H. Bedford-Jones (1887-1949) was a prolific pulp author with over 1,000 works, and several series. His longest series featured John Solomon, a mysterious cockney ship chandler who operated in Port Said, Egypt, before World War I with a network of agents.
Strangely, Solomon is somewhat of a secondary character in his own series, with there is usually a more adventurous young man as the main character of the stories, who usually marries and settles down at the end.
I’ve posted on this character now that Steeger Books is reprinting this series as part of their H. Bedford-Jones Library. Solomon’s Quest is the third volume, and with this story the series moved to Street & Smith’s People’s Magazine for a long while, though the fouth entry appeared in The Argosy. This story appeared in the March 1915 issue of People’s, and was cover featured, as were most (all?) of the character’s appearance in the magazine. That cover art is used for the cover of this volume.
A difference in this story is that it’s a first-person narration by the main character, a doctor, who gets involved with matters. This is the first Solomon story I’ve read that was done this way. And Solomon comes quickly into the story, unlike in the past two. Though like in others, he will disappear for periods of time, leaving our hero as the main focus of the story.
We get another story of intrigue in the Middle East, with a dangerous secret society and some strange blue beads that tie in with it. At the heart of the story is the search for a lost land in Arabia. Our doctor will be the main protagonist, and, yes, there will be a young girl involved whom he falls for. The villain is a return from the first story, which is interesting.
What surprised me in this story was matters dealing with Solomon himself. We are told that he has been running his ship chandler’s shop in Port Said for 30 years, but that he has shut it down in the past year. And during the course of the story, he loses part of one leg, and at the end retires to American with the doctor and his new wife. All of which I find unusual as I’ve read a few stories set after this and don’t recall any missing leg. He was still running his store for several more stories before shutting it down and moving to Java. So I really want to read the next story to see if some of this is mysteriously forgotten!
I really look forward to the next volume, which will reprint Gentleman Solomon for the first time. No idea when we’ll see it, hopefully sometime in 2020.
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