Here we have the fifth collection of Solar Pons tales by Basil Copper, The Exploits of Solar Pons. While it was planned as part of the Pinnacle series, it never happened. If you read the Companion volume, you’ll get the full story. It wouldn’t finally be published until Fedogan & Bremer published it in 1993.
I had heard of it later on, but couldn’t afford to get a copy. Thankfully, we now have the recent reprint from PS Publishing, edited by Stephen Jones. So this is a first time read for me. These are the same four works that were in that edition.
The cover of the PS edition reprints the cover by Thomas Gianni for the Saron Press volume Solar Pons: The Final Cases, which has Pons looks like Peter Cushing. That’s interesting as Cushing portrayed Sherlock Holmes in a few movies.
A holiday is interrupted by “The Adventure of the Verger’s Thumb.” Pons and Parker stroll through a nearby catherdal, and notice some strange goings on. Pons picks up a wooden spool that has a message hidden in it that seems to be in code. Then the verger finds them at their hotel and asks them to meet with the canon. From them, they learn of other unusual events, including sinister whispers of murder and theft, objects being moved and damaged, a crypt being opened, and the verger having his thumb bitten by a gargoyle! Is the cathedral haunted? Or is something else going on? Can Pons figure it all out and put a stop to things?
A young man comes with “The Adventure of the Phantom Face” after the mysterious death of his uncle. His uncle has died of fright after seeing a phantom face, which has been haunting the nearby village. Is this another tale of the supernatural, or is there a human agent behind it. Was his uncle frightened to death, or was it murder? And if so, how? Why was his uncle so terrified that this phantom face affected him so? What or who is being it all, and why? Pons is fortunate that the local police inspector also think there is more to the death. When the uncle’s solicitor dies in a fire before his will can be read, that seems to indicate there really is something going on.
A one-eyed veteran brings Pons the “Death at the Metropole.” The veteran is a doorman at the hotel, and tells of a mysterious guest who arrived bundled up, even in the warm weather. Then he is found dead in his room, strangled, and the only other key is at the front desk. So Inspector Jamison thinks he has a open and shut case, and arrests the hotel manager. But Pons thinks otherwise and suspects others are responsible. He digs in and uncovers who really did it and why.
Pons has gone up against several dangerous folks before, and in “The Adventure of the Callous Colonel” he goes up against another: Colonel McDonald. We learn he is an explorer, big-game hunter, collector of esoteric items. And has a criminal tendancy. So he’s more Col. Moran than Moriarty. But he clearly sees Pons as a threat (I can’t think why). And he even tries to kill him off, but this happens off scene. So clearly, these two characters are on a collision course.
A young lady comes to Pons with a strange case. Her parents had died under somewhat strange circumstances. They had been offered an large amount for their Scottish estate, which they refused. Now the young lady is made the same offer, but is suspicious, especially after some strange events. Can Pons get to the bottom of things which seem to involved this colonel?
I found the “Verger’s Thumb” an interesting tale with some good elements. Col. McDonald is the “third most dangerous man in Europe.” Baron Kroll is the first, I guess. So who is the second? Anyway, I would have like to have seen more of the colonel.
We now move on to the next August Derleth volume, followed by the final Copper volume.
