The fifth volume in the chronological reprinting of Semi Dual stories from Steeger Books came out last year. I am holding off on the three Semi Dual serials that were reprinted from later in the series. This volume picks up where Vol. 4 left off, more or less.
For those who may have forgotten who this character is, here is a brief reintroduction.
Semi Dual is really Prince Abdul Omar of Persia, the son of a Persian nobleman and a Russian princess. He is an astrologer, mystic, telepath, and psychologist. The series appeared from 1912 to 1934 in several major pulp magazines and has never been reprinted until now. It is being reprinted as part of Steeger Books’ larger Argosy Library. His name, Semi Dual, we are told, derives from his method of investigation: “by dual solutions: one material, for material minds; the other occult, for those who cared to sense a deeper something back of the philosophic lessons interwoven in the narrative.”
The series was written by J.U. Giesy and Junius B. Smith, who both lived in Utah. Giesy was a doctor, and Smith was a lawyer. Both were interested in astrology. They wrote extensively for the early pulps, and Giesy had several popular series of his own. We are given the brief biographies that appeared in Argosy, though I do not buy into the idea that astrology was ever accepted in a court of law as valid science.
Box 991: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, the Occult Detector, Vol. 5, reprints the next two stories, both serials, that appeared in The All-Story Weekly. The first story, “Snared,” was serialized from Dec. 11 to 25, 1915, and was cover featured. The second, “Box 991,” ran from June 3 to 17, 1916, and was also cover featured. That cover is used for this collection.
As before, reporter Gordon Glace serves as our narrator. His associate, former Police Inspector Bryce, appears in the second story.
“Snared” picks up immediately after the events of “The Web of Destiny,” with the rescue of Lilly Lawton and the arrest of white slavers Howard Reich and Greek Annie. The next morning, however, they learn that their friend Dan McKabe has been kidnapped. Unless Reich and Annie are released, the kidnappers threaten to send back McKabe’s dead body. It becomes a race against time, with Semi Dual making use of his connections with the tong to locate McKabe before they are forced to free Reich and Annie. In the end, they succeed, arrest additional slavers, and even solve an abduction from two years earlier.
“Box 991” returns us to New York. Glace is spending time with a bank clerk when a man arrives to open his safe-deposit box, only to find it empty. He had placed valuable stocks there before leaving for Alaska two years earlier. Who was able to open the box, and why were the contents taken? Because Glace happens to be present, he is hired, along with Bryce, and backed by Semi Dual, to unravel the mystery. The solution, when finally revealed, is both bizarre and complex.
Next up should be a novella and another serial, which I expect will appear in the following volume. I look forward to it. This series remains intriguing, with mysteries that are quite different from the norm. I always anticipate the next installment.
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