S21 Ep26: The Viper: A Fast Paced Thriller of Family Bonds and Deadly Conspiracies w/Brad Meltzer
Darkness Radio
Darkness Radio
4.7 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 127 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
True Crime Tuesday presents The Viper: A Fast Paced Thriller of Family Bonds and Deadly Conspiracies w/Researtcher/Writer/TV Host/Author, Brad Meltzer!Â
Andrew Fechmeier is a master at hiding. He'd better be—he’s spent decades concealing a secret that could get him killed. So when he’s diagnosed with a terminal disease, he heads for the local funeral home carrying the blue suit he eventually wants to be buried in. But what no one knows is that Fechmeier secretly tucked something inside, turning the suit into a final, untraceable hiding spot.
It's a perfect plan. Until Fetch is brutally murdered by a mysterious killer who will stop at nothing to find the priceless object hidden in the suit.
Wasting no time, the cunning but unconventional Roddy LaPointe opens an investigation into Fetch’s murder, recruiting help from his friend, the brilliant “Zig” Zigarowski. But it doesn’t take long for Zig to discover the real reason Roddy cares so much about this case: Fetch’s death is tied to Roddy’s mother, who was murdered decades earlier.
As the relentless killer closes in, Roddy’s twin sister—the enigmatic and volatile Nola Brown—starts investigating for herself, uncovering a sinister plot that reveals their mother’s dark history, the true identity of her killer, and the shocking secret behind her death.
Don’t turn your back on The Viper.
On today's TCT, we talk to Brad Meltzer about this Third book in the Escape Artist series, the richness of his writing and how he constructs his novels versus other media that he tackles. We also tak about his "I Am" children's book series including the newly released "I Am Princess Diana" book with Chris Eliopoulos! We also tackle Decoded, Lost History, and the new Superman vs. Spider-Man comic that Brad has been tapped to write by Marvel!
Get your copy of "The Viper" here:Â https://bit.ly/3MZyZ1h
Check out Brad's Official YouTube channel:Â https://www.youtube.com/@meltzervideos/videos
Learn more about Brad at his official website:Â https://bradmeltzer.com/Discover.html
PLUS: AN ALL-NEW DUMB CRIMES/STUPID CRIMINALS W/JESSICA FREEBURG!
Check out Jessica Freeburg's website and get tickets to her events here:Â https://jessicafreeburg.com/upcoming-events/
and check out Jess on Tik Tok:Â https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicafreeburgwrites
For the first time, get ALL NEW TRUE CRIME TUESDAY GEAR! Represent your favorite true crime podcast in style! There are new and different (and really cool) items all the time in the Darkness Radio Online store at our website! . check out the Darkness Radio Store!  https://www.darknessradioshow.com/store/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome into the best in True Crime Podcasting. |
| 0:25.9 | This is True Crime Tuesday. |
| 0:26.9 | I'm your host, Tim Dennis. |
| 0:27.9 | I'm excited about today's show, folks. |
| 0:30.4 | I'm going to tell you, I have a bucket list of guests that I'm managing to one by one fulfill in my old age, and today is one of them, and I'm excited. |
| 0:40.3 | The Viper is the name of the book that, one of the books that we're going to cover today. |
| 0:44.3 | I am Princess Diana is the other one. |
| 0:47.3 | And Brad Meltzer is my guest today. |
| 0:49.3 | And I'll tell you, I don't have my dog-eared copy of it around here somewhere, |
| 0:53.3 | but a long time ago in a galaxy |
| 0:55.2 | far, far away, and I still am a comic book fan, the series identity crisis hooked me. |
| 1:01.5 | And I've been hooked ever since on our guest today, Brad Meltzer. |
| 1:05.9 | Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated number one New York Times best-selling author of the Lightning |
| 1:10.6 | Rod and 12 other |
| 1:11.6 | bestselling thrillers. He also writes nonfiction books like the JFK conspiracy and the |
| 1:17.1 | ordinary people change. And ordinary people change the world children's book series. We're |
| 1:22.0 | going to again talk about I am Princess Diana later today. Brad's also the host of again, |
| 1:27.2 | one of my all-time favorite shows. |
| 1:29.2 | Brad Meltzer's Decoded. |
| 1:30.8 | We may talk about that today as well on the history channel |
| 1:33.5 | and is responsible for helping find the missing 9-11 flag |
| 1:37.5 | with his show Brad Meltzer's Lost History. |
... |
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