Toward the end of 2022, we got a new Solar Pons collection from Belanger Books, another collection of stories by David Marcum: The Further Papers of Solar Pons. Though to be honest, the Kickstarter wrapped up at the end of 2022, but the physical books didn’t appear until early 2023.
I’ve posted on Solar Pons before, having recently done a re-reading of both the original stories by August Derleth, the follow-up works by Basil Copper, and covering the newer ones that have appeared under the direction of Marcum.
Pons is a Sherlock Holmes “pastiche” created by Derleth when he learned no new Holmes stories were forthcoming. Instead of making him a copy, he is a separate character who sees Holmes as his mentor and predecessor. Holmes had retired to Sussex Downs around the turn of the century (1903 to be exact), though he did come out of retirement to aid Britain during WWI (and a few other times).
Pons’ career was mainly in the 1920s and ’30s, though he started in 1907, with a pause during WWI for military intelligence work, and in 1918 (or was it 1917 or 1919?) started living at 7B Praed Street with Dr. Lyndon Parker. They returned to military service in WWII, with Pons again working for military intelligence. He most likely retired after that.
David Marcum has been overseeing the new Pons revival, teaming up with Derrick Belanger who has been publishing all of this. This is the second full collection of Pons stories by Marcum. We get 14 stories this time, plus a redux of Holmes adventure “His Last Bow.” And there are 2 appendices. Some of these stories appeared in the prior collections (New Adventures, The Meeting of the Minds, and The Necronomicon). I was surprised that many stories here started with Pons and Parker being away from their home, usually after wrapping up a case when this new one occurs.
Our first tale is the “Adventure of the Two Sisters.” Pons & Parker are approached by 2 spinster twin sisters who think they may be haunted by a ghost. Or at least, wish Pons can disprove this after finding some items mysteriously moved into their house. Pons would look into it, discovering murder and a secret that involves one of his Praed Street Irregulars. Certainly not what was expected. Hopefully, readers will pick up the references to the 4 literary characters referenced in the story. I got 3 of them.
A different work, “Some Additional Events of June 1919” is done as a letter written by Dr. Parker in 1944 to his nephew and editor and relates some of his early life and more important what fully happened in 1919 when he met Pons.
In “The Adventure of the South Norwood Builder” finds Parker visiting Pons shortly after his marriage. They go to check on a bizarre murder. A builder who also makes book on the side has been killed at the home they were doing some work at. And the cause of death, a bizarre wound that took out part of his neck and skull, is unknown. And they have plenty of suspects, as the homeowner was in debt to him, and his two bizarre younger siblings had run-ins with the builder. Can Pons figure out not just who was the killer, but how it was done?
“Adventure of the Retired Beekeeper” is set after the passing of Dr. Watson. Pons and Parker are visiting Holmes in Sussex when someone is apparently killed in an explosion. It seems connected to a package intended for Holmes that the man had picked up by mistake. So what happened? There is also an interesting reference to a certain female character connected to Holmes by another author, which I’ve read and reviewed here. Wonder how many will get the reference?
A fairly interesting tale is “The Clue of the Six Weapons,” which takes its inspiration from the real-life case of the disappearance of a certain female mystery writer and a popular murder mystery board game. Pons and Parker are looking for the missing writer when they appear at a home where her husband is staying. The homeowner has invited 6 people when he is found murdered! It appears that each of the 6 was invited so they could be blackmailed. So did one of them do it with one of the 6 items the man had? I found this to be a fun little tale.
A local minister approaches Pons and Parker about a small mystery in “Little Potton Hoard.” A hoard of bronze artifacts is discovered, most taken by the government, with only a small assortment of items kept locally. These are set up in a small “museum” at the local church. But the minister says that additional items are mysteriously appearing. What is going on and does it indicate something sinister?
A very different story is related in “The Moonbow Phantom.” Pons and Parker are at a small party, which in itself is strange. They are told of an interesting waterfall nearby that produces a “moonbow” during a full moon by one resident who also has seen a phantom. Can Pons and Parker figure it out? What is this phantom?
Again, Pons and Parker have wrapped up one case near the Moors when a bicyclist approaches them about “The Trouble of Doom.” His group of bicycle enthusiasts, who have been cycling around the Moors to prepare themselves for the “Tour of France,” when they had experienced something sinister. When two of their members have passed between two large trees, known as the “Trouble of Doom,” have been killed. Their heads were cleanly cleaved from their body. Is there a supernatural cause or a more down-to-earth case? Are they accidents or not? Can they figure it out before there are more victims?
“The Bizarre Adventure of the Octagon House” is another tale teaming up Holmes and Pons where they will deal with a serial killer that also involves some other literary characters, a few of whom appeared in Derleth’s Pons tales. But when the serial killer claims he didn’t kill one victim, they must re-evaluate things, and this takes them in a different direction and a dangerous conspiracy against England.
“The Manipulative Mesmerist” starts off when Parker notices that Pons’ entry in Who’s Who lists several foreign cities as residences when Parker is not aware of Pons ever living in any of them for a noticeable length of time. This leads to Pons telling of an event that occurred when he was at Oxford and his encounter with the titled mesmerist and a fellow student. And what happened to them that resulted in that entry.
A retired police inspector comes to Pons with an issue: he’s being blackmailed in “The Indifferent Blackmailer.” Pons soon realizes that this was related to a case of Holmes’, using information not given in the story by Watson, who recently passed. Looking into it further, they find that several other retired inspectors have also received letters, all related to Holmes cases published by Watson. Looking into it leads them to Doyle, who has also recently passed. Can they get to the bottom of things, especially after one inspector committed suicide? Or did he? I did enjoy that the attempted Pons comic strip that August Derleth was working on was incorporated into the story.
“Man with the Writhing Skin” introduces us to a lady involved with a group trying to warn people of the threat of the Great Old Ones. I found interesting his tie-in with both H.P. Lovecraft and Derleth in this one, including Derleth’s first Lovecraft collection. And we learn how Pons learned of the Cthulhu mythos that led him to write his monograph, a work that Derleth cited.
Set in the early years of WWII, “The Laboratory Safe” finds both Pons and Parker doing intelligence work, but separately. Parker finds himself back in London to look into a matter at a hospital, when a doctor is found dead (murdered?) in connection with a safe in the pharmacy lab. Can Parker, working with Inspector Jameson, get to the bottom of things without Pons? Who only shows up toward the end. Or does he? We also have the return of a character who appeared in an earlier story in this collection.
Set shortly after the end of WWII in Europe, “The Adventure of the Old Score” finds Pons and Parker returning to London. Pons gets an unusual client, a young lady who has been working for the government during the war, but her parents have been acting strangely of late. Can Pons help out, or is there something sinister involving an old case of his? Readers may get the reference to the English lord at the beginning and may enjoy the discussion on the “Sherlock Holmes” movies of the 40s.
The “supplemental adventure” is Marcum’s sort of re-write (or expansion?) of Conan Doyle‘s final Holmes story, “His Last Bow” set on the eve of WWI when he dealt with German spy Von Bork. Here we learn the truth of Holmes’s “retirement” and see Pons assisting him.
As to the appendices. The chronology one shows when these stories occurred such that one can fit them into the overall chronology of Solar Pons stories. And the other is a complete listing of all the Pons stories to date by all authors.
With this collection (along with the first Papers and his work in Novellas), Marcum has now done more Pons stories than Basil Copper! I think his next goal should be to surpass the number written by August Derleth himself. As we’ve seen collections of Holmes stories where he teams up with other detectives or even occult detectives, I think something like that for Pons would be interesting as well.
So what’s coming next for Solar Pons? Well, we also got a new volume of the Pontine Dossier. The Millennium Edition, which I’ve reviewed. The next Pons book in 2023 will be the revised version of Mark Wardecker‘s collection The Dragnet Solar Pons, titled The Arrival of Solar Pons. The Kickstarter campaign wrapped up a couple months ago, so the book will be out in mid-2023. And I expect another Pontine Dossier in late 2023. And certainly, Marcum wants to do further stories, and probably others want to as well. I look forward to whatever we get.
