What happens
Ken Thurston, the Man Called X, rides the Istanbul Express when a young woman is killed in his compartment over a box of custom-made cigarettes. Back in Ankara, Thurston learns the cigarettes were made by the Kupyan family and bear the name of Henry Evers, an agent believed dead since the war. Thurston and the Kupyan shop become the focus of a hunt for hidden papers. The story is drawn from the first part of the episode of The Man Called X, broadcast on NBC on October 13, 1950, starring Herbert Marshall.
Istanbul Express train and Istanbul, Turkey, around the late 1940s
Characters: Ken Thurston, Chief, Pagan, Miss Brooks, Mr. Lebedieff, Marilyn Kupyan, Colonel Mengas, Henry Evers
Listen for: The box of custom-made cigarettes and the name Henry Evers printed on them
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.