October 18-December 6, 1925
THE
EXPRESS DIARIES
An unlikely assemblage of
individuals travels across Europe via the Orient Express to obtain the pieces
of a statue called the Sedefkar Simulacrum before the cult known as the
Brothers of the Skin. Professor Julius Smith, whose apparent death sets the adventurers
on their course, first speaks at the Challenger Trust Banquet Lecture. One of
the members of the group, Professor Alphonse Moretti, finds a reference to the
Simulacrum in von Juntz’s Unaussprechlichen
Kulten. The Duc d’Essientes is a member of the Brothers of the Skin.
Moretti finds mentions of a Duc Jean Floressas d’Essientes in fashion and
society papers from Paris in the 1870s. The leader of the expedition, Mrs.
Betty Sunderland, writes in her diary “I suspect even the remarkable Mr. S.
Holmes would find it difficult to uncover a trail grown so cold.” A portly
balding gentleman with a small waxed moustache, who is either French or
Belgian, appears.
Novel
by Nick Marsh, Innsmouth Free Press, 2012. The Challenger Trust is likely named
after Professor George Edward Challenger from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost
World and other works. Consulting
detective Sherlock Holmes is Doyle’s most famous creation. Friedrich von
Juntz’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten is a
book created by Robert E. Howard to be part of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.
The Duc d’Essientes (originally des Esseintes) is from J.-K. Huysmans’ novel À Rebours. The Duc appears
to have extended his life via supernatural means. The gentleman with the waxed
moustache is Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot.
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