Now we have the fourth Solar Pons collection by August Derleth, The Reminiscences of Solar Pons Vol. 4. It was first published from Mycroft and Moran in 1961, and later reprinted by Pinnacle as the fifth in their series.
Unlike the other collections, there are only eight stories this time. This is because it mirrors the fourth Sherlock Holmes collection, His Last Bow, which was subtitled “Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes.”
As before, I am reading the Belanger Books edition.
Of these stories, one appeared in the pulps in the 1930s, while five others appeared in various magazines in the late 1950s and early ’60s.
As with the prior volumes, we kick things off with a pair of intros by David Marcum and Derrick Belanger. Both of these point out some of the interesting stories in this collection, with Belanger’s also commenting on the chronology.
Then we get the “Introduction” from the original edition by Anthony Boucher. He is a well-known (at the time) author of mysteries, as well as critic and editor. He looks at the similarities and differences between Solar Pons and a variety of other detectives.
A Sir Richard Chetley comes to Pons late at night to bring him “The Adventure of the Mazarine Blue.” When opening his family vault, an extra coffin is found. In it is a body, a few months dead, with signs he died of his head being bashed in. Pons finds no identification, other then the remains of a mazarine blue, a rare butterfly. Can this help in figuring out who it is and why he was killed?
Another tale tied to the Diogenes Club, “The Adventure of the Hats of M. Dulac” shows us that it’s different from the time of Mycroft Holmes, as Parker is a member. If it is still a club for “unclubable men,” it’s hard to think of Parker being a member. It now seems more a respectiable gentleman’s club.
A visitor to the club, a M. Dulac, picked up the wrong hat. Then had two of his hats stolen and destroyed. And at the club, several more were also lost. Bancroft refers him to Pons, who when he examines the hat he mistaken took, a last will and testemant is found in it. Is this the cause and what is going on?
In a remote town, a murder occurs in “The Adventure of the Mosaic Cylinders.” The victim’s sole heir was the only one present, and suspicion falls on him. But is he guilty? A wooden cryptex (the “mosiac cylinders” of the title) is found on him, with a message in it. The victim’s only source of income was odd amounts sent to him by an old professor, recently deceased. He corresponded with two others, also former students, one of whom died in a car accident. The other had a similar cryptex, recently stolen. Something is going on. Someone is after the secret contained in them. Can Pons unravel this mystery?
“The Adventure of the Praed Street Irregulars” gives us another story of Pons’ Irregulars, again lead by Alfred Peake. He comes to Pons when a young boy they had rescued has been abducted. The boy had survived his aunt and uncle getting run down by a mystery car. Pons soon realizes there is more to this, and contacts Bancroft. The boy is connected to some Balkan nation. Who has taken him? Baron Kroll is mentioned, but he is not involved. Instead it’s an Israel Sarpedon. With the aide of a certain doctor in Limehouse and the Irregulars, will Pons be able to rescue this boy?
A detective sergeant in the Surrey area contacts Pons for help with “The Adventure of the Cloverdale Kennels.” A manager of a dog kennel is shot by his own rifle! It was setup in a copse nearby, with a string attacked to the trigger and running to the office he was in. But there are hints of threatening letters. Pons notes this is similar to a case Holmes handled. Was it suicide or was it murder, and if a murder, who did it? Can Pons figure it out?
Another of the original pulp stories, “The Adventure of the Black Cardinal” again gets into more political matters. Parker is in Vienna when he is asked to pick up a message for Pons. Where he goes has him meeting the Archbishop of Vienna, and a high minister of Austria. Taking the message, he gives it to Pons when he gets back to England. What is going on? Pons is on a mission to stop a dangerous man, a defrocked Catholic priest known only as the “Black Cardinal,” who is sewing discord in Europe and is now in England. Bancroft is briefly seen, and Pons visits him for the first time. There are some similiarities to the unpublished Pons novel, so I wonder if it was written around the same time?
Pons is asked to help out by the daughter of a magistrate in “The Adventure of the Troubled Magistrate.” People in several recent cases he dealt with, where the accused where released on a lack of evidence, they have died. A mother accused of smothering her child, dies of an accidental smothing. A man who ran down another who died was himself rundown and killed. And a man who struck someone during a robbery who died, died of a hear attack. The magistrate is worried that he may have something to do with the deaths. Can Pons assist and determine if these are accidents or not?
And in “The Adventure of the Blind Clairaudient,” the title character comes to Pons as he is leaving for vacation and asked that he solve her future murder. She does not “see” the future, but “hears” it, and knows that when a man who has been stalking her after a recent reading shows up, she will die by a knife. Pons thinks it nonsense, and goes on vacation. When he returns he learns she has been murdered. Can Pons figure out how it happened?
Finally, we get a “A Chronology of Solar Pons” by Robert Patrick. While there are some points to quibble about, he works out a chronology of all the stories published in book form so far. I’d love to see an updated chronology, as I’m not sure I’ve seen one. This would be a great feature for an upcoming edition of the Pontine Dossier.
There are several good stories here. I really like the “Mosaic Cylinders.” This one was an interesting mystery. “The Praed Street Irregulars” gives us not just Bancroft but a return of Dr. Fu Manchu, who we first saw in the last volume, and I wonder if we will get a return of Israel Sarpedon.
With this, we move on to the next Pons collection, the fifth Basil Copper collection.
