sophisticated terror of ordinary people facing extraordinary moral quandaries. Each week brought a different scenario—murder plots, blackmail schemes, impossible choices—performed by Hollywood's finest talent and crafted by some of radio's most ingenious writers. The show's genius lay in what it *didn't* show, trusting the listener's mind to conjure horrors far more vivid than any sound effect could capture.

Don't miss your appointment with *Suspense*. Settle into your chair, dim the lights, and let your imagination do the heavy lifting. "A Story of Poison" awaits—a masterclass in how one wrong decision can unravel everything.