{"id":22092,"date":"2026-09-02T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=22092"},"modified":"2026-07-05T12:45:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T16:45:42","slug":"the-singular-papers-of-solar-pons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2026\/09\/02\/the-singular-papers-of-solar-pons\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Singular Papers of Solar Pons’"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2025, the latest collection of new Solar Pons<\/a><\/strong> stories by David Marcum<\/a><\/strong> came out from Belanger Books<\/a>: The Singular Papers of Solar Pons<\/em>. This volume contains 15 stories, four of which had appeared in prior anthologies (the novellas collection and the American Adventures<\/em> collection). This was done as a Kickstarter campaign, and I got the work as part of that.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Pons is a Sherlock Holmes<\/a><\/strong> “pastiche” created by August Derleth<\/a><\/strong> when he learned no new Holmes stories were forthcoming. Instead of making Pons a copy, Derleth made him a separate character who has 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 World War I (and a few other times).<\/p>\n

Pons’ career was mainly in the 1920s and ’30s, though he started in 1907, with a pause during World War I for military intelligence work, and in 1919, started living at 7B Praed Street with Dr. Lyndon Parker<\/strong>. They returned to military service in World War II, with Pons again working for military intelligence. He most likely retired after that.<\/p>\n

After Derleth passed away, the estate authorized Basil Copper<\/a><\/strong> to write further new ones. Since then, David Marcum has been overseeing the new Pons revival, teaming up with Belanger Books, which has been publishing all of this. This is the third full collection of Pons stories by Marcum. We get a foreword by Marcum and an intro by Roger Johnson<\/a><\/strong>. There is also an intro by Dr. Lyndon Parker. And there are two appendices, one showing where these works fit in the chronology of the character, and the other an exhaustive list of all the Pons collections and the stories they contain. Further, several stories include notes on the story, sometimes with maps and photos relevant to it.<\/p>\n

In “The Caerus Lock,” the new director of a museum comes to Pons for help. After he recently took over the role from his predecessor, several items disappeared in the last week. Strangely, he also learned in the last week that his predecessor had formed a partnership with a group of Germans. Can Pons get to the bottom of things, with a little help from his brother? I hope people will recognize who the creator of the museum is based on, as well as who Dr. Drake<\/strong> is based on.<\/p>\n

We find Pons and Parker in a remote area of Kent looking into “The Foul Business at the Wainway Wall,” whatever that is. Stopping at an inn, they get a chilly reception. So it takes a little bit of time before we understand what is going on. The area is known for smuggling, but usually it’s smuggling things in. But the local constable had visited Pons and says there is something major being smuggled out, and he had been recommended to seek help from Pons. We soon learn that this is tied to a matter they are already working on. A certain individual in Limehouse is involved in a smuggling operation. They had been working on the London end, but this is the other part located in Kent. I also hope readers will pick up on the name of the main smuggler, Michael Clegg<\/strong>, as well as the location, and the ties to another fictional smuggler.<\/p>\n

In “The Bodach Tree,” Pons and Parker are in a small village helping out a small college with an embezzlement issue. While there, someone brings them to the titular tree, where he has found a skeleton in the hollow of it. The two protuberances on the forehead of the skull indicate this is a known local resident who went missing. He was not well liked, so it’s unclear if he was murdered and by whom. He went missing, and it was assumed he had left under a cloud of suspicion. Can the case be solved? And what other mysteries might be uncovered in their work? I do wonder who the archaeologist they mention at the end is.<\/p>\n

Bancroft shows up in “The Unsuitable Suitor,” accompanied by another, to solicit Pons’ assistance. A man known to them as an unsavory character and possible German agent is trying to get engaged to a young heiress. And they want to stop it. But things don’t go quite as some would expect, though the outcome will benefit others.<\/p>\n

Two stories are set during World War II and are linked. Both come from the American Adventures<\/em> collection. “The Free and Independent State of Scott,” set in 1942, finds our friends in Washington, D.C., after the conclusion of a mission for the United Kingdom. They are asked to head to eastern Tennessee to look into issues surrounding the setup of an important research project. They also get help from a notable veteran of World War I. Then in “The Necessary Imitations,” they head to California, Hollywood, to be exact, where they get involved with the new Sherlock Holmes movies being made.<\/p>\n

As Dr. Parker takes a walk through some of the nearby parks, he learns of a strange set of crimes: boys breaking off the thumbs of statues in “The Curious Case of the Thumbless Jesus.” Pons gets asked to look into this matter, investigating the boys doing this, thanks to his Praed Street Irregulars, and speaking with the company that made them, which informs him they were all paid for by one person. Speaking with the man, they learn of the bizarre connection with the lead boy doing the vandalism, which gives us a different conclusion to the affair.<\/p>\n

We get a strange mix of fact and fiction in “The Chained Oak Substitute,” which is built around the real-life divorce of the Countess of Shrewsbury, as well as local items such as the “chained oak.” The countess seems to be under threat of a curse, but can Pons get to the bottom of it and reveal the culprit?<\/p>\n

“The Adventure of the Green Stars” completes a fragment of a story left by Derleth. See the notes at the end for more on this. This one presents Solar Pons’ second chronological encounter with Baron Ennesfred Kroll<\/strong>, his only recurring foe in the Derleth stories. This one starts when Inspector Jamison comes to Pons and Parker regarding a murder: one of his top men is found dead in the street in a masquerade costume and two green stars in his hands. We learn this is tied to a ball hosted by Lady Blakeney<\/strong> for the London Naval Conference, which had Pons and Parker in attendance. Soon Bancroft appears and lets them know more of what is going on. While we learn about the politics behind the case, can Pons show who killed the policeman? And I was surprised by the appearance of a particular person, and maybe others will be as well.<\/p>\n

In The Adventure of the Immortal Dead Man<\/em>, a novella, Pons is approached by a mathematician, Neil Ashford<\/strong>, who is working in the area of quantum mechanics. Ashford thinks he has discovered a way to live forever, but he feels someone is menacing him, and he points to a colleague and former friend. He is soon gunned down upon leaving 7B Praed Street. Was he murdered by his friend, or was it a foreign agent, or some other diabolical foe? Pons and Parker will have to figure it all out.<\/p>\n

With “The Fate of Newby Cote Fugitive,” we get a slightly different tale. A strangler is able to escape from prison when he tricks a minister visiting him. But in doing so, he exchanges clothes with the victim, and it turns out the victim was an agent of Bancroft and had important papers on him. So Bancroft asks Pons to help locate him, as it’s more important than just finding a fugitive. In looking for the man, they encounter a woman who is worried about her brother, who was looking for their missing dog in some woods they own that have various strange features. Will these two cases collide?<\/p>\n

In “The Lyceum Ghost,” Pons and Parker are called into the Lyceum Theater before it’s demolished due to something found: a human head. It doesn’t appear to be either really old or really new, and it’s preserved in wax. But who put it there? Then a strange group of people, led by a woman, barges into the theater in an attempt at preventing it from being demolished. They claim the head is connected to the “Lyceum ghost.” Is she responsible for the head being there? Can Pons get to the bottom of things and figure it all out?<\/p>\n

“The Adventure of the Sliding Stick” also comes from the American Adventures<\/em> collection and is set in the late 1930s as we move toward World War II. Pons and Parker are sent on a mission to the United States, landing in New York. There, after meeting with an old friend, they go to the Empire State Building to recruit another to their cause. But he’s not there. Instead, they run into a professor who works for Rockefeller and needs help. As they go out, he tells them of his bizarre tale. But in a large crowd, the professor is knifed \u2014 but there is no weapon. Under pressure from several, including his own government, can Pons work out what is going on? The title is taken from a planned but never-completed Solar Pons comic strip. Hopefully, readers can pick up on the allusions to other fictional characters.<\/p>\n

We find Pons and Parker in Inverness after the conclusion of a case (you’ll learn about it later in the story) in “The Curious Curiosity Shop” and are about to head home when they are approached by a young man. He brings them a strange tale. A distant relative he didn’t know has left him a shop in Inverness with the stipulation he must run it for at least a year before selling. But living in the back room of the shop, he starts hearing strange noises and the like, and can’t explain it. He needs help and, knowing of Pons, hopes he can assist. This one does make use of a real shop, with pictures at the end.<\/p>\n

In the last story, “The Subversive Drama,” an actor comes to Pons for help, though he doesn’t seem pleased by the visit. This is because the actor has been playing the starring role in a play named Sherlock! But this play portrays Holmes as a sociopathic murderer, aided by Watson. But the actor reveals he was blackmailed into playing the role and doesn’t want to do it. Pons decides to look into it further and try to figure out who the playwright is and what may be the reason behind the play. Probably the highlight of this story is the finale, with a group of Scotland Yarders, active and retired, who have worked with Holmes or Pons, along with a group of various investigators and detectives. I almost hope we will get future team-ups with some of them with either Holmes or Pons.<\/p>\n

What’s next? We also got the latest Pontine Dossier<\/em><\/a> at the end of 2025, and I’ve posted on it. Next up, in April 2026, was Solar Pons: A Year of Mystery 1919<\/em>, an anthology of stories set during the first year Pons and Parker worked together. Look for that review soon. Belanger also released the 80th anniversary edition of In Re: Sherlock Holmes<\/em>, the first Solar Pons book, this one with three additional introductions. A Kickstarter was done for The Essential Solar Pons<\/em>, which will be a collection of over a dozen essays on the essential Pons tales, which are themselves included. This should be out in October. And I expect the next Pontine Dossier<\/em> toward the end of 2026. There are more Pons works being planned, so see my next posting on him for more details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2025, the latest collection of new Solar Pons stories by David Marcum came out from Belanger Books: The Singular Papers of Solar Pons. This volume contains 15 stories, four of which had appeared in prior anthologies (the novellas collection and the American Adventures collection). This was done as a Kickstarter campaign, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_has_post_settings":{"highlight_sharing":"default","image_sharing":"default","headline_sharing":"default"},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at 'The Singular Papers of Solar Pons.'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[7,46,14],"tags":[502,510,522,423,631,2670,6,418],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-22092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-pulp","category-pastiche","category-review","tag-august-derleth","tag-basil-copper","tag-belanger-books","tag-david-marcum","tag-pontine-dossier","tag-roger-johnson","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-solar-pons"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-5Kk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2026\/08\/singular-papers-of-solar-pons-featured.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22092"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23323,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22092\/revisions\/23323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22092"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=22092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}