Solar Pons Series by Basil Copper
Solar Pons #10
The Secret Files of Solar Pons
Basil Copper
The Game's Afoot . . .Whatever your fancy in the polished old world of deductive, detective cunning—a corpse/figure dragging itself from the edge of a misty marsh, burning and writhing with bluish fire; a bizarre murder staged on a play's opening night; a mysterious scoundrel's attempt to steal a set of rare idols; or a horrified heiress and her terrifying legacy of death—Solar Pons will quickly capture your curiosity and leave you hungering for more.Soon you will find yourself a regular visitor at No. 7B Praed Street, eagerly peering into the mind of the contemplative Pons. And as you faithfully follow the master about charming, chilling fin-de-siècle London, discreetly clutching and un-clutching your hands between counterplots and climaxes, you will know that you have found a lifelong companion—the inquisitive and incomparable Solar Pons, heir to the genius that was once uniquely Sherlock Holmes'.Contents"The Adventure of the Crawling Horror""The Adventure of the Anguished Actor""The Adventure of the Ignored Idols""The Adventure of the Horrified Heiress"
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Solar Pons #12
The Exploits of Solar Pons
Basil Copper
12th in the Solar Pons Seriesby Basil Copper, Illustrated by Stefanie K.Hawks.Contents"The Adventure of the Callous Colonel""The Adventure of the Phantom Face""The Adventure of the Verger’s Thumb""Death at the Metropole"Readers who have exhausted the Sherlockian cannon and the various modern pastiches of the Master, might well be advised to investigate the strange cases of Solar Pons. Mr. Pons was created nearly seventy years ago by Wisconsin-born writer, August Derleth -- who paid Doyle the courtesy of cloning the great detective. Names and biographical details were changed, and the setting was moved from the Victorian period to the 1920's. Mr. Copper was then authorized by Arkham House, Inc. to continue the series in a series of paperback originals. While maintaining the sly mixture of pastiche and homage to its creator, Copper brought his own voice and a sure sense of place and period detail to the series. Two previously unpublished collections from that series have been released by Fedogan & Bremer. A third book is planned for late 2000.
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Solar Pons #13
The Recollections of Solar Pons
Basil Copper
13th in the Solar Pons Seriesby Basil Copper, Illustrated by Stefanie K.Hawks.Contents"The Adventure of the Cursed Curator""The Adventure of the Hound of Hell""The Adventure of the Mad Millionaire""The Adventure of the Singular Sandwich"British writer Copper (The Exploits of Solar Pons) effectively captures the style of Sherlock Holmes tales in four novellas narrated by Dr. Lyndon Parker, who plays Watson to consulting detective Solar Pons in 1920s London. "The Adventure of the Mad Millionaire" requires Pons to discover if the cause of a financier's peculiar behavior is, in fact, all in his head, while "The Adventure of the Cursed Curator" calls upon him to find out why an Egyptologist has had a mummy peering at him through his office bookcase. In "The Adventure of the Hound of Hell," Pons must puzzle out why two sets of footprints enter-but none leave-the woodshed in which a rich but miserly and miserable old woman was murdered, and he tackles a locked-room mystery in "The Adventure of the Singular Sandwich." The atmosphere is always first rate, but the puzzles are not elusive enough: readers will catch on to many of the tricks well before Parker. The moment this happens, Pons seems blessed less with genius than with irritating smugness, and the stories diminish in appeal. ReviewSherlock Holmes fans will relish the familiar atmosphere and approach created by Copper's Solar Pons character: set in 1920s London, this details many intriguing adventures and problem-solving events in the classic detective's encounters.
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Solar Pons #14
Solar Pons-The Final Cases
Basil Copper
Basil Copper - Solar Pons 14 - The Final CasesCover art by Les Edwards.Contents"The Adventures of The Haunted Rectory" [reworked from its first appearance in Uncollected Cases]"The Ignored Idols" [reworked from its first appearance in Secret Files]"The Adventure of the Horrified Heiress" [reworked from its first appearance in Secret Files]"The Adventure of the Baffled Baron" [first book appearance]"The Adventure of the Anguished Actor" [reworked from its first appearance in Secret Files]"The Adventure of the Persecuted Painter" - A Sherlock Holmes Case!
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Solar Pons #15
Solar Pons Versus the Devil's Claw
Basil Copper
Hugh Mulvane comes to Pons and Parker at 7B Praed Street to tell them the truly lurid tale of the life and death of his creepy uncle, whom he is now accused of having murdered. Simon Hardcastle was a hermit who almost never left his home, Chalcroft Manor, and was resentful when his nephew Hugh left it as well. Nevertheless, one cold winter night the old man left the manor and was later found dead in the family mausoleum. It is subsequently discovered that though the body was fully clothed when found, the man had been stark naked when he was killed! Bizarre footprints left near the body resemble devil's feet, thus raising the specter of the Legend of the Devil's Claw.Pons interrogates the odd cast of characters: Peters, the estate manager and his drop-dead gorgeous wife, Sarita; Mulvane's girlfriend Sybil Masterson; Vincent Tidmarsh, the music master at a nearby college; and even the maid, Angela. The problem is that only Hugh Mulvane has any obvious motive for wanting the old man dead. Believing in the innocence of his client, Pons perseveres and eventually uncovers an astoundingly diabolical conspiracy.Out of Basil Copper's many stories continuing August Derleth's detective Solar Pons (himself a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes), he offers only this single novel. Solar Pons Versus the Devil's Claw is a grand story, harking back somewhat to The Hound of the Baskervilles, hinting as it does of death at the hands of supernatural agencies. Of course Pons sees through that blind so soon as Mr. Mulvane brings him the eerie news, embarking on yet another intensive criminal investigation at yet another English manor with his faithful assistant Dr. Parker. Be sure that they solve the mystery, weeding through the many suspects and the hat full of clues that seem to point in every direction.This book was published in a very small edition by a specialty press, is now out
of print, and I gather that very few current owners are willing to part with
their copies. I don't blame them. Therefore it sells for a small fortune in the
collectors market.
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