Thursday, April 14, 2016

Crossover Cover: From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker

A Praed Street Dossier is a collection of short stories, essays, and marginalia by August Derleth dealing with Solar Pons, his detective patterned after Sherlock Holmes. One of the stories is "The Adventure of the Snitch in Time" by Derleth and Mack Reynolds, which Win included in the original Crossovers. Another story, authored by Derleth alone, is "From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker," which describes the early days of Pons and Parker's partnership, and will be included in Crossovers Expanded. On November 21, Mr. Howard Robinson, a potential client, tells Pons, “I looked in on Thorndyke, but he was in Scotland. I took the liberty of coming to you without an appointment.” This reference confirms Pons exists in the same universe as R. Austin Freeman’s sleuth, Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke.

4 comments:

  1. Win covered these. The Pons stories contain numerous references to Holmes, Fu Manchu, the Cthulhu Mythos, the Saint, Hercule Poirot and Adolph Grundt the Clubfoot

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    1. I actually just read the story with the Saint, Ashenden, Hercule Poirot, and Clubfoot. Poirot (or "Hercule Poiret" as Derleth calls him) claims to be a member of the French Surete, but between the name, the moustache, and references to his "little grey cells," it's clearly him, so that should probably be regarded as fictionalization. "From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker" is the only Pons story with a crossover that Win didn't include in the original Crossovers, which is why it will be in Crossovers Expanded.

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  2. I have full confidence that Sean knows, 100%, what I covered and didn't cover in the original volumes.

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    1. And I appreciate your confidence so much, Win. :)

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