|
Post by severance on Jun 15, 2014 14:41:27 GMT
I'm surprised that Frank Lauria's "Doctor Orient" hasn't been mentioned yet. Lauria's got his own thread on here somewhere, for one of his novelizations I think, but he wrote seven books featuring Dr. Owen Orient - Scientist, Psychiatrist, Psychic Researcher, Telepath Extraordinaire and Master of the Occult. Doctor Orient - Bantam 1970, Corgi 1974, Bantam 1974 Raga Six - Bantam 1972, Corgi 1974 Lady Sativa - Curtis 1973, Ballantine 1979 Baron Orgaz - Bantam 1974, Corgi 1974 The Priestess - Bantam 1978 The Seth Papers - Ballantine 1979 Blue Limbo - Avon 1991 Curt reviewed the whole series at his Groovy Age of Horror blog, and he was more enthusiastic about it than he was about "The Guardians." I've only got the above pictured entry so far, with lovely art by Joseph Lombardero (which reminds me of the cover to Peter Saxon's "Through the Dark Curtain." I'll put that up if I can find it!). According to Curt there is a certain amount of character continuity, so I'll see if I can locate the first couple before diving into the series as a whole.
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 9, 2020 21:01:41 GMT
My copy of Mike Ashley's Fighters of Fear: Occult Detective Stories (Talos Press, 2020) arrived today. The table of contents, from the Talos Press website: Introduction, Mike Ashley Green Tea, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu The Shining Pyramid, Arthur Machen The Haunted Child, Arabella Kenealy The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel, L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace The Story of Yand Manor House, E. & H. Heron The Tapping on the Wainscott, Allan Upward Samaris, Robert W. Chambers The Whistling Room, William Hope Hodgson The Woman with the Crooked Nose, Victor Rousseau The Sorcerer of Arjuzanx, Max Rittenberg The Ivory Statue, Sax Rohmer The Stranger, Claude & Alice Askew The Swaying Vision, Jessie Douglas Kerruish The Sanatorium, F. Tennyson Jesse The Villa on the Borderive Road, Rose Champion de Crespigny The Room of Fear, Ella Scrymsour The Seven Fires, Philippa Forest The Subletting of the Mansion, Dion Fortune The Jest of Warburg Tantavul, Seabury Quinn The Soldier, A. M. Burrage The Horror of the Height, Sydney Horler The Mystery of Iniquity, L. Adams Beck The Thought-Monster, Amelia Reynold Long The Shut Room, Henry S. Whitehead Dr. Muncing, Exorcist, Gordon MacCreagh The Case of the Haunted Cathedral, Margery Lawrence The Shonokins, Manly Wade Wellman The Dead of Winter Apparition, Joseph Payne Brennan The Garden of Paris, Eric Williams St. Michael and All Angels, Mark Valentine Jeremiah, Jessica Amanda Salmonson From the looks of it, Ashley has included an interesting mix of relatively famous and obscure occult detectives. I'm looking forward to reading the unfamiliar tales, especially the one by Philippa Forest. According to the story notes, it's the first of the four Peter Carwell stories (another of which appears in Ashley's Glimpses of the Unknown).
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Sept 10, 2020 1:25:01 GMT
I presume "The Ivory Statue" by Sax Rohmer is a Moris Klaw tale, though for some reason that title fails to ring a bell.
And Dion Fortune's story might be one of the Dr Taverner cases... I have yet to get hold of that book.
An excellent selection!
H.
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 10, 2020 1:46:25 GMT
I presume "The Ivory Statue" by Sax Rohmer is a Moris Klaw tale, though for some reason that title fails to ring a bell. And Dion Fortune's story might be one of the Dr Taverner cases... I have yet to get hold of that book. Correct on both counts!
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 17, 2023 8:32:29 GMT
Mike Ashley [ed.] - Fighters of Fear: Occult Detective Stories (Talos, 2020) Mike Ashley - Introduction
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Green Tea Arthur Machen - The Shining Pyramid Arabella Kenealy - The Haunted Child L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace - The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel E. & H. Heron - The Story of Yand Manor House Allan Upward - The Tapping on the Wainscott Robert W. Chambers - Samaris William Hope Hodgson - The Whistling Room Victor Rousseau - The Woman with the Crooked Nose Max Rittenberg - The Sorcerer of Arjuzanx Sax Rohmer - The Ivory Statue Claude & Alice Askew - The Stranger Jessie Douglas Kerruish - The Swaying Vision F. Tennyson Jesse - The Sanatorium Rose Champion de Crespigny - The Villa on the Borderive Road Ella Scrymsour - The Room of Fear Philippa Forest - The Seven Fires Dion Fortune - The Subletting of the Mansion Seabury Quinn - The Jest of Warburg Tantavul A. M. Burrage - The Soldier Sydney Horler - The Horror of the Height L. Adams Beck - The Mystery of Iniquity Amelia Reynold Long - The Thought-Monster Henry S. Whitehead - The Shut Room Gordon MacCreagh - Dr. Muncing, Exorcist Margery Lawrence - The Case of the Haunted Cathedral Manly Wade Wellman - The Shonokins Joseph Payne Brennan - The Dead of Winter Apparition Eric Williams - The Garden of Paris Mark Valentine - St. Michael and All Angels Jessica Amanda Salmonson - Jeremiah Blurb: A RETROSPECTIVE COLLECTION OF CLASSIC OCCULT AND SUPERNATURAL DETECTIVE STORIES BY SOME OF THE FIELD'S GREATEST AND BEST-KNOWN WEIRD FICTION AUTHORS Since the gaslit nights at the end of the nineteenth century, the occult detective has been a beloved and recurring archetype. Mixing the best aspects of the detective tale and weird or supernatural fiction, and capitalizing in part on the massive popularity of Sherlock Holmes, these stories portrayed men and women pitted against surreal and horrifying foes, usually with little to defend them but their own savvy, experience, and know-how.
From William Hope Hodgson's Thomas Carnacki, to Seabury Quinn's fearless Frenchman Jules de Grandin, to Jessica Salmonson's Penelope Pettiweather, the occult detective has taken a variety of forms, investigated a wide array of supernatural and otherworldly cases, and entertained generations of readers. This new collection compiles thirty-one all-time classic occult detective stories as it traces the genre's growth from its nineteenth-century origins to the late twentieth century, showcasing the work of acclaimed pioneers of weird tales alongside cult favorites and exciting modern talents.
So, step into the shadows, join us on this journey into the dark, and become a fighter of fear.John Mackay Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Green Tea: ( All the Year Round, 23 Oct - 13 Nov. 1869). "The delight of Hell is to do evil to man, and to hasten his eternal ruin." From the files of the late German physicist, Dr. Martin Hesselius, author of Metaphysical Medicine, disciple of Swedenborg, master of the supernatural, etc. The case history of tragic Rev. Robert Jennings, vicar of a Warwickshire village parish. Jennings is persecuted by a malevolent monkey only he can see, interrupting his prayers with 'dreadful blasphemies' and goading him to leap down a mine shaft. Hesselius concludes this "spectral illusion" is a consequence of the Reverend's overindulgence in green tea, and he'll have cured him within a year. Fortunately for the reader, this marvellous diagnosis arrives too late to prevent a horrible ending. Arthur Machen - The Shining Pyramid: ( Unknown World, May-June 1895: Michel Parry [ed.], The Supernatural Solution, 1976). Personal pick of those Machen stories I've read after the even nastier The Great God Pan. Arabella Kenealy - The Haunted Child: ( The Ludgate, June 1896). "Depend on it, your Lordship, there's a deal more to be afeart on in the livin' than the dead." Reminiscences of Lord Syfret, a psychic nosey parker forever prying into the affairs of his tenants. This episode concerns the strange affair of the Johnson baby, born with "terrible eyes" and a blood-red stain in the palm of one hand, whom the neighbours avoid him as accursed and not long for this world. The child is transfixed by the ghost of a man murdered in the garden shed. L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace - The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel: ( Cassell's Family Magazine, Aug. 1897). Set in the Welsh countryside. A young hothead is accused of murdering love rival Pritchard the signal-man in a reputedly haunted tunnel. A second, near identical death the following night might yet exonerate Wynne, but who, then, or what is killing the railwaymen? John Bell, master of mysteries, investigates.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2023 10:44:40 GMT
Just realised we already have a thread under this name in the biblio section combining Mike Ashley's directory of psychic detectives with Ripper's listing from Vault Mk. I, so I've merged them to avoid confusion. I'm sure we've plenty to add since last update. Can think of two sleazy examples from the current Paperback Fanatic. Benjamin E. Minns E. & H. Heron - The Story of Yand Manor House: ( Pearsons, June 1898). Flaxman Low and a sceptical philosopher friend, M. Thierry, investigate the horrible haunting of the dining hall of the Blackburton ancestral home, where an invisible, ever-expanding, foul tasting presence either forces the occupants from the room or, in the case of poor Batty the gamekeeper, suffocates them where they sit. Low identifies the culprit as the late Sir Gilbert Blackburton, a dabbler in ancient necromancy and Eastern Magic, whose fear of death drove him to seek immortality.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 21, 2023 17:54:34 GMT
G. O. Olinick This pair and the Arabella Kenealy have been my favourites to date. Victor Rousseau - The Woman with the Crooked Nose: ( Stevens Point Daily Journal, 30 Sept. 1910: Weird Tales, Oct. 1926). The second of a series of stories, each complete in itself, dealing with Dr. Ivan Bordsky, "The Surgeon of Souls."Recently wed to a young artist, the former Miss Syndan is preyed upon by a vampiric phantom the near duplicate of herself, the one notable difference between the two being the elemental lacks the "slight facial irregularity" that so distresses Fotheringham, her perfectionist husband. Another strange and dangerous case for the imperturbable Dr. Brodsky. Benjamin E. Minns Allan Upward - The Tapping on the Wainscott: ( the Royal, Dec. 1905). "... a dead man in a winding sheet, with his head swathed in white bandages ..." The firm of Mortimer & Hargreaves inadvertently acquire a second difficult-to-let haunted house. The ghost of recently deceased Sir Christopher Weetman nightly walks the master bedroom and corridor of Hailesbury Manor, Sussex. On his death the estate passed to his venal brother, Henry, a callous man who wasted no time in evicting Sir Christophers beloved adopted daughter, Alice, since fled to London to take work as a waitress. When Jack Hargreaves is frightened from the room, his adorable secretary and love interest, Miss Alwyne Sargent, powerfully clairvoyant, insists on sleeping in the four-poster. The ghost is insistent that a framed portrait of Alice be recovered from the auctioneer. The second of five cases for The Ghost Hunter. Mike Ashley writes. "The first story in the series, 'The Story of the Green House, Wallington,' is a fairly mundane episode but Upward found the right mood with his next story." Personally, I like both just fine. Benjamin E. Minns
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 22, 2023 11:41:18 GMT
Guernsey Moore Samaris, Saturday Evening Post, 5 May 1906. Robert W. Chambers - Samaris: ( The Tracer of Lost Persons, 1906). Westrel Keen, the Tracer of Lost Persons (living or dead), is hired by Burke, a lovestruck young hothead to locate two career criminals who stole the woman he loves — a perfectly preserved Egyptian mummy he excavated from beneath a garden grotto in Sais. Keen effortlessly traces the culprits before deciphering an ancient parchment relating to the mesmerism and abduction of an eighteen-year-old harpist and dancing girl. King Meris hid this Samaris in a subterranean cellar, dying before he could release her from trance. Burke and his beloved are reunited — but dare he risk releasing her from suspended animation? No idea what the last line means (if anything). "Ari un āhā, O Entuk sen!" Florence Briscoe William Hope Hodgson - The Whistling Room: ( The Idler, March 1910). "The sound was tremendous, and seemed to beat through the whole house with a presiding sense of terror. As if (I remember thinking) some monstrous giant had been holding mad carnival with itself at the end of that great passage." Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder investigates horrible goings-on at Iastrae Castle, Galway, as recently bought outright by a young American. Mr. Sid Tassoc has made himself unpopular with the local lads by wooing the local beauty, Miss Donnehue. Tassoc believes his bitter rivals responsible for the hideous nightly whistling from the East Wing. Carnacki, initially inclined to agree, or, at least, rule out the "supernatural," discovers that several centuries ago, the affected room hosted the prolonged torture-murder of a jester by King Ernore whom he'd rashly mocked in song. Dian Tiansay died defiantly whistling the tune (as best he could). While I've never been much enthused by other Carnacki stories, this one is worth sticking with for its ghost. Florence Briscoe
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Aug 23, 2023 18:08:58 GMT
The quote from the Chambers tale (which sounds quite interesting), if part of a purported ancient Egyptian incantation, should mean: "I have made Thee to arise, O [name of person]!"
Or, who knows, maybe it means "if you can read this, you could get a high paying job in..."
cheers, Hel [finally able to log in again after two days of ProBoards glitchiness]
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 23, 2023 18:17:03 GMT
The quote from the Chambers tale (which sounds quite interesting), if part of a purported ancient Egyptian incantation, should mean: "I have made Thee to arise, O [name of person]!" Or, who knows, maybe it means "if you can read this, you could get a high paying job in..." cheers, Hel [finally able to log in again after two days of ProBoards glitchiness] Nobody except the Freemasons knows what spoken Ancient Egyptian sounded like.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 23, 2023 18:19:41 GMT
The quote from the Chambers tale (which sounds quite interesting), if part of a purported ancient Egyptian incantation, should mean: "I have made Thee to arise, O [name of person]!" Thanks. Being Chambers, I figured on a happy ending. Another for our mummy biblo.
|
|
|
Post by bluetomb on Aug 24, 2023 9:08:45 GMT
I have most fond memories of The Whistling Room. I first came across it in Pan #3 at a young age on a summer holiday, and my oldest brother and I were vastly amused by the Unknown Last Line of the Shaaamaaa Ritual.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 26, 2023 10:57:40 GMT
Washington Herald, 7 November 1915. Sax Rohmer - The Ivory Statue: ( New Magazine, July 1913). A sculpture of a murdered Egyptian dancer-princess seemingly vacates her throne and absconds from Paxton's studio in the middle of the night — and all right under the noses of a police constable and the artist himself! Worse, the statue is draped in an invaluable girdle recovered from the tomb of the original Nicris. Moris Klaw, Wapping antique dealer and dream detective (he solves mysteries in his sleep) investigates. Disappointing that Klaws daughter, Isis, potentially the more interesting character, is given little to do except look great and bring Klaw his odically sterilized cushion of justice when required. On this showing, she's no match for Miss Alwyne Sargent. Max Rittenberg - The Sorcerer of Arjuzanx: ( The London Magazine, June 1911). Dr. Xavier Wycherley, mental healer, versus powerful diabolist, Osper Camargo, who, together with his feline familiar, works black magic from a hut on the treacherous marshes. Camargo has bewitched an innocent girl, Jeanne Dorthez of Lourdes, psychically branding a pentagram on her breast, inciting her to utter blasphemies during Mass, etc. The sorcerer, who's not been quite right since an oak tree fell on his nose, intends sacrificing Jeanne to Satan once he's had his evil way. Wycherley has other ideas, while poor Jeanne has no say in the matter whatsoever. Ultimately, an "act of God" proves decisive.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2023 11:25:46 GMT
Cassell's, August 1907 Alice & Claude Askew - The Stranger: ( The Weekly Tale-Teller, 11 July 1914: Aylmer Vance: Ghost Seer, 2006). Recently picked up a bound vol of Cassell's for June-Nov 1907 at Sunday market. Articles and stories of interest include Rider Haggard on The Real King Solomon's Mines, six episodes of Conan-Doyle's 12-part literary review, Through the Magic Door, and the above introduction to the Askews' romantic novella, Tides of Fortune. Aylmer Vance, "ghost-seer," is guardian to an orphan, Daphne Darrell. On her eighth birthday, Daphne, a nature loving, "wild woodland creature," confides in Vance that she has befriended a beautiful stranger of the forest. He tries not to be concerned. A decade on, and Miss Darrell is to wed a local boy of prestigious family. Vance approves of her choice, but on the eve of the wedding, Daphne admits she doesn't love Tony, her heart belongs to her God, the naked frolicker of the woods. That night, the bride to be goes missing from her hammock .... Jessie Douglas Kerruish - The Swaying Vision: ( The Weekly Tale-Teller, 16 Jan. 1915). Much-travelled occult Lester Stukely investigates a hideous haunting at 77 Crescent Road, Willingborough, whose resident corpse-reeking phantom has seen off twelve tenants in eight years, none of whom lasted out their lease. Prior to this, the room had served as the private museum of a collector of macabre relics, until the owner died, and his son sold off the most valuable items. But what became of the rest? Loved this one. Truth to tell, for someone who's not the greatest fan of psychic detective fiction, I've been enjoying this selection so much more than expected.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 28, 2023 18:37:16 GMT
F. Tennyson Jesse - The Sanatorium: (Premier, June 1919). Desperate to provide for her two children, Valerie Sorel conspires with creepy Dr. Fulgate Galtie to cheat her insurance company. To this end, she has Galtie deliberately infect her with cholera at his private clinic. The patient need only prove evidence of she is terminal illness to cash in the policy. Or so she's been misled to believe. Valerie confides in her friend, Solange Fontaine, a mildly psychic detective (she knows instinctively if someone is horrible evil), who wangles admittance to Fulgate's sanatorium. Wrapped up in a love story and deceptively light in the telling, this rates as one of Fighters of Fear's nastiest stories to date.
Rose Champion de Crespigny - The Villa on the Borderive Road: (Premier, 24 Oct. 1919). "The hand! The horrid hand! I saw it; I felt its clammy fingers!" Borderive, South of France. By the terms of her father's will, Avery Whitburn must reside at the Villa Aderlaide for six months, or forfeit the property to her uncle, Oliver Whitburn, a student of black magic. Whitburn feigns concern for his niece, even provides her with a charming French companion, Mlle. Gourget, so she'll not be alone should anything terrible happen. After all, as everyone knows, the Villa Aderlaide is horribly haunted! A case for psychic psychometrist Norton Vyse and his terminally jolly sidekick Dr. Watson, Michael Swinnerton, both of them Whitburn's contemporaries at Oxbridge and wise to his evil ways.
|
|