For Want of a Nail
Description
A telegram shatters the normality of Armina Saunders' life with Ralph, a seemingly earnest businessman. The message shows his major client, the Audley Company, as nonexistent, and opens the way for a series of murders, conspiracy, and espionage in which Ralph is reluctantly involved.
Stuck in Marsden City, South Carolina, when the plane makes a forced landing, Armina Saunders decides to visit the Audley Company, which her husband has told her is the major purchaser of the sophisticated starter engine he has designed. The company turns out to be a small office manned by a lone secretary. Her husband finds this hard to believe, but Armina insists on an explanation, especially when she learns that the taxi driver who took her to the Audley address has been murdered.
A telegram destroys the quiet life that Armina Saunders shares with Ralph, who appears to be an honest businessman. The message reveals that his biggest client, the Audley Company, is fake, which leads to multiple killings, secret plots, and spy work that pulls Ralph into danger against his will.
CBS Radio Mystery Theater is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, and later in the early 2000s was repeated by the NPR satellite feed. In New York City it was not aired by the then all-news WCBS but by its originating station, WOR, which produced and announced it as simply Radio Mystery Theater.
Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Updated Jul 16, 2026.
