As part of the latest set of books in its “Argosy Library” series, Altus Press gives us the first volume of the Jigger Masters series by Anthony M. Rud: The Vengeance of the Wah Fu Tong: The Complete Cases of Jigger Masters, Volume 1.
Rud (1893-1942) has the distinction of appearing in the first issue of Weird Tales (with “The Ooze”), later going on to being an editor of Adventure magazine (1927-1930). He wrote quite a bit in the pulp magazines in several genres. Interestingly, “The Ooze” was included in the book The Moon Terror & Other Stories published by Weird Tales. Ramble House has also put out the first of two collections of his weird fiction.
But he also has a series character, Jigger Masters, who appeared in bizarre mysteries that at times veered into the supernatural. Altus Press’ first volume collects the first eight stories from The Green Book Magazine in 1918, after which the character was brought back about 15 years later(!) and appeared mainly in Detective Fiction Weekly. Three serials that appeared in DFW were reprinted at the time as hardcover books.
The Jigger Masters series includes:
- “The October Blight,” The Green Book Magazine (March 1918) [cover featured]
- “The Fiery Meteor,” The Green Book Magazine (April 1918)
- “The Vengeance of the Wah Fu Tong,” The Green Book Magazine (May 1918)
- “The Red Billiard-Ball Mystery,” The Green Book Magazine (June 1918)
- “The Miltonvale Nemesis,” The Green Book Magazine (July 1918)
- “The Giant Footprints,” The Green Book Magazine (August 1918)
- “The Specter at Macey’s,” The Green Book Magazine (September 1918)
- “The Affair at Steffen Shoals,” The Green Book Magazine (October 1918)
- “The Rose Bath Riddle” (five-part serial) Detective Fiction Weekly (Sept. 9, 1933, etc.) [cover featured]; hardback book
- “The Stuffed Men” (three-part serial) Detective Fiction Weekly (Jan. 20, 1934, etc.) [cover featured]; hardback book and Ramble House reprint
- “The Golden Bullet,” Detective Fiction Weekly (Feb. 10, 1934)
- “The Death Messenger,” Two Book Detective Magazine (February/March 1934); hardback book The House of the Damned
- “A Giant in the Swimming Pool,” Detective Fiction Weekly (April 21, 1934)
- “The Strange Scent of Murder,” (five-part serial) Detective Fiction Weekly (June 2, 1934, etc.) [cover featured]
- “The Feast of Skeletons,” Detective Fiction Weekly (Aug. 25, 1934) [cover featured]
- “Dungeon of the Sun,” Detective Fiction Weekly (Sept. 22, 1934)
- “The Golden Magnet Murders,” (four-part serial) Detective Fiction Weekly (Dec. 8, 1934, etc.)
- “Riddle of the Severed Finger,” Detective Fiction Weekly (Jan. 19, 1935)
- “Terror Cave,” (four-part serial) Detective Fiction Weekly (May 25, 1935, etc.) [cover featured]
- “The Encyclopedia Murders,” Detective Fiction Weekly (May 15, 1937)
- “The Marque and Reprisal Murders, Pocket Detective Magazine (August 1937)
- “Fortunes of the Damned,” Double-Action Detective (October 1940) [cover featured]
- “The Exploding Men,” True Gangster Stories (July 1941)
- “The Fatal Furs,” True Gangster Stories (February 1942)
- “Ghost Hotel,” True Gangster Stories (June 1942)
We are introduced to the character in the first story when he is brought into the case by the story’s narrator, portrait painter Bert Hoffman, who will also assist in the mystery. We learn that Masters is a somewhat secretive, but very sought after, detective by police chiefs, business leaders, and government agencies. He doesn’t advertise and is only known to Hoffman from having assisted him with a prior case. Interestingly, his office is in the same building that Hoffman has his studio. After this first case we read, Masters asks Hoffman if he’d like to help in future cases, which he does and hence he’ll continue as narrator. Hoffman is kind of the “Dr. Watson” type, though a little more involved in the action. The only other character who appears more than once is the local police chief.
That first case has Masters looking into a family blight that seems to mysteriously kill members of a family at their summer home in October. And it’s again October! Other cases have Masters dealing with spies and foreign agents, as WWI is going on. In one, a German superweapon is used; another has him dealing with issues of mysterious deaths at a steel plant; yet another he works to stop a spy ring based at a golf course. He also has to deal with a Chinese tong in one case, and another dealing with blackmail where red billiard balls play a part. A mysterious murder leads to revenge for pass wrongs. All the cases are pretty inventive.
I’m not sure why Rud wrote only got eight stories in 1918. The series was trumpeted on the cover for the first story, and the other stories follow in succession each issue. Why did it end? Was the series not successful with readers? No idea.
When the character was brought back in Detective Fiction Weekly, in addition to longer serials, several were cover featured. Rud also makes changes to the character, dropping Hoffman and adding others who will assist him. In the first series he’s always called Jigger, we learn his first name in one story, but its never used. Now we get an explanation for that name. It’s almost like he rebooted the character, ignoring the prior stories. Which makes some sense as they were written years prior and most would have forgotten them. I’ll go more into the differences when we get the next volume.
Rud had another series with detective Joe Gerlach that ran four stories in DFW in 1935-36.
There was an article about Rud that ran in the fanzine Attic Revival #6 that I provided to Altus Press that hopefully helped with this volume. I would have liked to have seen this reprinted, as it gave some background on Rud and his career. Maybe in the next volume. We do get an article Rud wrote in The Writer’s Digest in 1939, and it’s appropriate that it focuses on writing detective stories.
This is a great volume of detective stories, and I recommend it to others who love this genre.
Good article