‘The Coming of Crow’

I like occult detectives and always like finding out about new ones. A unique one I recenty discovered is Joel Jenkins‘ Lone Crow.

Lone Crow is a Native Amerian shaman and gunfighter, set in the Old West, though some of his stories take him to other locations. At this point there are four volumes of stories from PulpWork Press: three collections and a novel. I picked up the first volume, The Coming of Crow.

What we know of Lone Crow is that he’s the last of his tribe, and he was raised by a white couple in Colorado. He carries a Colt Peacemaker that was blessed by a prophet, which causes the bullets it fires to destroy evil. He is a bounty hunter, even tracking down Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their gang, as well as working for Miskatonic University. The occult threats he faces are very Lovecraftian, though often original, as well as some based on other traditions.

The Coming of Crow has 14 stories, nine of which appeared elsewhere. Several are loosely tied together, so I recommend reading them in order. Several deal with a threat from Ulutoth, an otherworldly threat to mankind. He also encountered some real people, and there are a few recurring ones as well.

It’s unclear the time these are set, but as Butch and Sundance are mentioned, this is the early 20th century, but the California and Alaska gold rushes were decades in the past, and the driving of the Mormons from the Midwest also occurred decades earlier. So it’s a little confusing.

First off, “Against the Gathering Darkness” finds Crow in California, engaging Wyatt Earp on behalf of Miskatonic University to help find a missing professor and his daughter who are on an archaeological dig in Alaska. It won’t be easy, as the prof has found the “Eye of Ulutoth,” which can be used to bring back this being to our demise. And others want it.

In “Wyrm Over Diablo,” Crow is on the train ride back with the professor’s daughter, Abigail Powell, when they are waylaid by a group of radical followers of Madam Blavatsky, led by a Carina Crowley. They want the Eye of Ulatoth, though Crow made sure to leave it in Alaska. Thwarted in this, they summon a wyrm at Diablo Gulch. Afterwhich, Abigail and Crow decide it may not be a good idea to go back to Miskatonic.

Then in “The Trail of the Twisted Tail,” which is set a couple of years later, we find Crow in New York City applying to join the Plato Society. Crow doesn’t strike me as a “joiner.” You’ll soon learn what happened between the last story and this one, and why that brings him here. And you’ll learn a bit about the Plato Society. He also meets an interesting person in Amandine Fonteneau.

Still in New York City in “The Wolves of Five Points,” Crow is pulled by Fonteneau into a matter that involved a group called the Diogenes Club (no connection to Mycroft Holmes’ club), werewolves, Bowery Boys, and some group called the Swordsmen of Xianades.

Next, we find Crow back in San Francisco in “The Five Disciples” looking for Shotgun Ferguson (clearly an homage to a certain author, recently passed). There is a bounty on his head that Crow plans on collecting. But things get complicated with a group of five Chinese warriors, Disciples of the Immortals, come to kill Ferguson. Crow and Shotgun must team up to defeat them. What will happen after that?

Still in San Francisco in “Long Night in Little China,” Crow rescues a young woman from a tong, and they find themselves being pursued by a demonic hound. Once he does so, he learns the secret of the woman.

The next story finds Crow in the Mato Grasso of Brazil in “The Pythagorean Hounds.” Here Crow is providing protection for the expedition from Miskatonic University, but after finding the city, they somehow release the hounds of Tindalos (created by Frank Belknap Long). Can Crow and the others, including Dr. Sylvie Spelling survive?

Back in San Francisco, or more precisely the gold fields nearby, in “The Shadow Walkers,” Crow has teamed up with Porter Rockwell, a  (real) Mormon gunfighter with an interesting ability after being blessed by a prophet. They are looking for a man on behalf of his wife, but they come upon something sinister: a group of miners killed by what appears to be an invisible and unknown foe. And they are after their quarry, led by an Apache named Red Arrow, who has a past history with Crow. Will Porter and Crow be able to defeat them?

We find Crow in Arkham in “The Homunculi of Azathoth.” He is looking for Dr. Spelling, three years after their adventure in the Mato Grasso, and discovers that she’s married. When they were there they also visited a silver mine and brought back several ingots of silver. But they also brought back something else, and Crow aims to stop it. But others are there to make use of them for a sinister purpose. Who will win out?

Next, in “The Succubus in Shotgun Ferguson,” we find Crow in Kansas looking for Shotgun Ferguson at his request. When they face the five Disciples, one got away, and that one is after them at a railroad camp, which happens to be attacked by Kickapoo Indians. So they must contend with both. Will they get out unscathed?

In San Francisco, Crow is being tracked by a group of bounty hunters in “The Vanishing City.” They want him as he is accused of killing Dr. Spelling, which isn’t so. He tells them of their last expedition, to find a lost city on Mount Shasta, and what happened to her. But will they accept the story? At the end, Crow gains a new ally in Six-Gun Susannah Johnson.

The next story “Old Mother Hennessy” finds both Six-Gun Johnson and Crow in Colorado. They are after the bounty on the four Hennessy brothers and their mom, who seems the brains of their operation. More than just bank robbers, they are kidnappers and murderers. And worse. Will this be an easy job, or will they get the drop on Crow and Susannah? And will the spirits of vengeance help or hurt them?

In “The Steam Devil,” we find Crow in Arkansas, hired by the Pinkertons to help retrieve a strongbox from a train that has gone missing. Joining them is U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, a real person that new stories are being created about. But Crow soon learns there is more to it than just retrieving a strongbox with gold. The box contains the Eye of Ulutoth, and Carina Crowley is back for it. Will she succeed or will Crow be able to stop her?

And in the final story, we get the conclusion to the Ulutoth storyline in “The Eye of Ulutoth.” Crow had taken the Eye down to Costa Rica in hopes of destroying it. (I would love to know more about the item he tried to use.) When that fails, he decides to take passage back to San Francisco and drop the Eye into the depths of the Pacific. Strangely, before he boards, who but Six-Gun Johnson arrives, pursued by a group of pistileros? She had actually come down looking for Crow. Heading out, things definitely don’t go as planned, as during a pirate attack on the ship, Ulutoth appears, called by the Eye. Can Crow and Susannah put an end to Ulutoth? Or will it be the end of them?

I really enjoyed this collection, and how some stories call back to others. Like the Sherlock Holmes stories, there is mention of other events that either Crow or Crow and his associates have dealt with in the past. So there seems to be a loose chronology, especially in two stories where we know there have been several years since a prior one. Will the other collections have stories that occur before or in between these, or only occur after, or a mix? We will see.

Hopefully, I’ll get the other three: The Condemnation of Crow, Gunmen of the Hollow Earth, and The Vindication of Crow. I do like that they all have a consistent cover style, which looks like an old leather book. Will there be more after these? I hope so. Until then, I’ll work on these.