I’ve posted before on Harry Dickson: The American Sherlock Holmes, the character created in Europe as a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes, who became a more original character. While several new stories have been written for him in Black Coat Press‘ Tales of the Shadowmen, in Harry Dickson vs. Mysteras, we get a quartet of original stories. This is the third such collection.
For those who missed my previous postings, here’s a quick run-down. Harry Dickson was a Holmes pastiche in Germany named Sherlock Holmes, but aided by Harry Taxson, from 1907-11. In 1927, a Dutch translation was done, with the character renamed as “Harry Dickson” and aided by Tom Wills. Then in 1928, a Belgium publisher did French translations until 1938, and soon asked author Jean Ray to do the translations starting around #20. Around #65, Ray started to write original stories, but as he was an author of fantastical works, so too were his Harry Dickson works. As Dickson was created as a Holmes pastiche, he lives at 221B Baker Street with Tom. Their housekeeper is Mrs. Crown, and they work with Superintendant Goodfield of Scotland Yard.
I believe Ray penned these stories, starting off with a character I mentioned in my original posting: the supervillain Mystéras and his deadly illusions. He is one of the rare recuring villains for Dickson, along with Georgette Culvier, the Spider, being another. She is the focus of the second collection of original stories that I’ve reviewed in my first posting on the character.
We get the following here:
- 103. “Mystéras” (1933)
- 104. “La Cour d’Épouvante (The Tribunal of Terror)” (1933)
- 106. “Le Chemin des Dieux (The Path of the Gods)” (1934)
- 147. “Le Lit du Diable (The Devil’s Bed)” (1935)
“Mystéras” starts off introducting several characters. We meet Delphina Cruikshank, an author already rich from an inheritance, who due to her popularity, is even wealthier. She lives at the top of a strange tower that can only be reached by an elevator she controls. And she never leaves. She has a telescope and can see a nearby prison, where she saw the execution of a prisoner by a Dr. Brownless. But strangely, after the execution when the doctor was examining the body, he is found brutely slain. At the same time, the author disappears from her tower, which her staff says is haunted. Dickson starts to look into it.
Dickson finds her next unfinished novel, named Mystéras, which tells of a noble family that owns a valuable rifle presented by the ruler of Nepal. But also, that they had stolen the ruler’s treasure without his knowledge. And a mysterious figure brings vengance to them. Then a real crime occurs, with a nobleman killed who owns a valuable rifle presented by the ruler of Nepal. How can this be? Are these connected?
Then we get a battle between a plane and submarines, and soon Dickson has a confrontation with Mystéras in the tower apartment. He is unmasked, and the whole mystery is resolved. But the villain escapes!
In “The Tribunal of Terror,” we start off with Mr. Hamilton, a retired industrialist, who comes to Scotland Yard after a weird series of dreams. He is confronted with a “tribunal of terror” who demands he give three-fourths of his fortune for taking it unjustly, which he hadn’t. But it doesn’t make sense. Dickson and Goodfield decide to stay at his manion near the sea to find out. But Dickson is tricked to return to London thinking his assistant Tom is in danger. But he is not!
Dickson is able to figure out what is behind the Tribunal, and soon learns who is behind it: Mystéras! While Dickson has fouled his plans, Mystéras is still out there. And he has sworn vengeance against Dickson. He tries again, and fails, then tries another gambit. Will Dickson will be able to stop him, maybe permanently?
In “The Path of the Gods,” we have Dickson at a strange dinner party of Lord Denverton. Twenty random people are invited once a year, at the end are given 50 pounds each. Why is unknown. Denverton does it as it’s a condition of his uncle’s will, and asks Dickson to find out why. He considers it when an unknown party tries killing him with a strange dagger. Leaving, he runs into a British agent involved in the Orient, Bunny Lipton, recently returned to England. The dinner party is similar to a ritual dinner in China that aimed to bring back a feared warlord, Fuh-Suh. And Dickson’s assistant, Tom, is driven crazy by an Oriental drug! Who or what is behind it all? Is Dickson up against a vengeful Chinese ghost, or is there someone else? Can he save Tom and stop it?
And finally, “The Devil’s Bed” starts off with a strange story set in the 1800s. A young man, heir to the Greystone title, has returned to his old home, located on an island in a Scottish lake. But he is surprised to find that while the house is decrepid, his old bedroom is well fitted out with a strange bed on which he finds blood stains! And further, the canopy crashed down on the bed, which would have killed him. He is then approached by a couple of strange men who give him a pouch of gold coins, which he is happy to accept and never return.
But he writes down his story and puts it in a book he owned. Years later, Dickson is in the area looking into a strange death. The lake is gone, as is the island and house. At an auction he bids on the book, and is surprised when another tries to outbid him. But Dickson gets it, noting his opponent, a strange man who is the caretaker of a nearby “castle.” Dickson reads the tale, and starts to look into things. He soon realizes there is much more going on! There’s a matter of ancient Babylonian priests who learned to extend their lives, who had retreated underground and now lived in caverns under Scotland. And their monsterous god, Baal, whom they worship. And he will come up with their main priestess! Can Dickson put an end to it all?
In addition to the stories, we get the original covers reprinted in black and white inside the book, and three of the covers in color in postage-stamp-size on the back.
We also get a bonus story from Atom Bezecny, “Harry’s Homecoming” from Tales of the Shadowmen #13 (2016), which has Harry returning to the United States where he meets Doctor Ox (from a Jules Verne short story) and gets pulled into a strange affair by him.
The original tales are all interesting, but don’t look for traditional Sherlock Holmes-like detective tales. Instead, read them for the bizarre villains that Dickson goes up against. These are more mysterious action-adventures then traditional detective mysteries.
Black Coat Press has another volume of original Harry Dickson stories planned, Harry Dickson vs. Crik-Crok, The Walking Dead, hopefully to appear in 2022. I look forward to it, as it will have another interesting villain I had read about. As I noted, for these stories, it’s the villains that make these tales fun to read.
