Crossover Cover: Case with 4 Clowns

 

Sergeant Beef and his biographer Townsend are called by Beef’s nephew to the circus where he works to investigate a Romany fortune teller’s prediction someone will be murdered there. The circus’ jack-of-all-trades, Len Waterman, accuses Townsend of making Beef look bad in his books, saying that other detective story writers don’t report their investigators’ failures: “You can’t tell me that that there Lord Simon Plimsoll don’t ever make a mistake.” Artist Cora Frances wonders if Beef knows her friend, Amer Picon. Beef says Picon was involved in one of his cases. He later says to Townsend that Lord Simon Plimsoll, Mr. Philo Vance, or Dr. Thorndyke couldn’t have guessed the murder victim would show up in the ring despite being ill, and rhetorically asks if Sherlock Holmes prevented the murders that he had to find out about. Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective Lord Peter Wimsey appeared in the first Sergeant Beef novel, Case for Three Detectives, under the alias “Lord Simon Plimsoll,” and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot as “Amer Picon.” S. S. Van Dine’s detective Philo Vance and R. Austin Freeman’s sleuth Dr. Thorndyke are solidly in the CU. Sherlock Holmes needs no introduction.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

Winter 1938 

THE THIRD EYE OF OSIRIS 

The Bimbashi Baruk receives a message from Sir Denis Nayland Smith asking him to meet him at Sir Lionel Bart’s reception in Aswan. Other guests at the party include the Graf, a clubfooted German; John Solomon; Professor Tör Andersen; and André de Savery. The Graf is really Adolph von Grundt, on whom Desmond Okewood has kept a close eye ever since they met in the Great War. Smith says the Americans have the Ark of the Covenant, which is probably buried in a warehouse somewhere. When Sir Lionel asks Baruk if he knows about the Eye of Osiris, he asks in turn if that was one of John Thorndyke’s cases back in the '20s, involving a jewel. Professor Andersen is really Fu Manchu. The real Andersen was murdered by the Si-Fan. Dr. Petrie has spoken highly of Sir Lionel. Gaston Max confirmed for Smith that the true Andersen’s body was in the Paris sewers where de Savery said it was. In 1905, Smith encountered Hanoi Shan. Fu Manchu, after confirming Sir Lionel is with Smith and the others, says only Dr. Petrie and young Greville are missing. 

Short story by David L. Vineyard in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 14: Coup de Grace, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2017; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 24), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2018. Bimbashi Baruk is from Sax Rohmer’s Bimbashi Baruk of Egypt. Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Sir Lionel Barton (or Bart as he’s called here), Fu Manchu, the Si-Fan, Dr. Petrie, and Shan Greville are from Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels. Gaston Max appears in his own series of novels by Rohmer; one of these, The Golden Scorpion, has a cameo by an unnamed Fu Manchu. John Solomon’s stories were told by H. Bedford-Jones in several magazines, mainly The Argosy and People’s. André de Savery is an alias of Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. Adolph von Grundt and Desmond Okewood are from Valentine Williams’ Clubfoot novels. The American government did seal the Ark of the Covenant in a warehouse after Indiana Jones recovered it, as seen in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dr. John Thorndyke encountered a jewel called the Eye of Osiris in R. Austin Freeman’s novel of the same name. Hanoi Shan is from H. Ashton-Wolfe’s Warped in the Making; Philip José Farmer identified him with Fu Manchu in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

October 1937

CASE WITH NO CONCLUSION 

Sergeant Beef is hired by Peter Ferrers to clear the name of his brother Stewart, who is in custody for the murder of the family doctor. Beef mentions his fellow detectives, Lord Simon Plimsoll, Nigel Strangeways, Anthony Gethryn, Albert Campion, and Dr. Gideon Fell, as well as his cousin Sergeant Matthew Beef, John Meredith’s assistant. Peter says Inspector Meredith, Inspector French, and Amer Picon were all too busy to take the case. Crime reporter Angus Braithwaite had been peeved by the certainty of success of various private investigators of whom he’s read, from Holmes and Blake to Thorndike and Mason. Plimsoll, Picon, and Monsignor Smith are quoted in Braithwaite’s paper, The Daily Dose, about Beef’s failure to solve the case and prevent Stewart’s hanging. 

1939 novel by Lionel Townsend, edited by Leo Bruce. Lord Simon Plimsoll, a disguised version of Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective Lord Peter Wimsey, met Beef in Bruce’s Case for Three Detectives. Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot also appeared in that novel under the pseudonym “Amer Picon,” and G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown as “Monsignor Smith.” Wimsey, Poirot, Father Brown, Philip MacDonald’s detective Anthony Gethryn, Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion, John Dickson Carr’s Dr. Gideon Fell, Freeman Wills Crofts’ Inspector French, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake, R. Austin Freeman’s Dr. Thorndyke (to use the correct spelling), and Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason (who is actually an attorney, not a private investigator, though he did often make use of P.I. Paul Drake’s services in his cases) have all been included in the CU. This novel brings in Nicholas Blake’s detective Nigel Strangeways and Francis Gerard’s Sir John Meredith and Sergeant Matthew Beef. One of the characters mentions going to see the Shirley Temple movie Little Miss Broadway, which came out on July 29, 1938. However, the next novel in the series, Case with 4 Clowns, takes place from April 25-May 4, 1938, and mentions the events of this book as having occurred six months ago at the beginning. Therefore, I am placing it in October 1937.

This crossover writeup is one of the hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: The Adventure of the Proper Comma

 

Solar Pons’ best friend and biographer Dr. Parker returns “from Thorndyke and Polton with an analysis of the capsules Mrs. Buxton had carried with her.” Thorndyke and Polton are R. Austin Freeman’s sleuth Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke and his lab technician Nathaniel Polton.

This crossover, and hundreds more like it, are included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House! Like the first two volumes, this one is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

July 1922

THE BIZARRE ADVENTURE OF THE OCTAGON HOUSE 

Sherlock Holmes meets Denis Nayland Smith at Scotland Yard. Smith has carefully studied Limehouse, particularly the Devil Doctor who permeates that region. Besides Solar Pons and Dr. Lyndon Parker, Holmes enlists the aid of the Belgian consultant at 14 Farraway Street, whose friend Captain Hastings married and moved to Argentina the previous autumn, and who is himself investigating the Doctor, whom his biographer would later disguise under the name Li Chang Yen. Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie insist on being involved. At Scotland Yard, Dr. Watson nods at Inspectors Charles Parker (a relation of Dr. Parker), Stanislaus Oates, and Jimmy Japp, who says M. Poirot has additional information about the Aberystwyth case. Holmes and Watson seek information on soils from Dr. John Thorndyke and his assistant Dr. Christopher Jervis. Another of Thorndyke’s helpers is researcher Nathaniel Polton. As they leave Thorndyke’s home, Holmes and Watson run into Superintendent Miller. Watson says that a few weeks later, he, Holmes, Pons, Parker, Thorndyke, Jervis, Nayland Smith, and Petrie visited the now-empty Colsworth estate. Lord Peter was invited to attend, but he declined, and in his place came an American, either twenty-two or twenty-three years of age, named Jones who recently completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago and was soon planning to attend a graduate program in linguistics at the Sorbonne. 

Story by Dr. Watson, edited by David Marcum in The Meeting of the Minds: Cases of Sherlock Holmes & Solar Pons I, David Marcum, ed., Belanger Books, 2021. Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie are Dr. Fu Manchu’s archenemies in Sax Rohmer’s novels. The Devil Doctor made several unnamed appearances in August Derleth’s Solar Pons stories. The Belgian consultant is Hercule Poirot. Li Chang Yen battled Poirot in Agatha Christie’s The Big Four. Rick Lai identified Li Chang Yen with Fu Manchu in his essay “Partners in Crime: Fu Manchu and Carl Peterson.” Captain Arthur Hastings and Inspector James Japp are from the Poirot books. The Aberystwyth case is mentioned in Christie’s Murder on the Links. Chief Inspector Charles Parker is the friend and brother-in-law of Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective Lord Peter Wimsey. Inspector Stanislaus Oates is from Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion books. Drs. Thorndyke and Jervis, Nathaniel Polton, and Superintendent Miller are from R. Austin Freeman’s detective novels. Jones is Indiana Jones. Indy would in fact be twenty-three in July 1922.

This crossover write-up is one of hundreds to be found in my upcoming book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House. All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: In the Company of Sherlock Holmes

This anthology contains two crossovers. One is "The Curious Affair of the Italian Art Dealer" by Sara Paretsky, in which Holmes and Watson investigate the theft of a painting by Titian and the beating of the man who was planning to have the painting authenticated, but Miss Amelia Butterworth of Buffalo, New York solves the mystery before Holmes can. Amelia Butterworth appeared in three detective novels by Anna Katherine Green. The other crossover story is "By Any Other Name" by Michael Dirda. Arthur Conan Doyle’s relationship with Jean Leckie hits a rough spot when he admits all the books and stories attributed to him were ghost-written by other authors. "That Blue John Gap cave-monster" (from Doyle’s "The Terror of Blue John Gap"), Dr. Thorndyke, Sir Harry Flashman, the crime wave at Blandings (a reference to P. G. Wodehouse’s story of the same name), and the mystery of Lord Strathmorlick’s courtship (a reference to The Courtship of Lord Strathmorlick, a novel written by Rosie M. Banks in Wodehouse’s Jeeves story "No Wedding Bells for Bingo") are mentioned. I am inclined to treat this story as an AU.

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.

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook

This anthology consists of stories featuring Holmes meeting other historical and fictional characters. One story, "Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World" by Martin Powell, originally appeared in the anthology Gaslight Grimoire, and was included in Volume 1 by Win. It's worth noting that this story references Farmer's theory that Lord John Roxton was the Spider's father. I covered Win's contribution, "The Adventure of the Fallen Stone," in a previous post. Here are the other stories that have Holmes meeting other characters from fiction. In Matthew Baugh's "The Adventure of the Ethical Assassin," Holmes is hired by the King of Bohemia once again, this time to protect him from an assassin. After preventing one such attempt, Holmes discovers the would-be assassin is a member of the Assassination Bureau, Ltd., led by Ivan Dragomilov. The assassin’s weapon is a device invented by the Russian hunter Zaroff. The Bureau and Dragomilov (originally Dragomiloff) are from Jack London’s novel The Assassination Bureau, Ltd., completed posthumously by Robert L. Fish. Zaroff is from Richard Connell’s short story "The Most Dangerous Game." In Christopher Sequeira's "The Scion of Fear," Holmes and Dr. Watson work with Inspector Athelney Jones and Jonathan Small to investigate a pair of attacks apparently committed by an Andaman Islands native like Small’s late confederate Tonga. Watson reveals to Mycroft Holmes the box which once held the Agra treasure has a hidden panel which opens to reveal three yellow diamonds. Mycroft says they are part of a series of four “moonstones” that adorned temple idols in India. He adds the fourth diamond was recovered years ago after much drama. Inspector Jones, Jonathan Small, and Tonga are from the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four. The diamonds are from Wilkie Collins’ novel The Moonstone. In Barbara Hambly's "The Adventure of the Sinister Chinaman," Watson, recovering from an illness, accompanies Holmes to San Francisco, where they become embroiled in an investigation of a Chinese-American magician who has been accused of kidnapping a young girl who was helping him perform a trick. They are aided by another stage magician, Professor Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, who is also a balloonist. Diggs claims to have spent the last forty years in a magical realm, and built a City of Emeralds and done battle with the Wicked Witch of the East and her minions. After the resolution of the case, Watson learns Professor Diggs looked exactly the same when he returned as when he disappeared forty years ago, and concludes the Professor that he and Holmes met was an impostor. He notes the alleged Professor disappeared a year later on another ballooning expedition. Professor O. Z. Diggs is better known as the Wizard of Oz. Of course, the Diggs who disappeared in the 1860s and the one who encountered Holmes and Watson are one and the same. In Matthew Mayo's "The Folly of Flight," Arsène Lupin recruits Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to help him apprehend the murderer of a French aeronaut who has invented a remarkable airship. In Don Roff's "The House on Moreau Street," Holmes is abducted by Augustus Moreau, nephew of the notorious Dr. Moreau, whose beast-men have committed a series of murders in the course of robberies to finance Augustus’ experiments. Edward Prendick brought the elder Moreau’s predations to the public’s attention. Dr. John Thorndyke and Christopher Jervis, investigating the crimes independently from Holmes, wind up working with Dr. Watson to save Holmes. Thorndyke has Nathaniel Polton examine hair samples found at one of the crime scenes. Dr. Moreau and Edward Prendick are from H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau. Thorndyke, Jervis, and Polton appear in a series of books by R. Austin Freeman. In Joe Gentile's "The Secret of Grant's Tomb," Holmes and Watson, visiting Inspector Lestrade, are drawn into Professor Van Dusen and his sidekick Hutchinson Hatch’s investigation of the murder of a friend and fellow reporter of Hatch’s. The quartet, along with Lestrade and Inspector Conway, apprehend the culprit, master thief Bradlee Cunnyngham Leighton. Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen and Hutchinson Hatch are featured in the Thinking Machine stories by Jacques Futrelle. Cunnyngham and Conway appear in the Thinking Machine story "Problem of the Missing Necklace." In Martin Gately's "The Petrifying Well," Holmes accepts T. E. “Ned” Lawrence’s request to investigate the bizarre death of a friend’s brother. The planned Maracot expedition to the deep Atlantic is mentioned several times. The Maracot expedition is a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Maracot Deep, which takes place in 1926. Gately’s story "Rouletabille and the New World Order" explains why the expedition seen in this story (set two years after "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane," which Baring-Gould place in 1909) failed. Christopher Sequeira's other story, "The Adventure of the Lost Specialist," must be an AU. Holmes and Watson do battle with Professor Moriarty, who identifies himself as the stationmaster, and reveals both the Moriarty who Holmes dueled with at Reichenbach and Colonel Moriarty were actually his alternate reality counterparts. Moriarty than unleashes alternate versions of Holmes and Watson on the duo; one pair are meant to be Batman’s foes the Joker and the Penguin, while another pair are Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster. Watson mentions Holmes’ actions in the affair of the depraved Herbert West and the grave-robberies in Essex County, Massachusetts, and also refers to Victor Savage’s uncle, the famous American doctor and adventurer. Given the story takes place in 1903, this most likely refers to the father of a certain bronze-skinned adventurer.

Crossover of the Week

May 26, 1903

A CASE FOR LANGDALE PIKE

            Sherlock Holmes comes to his friend Langdale Pike seeking help on a case. Mentioned are: Sir Harry Flashman; Miss Irene Adler; Enoch Soames; James Moriarty; Dr. John H. Watson; A.J. Raffles; the Diogenes; Isadora Klein (aka Lady Lomond); His Royal Highness Prince Florizel of Bohemia; Clarence, Lord Emsworth; Professor G.E. Challenger; the Doctors Nikola and Thorndyke; Mr. Oswald Bastable; Frederick, Lord Ickenham; Mr. A.V. Laider; Mr. Joseph Jorkens; the Darling children; Karswell; “that so-called ghost ship at Whitby”; Graustark; Ruritania; Van Dusen; an officious young waiter who is trying to better himself by reading Spinoza and memorizing Shakespeare and aspires to be a gentleman’s gentleman, and whose name starts with a J; Strether; Little Bilham; Isadora Klein; Spencer John; Grimpen Mire; Hewitt; young Wimsey; the Great Old Ones; and Miskatonic University.

            Short story by Michael Dirda in On Conan Doyle; or, The Whole Art of Storytelling, Princeton University Press, 2012. Langdale Pike, Isadora Klein, and Spencer John are from Doyle and Watson’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Three Gables.” This story depicts Holmes’ consultation with Pike on that case, which was only alluded to in the original tale. Irene Adler is from the Holmes story “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Professor James Moriarty is Holmes’ greatest foe. One member of the Diogenes Club is Sherlock’s older brother Mycroft. Grimpen Mire is from the Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Professor George Edward Challenger appears in The Lost World and other works by Doyle. Sir Harry Flashman is the antihero of a series of novels by George MacDonald Fraser. Enoch Soames and A.V. Laider are the respective title characters of two stories by Max Beerbohm, both of which are included in the collection Seven Men. A.J. Raffles is E.W. Hornung’s gentleman thief. Prince Florizel of Bohemia is from Robert Louis Stevenson’s books New Arabian Nights and The Dynamiter. Clarence, Lord Emsworth is from P.G. Wodehouse’s Blandings Castle novels. Frederick, Lord Ickenham is better known as Uncle Fred, and is the subject of another series by Wodehouse. The officious young waiter is Wodehouse’s Reginald Jeeves, future valet to Bertie Wooster. Dr. Antonio Nikola is a master criminal created by Guy Boothby, while Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke is a detective created by R. Austin Freeman. Oswald Bastable is from Edith Nesbit’s books The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, and The New Treasure Seekers. Joseph Jorkens is an explorer and raconteur created by Lord Dunsany. The Darling children are from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Karswell is from M.R. James’ story “Casting the Runes.” The “so-called ghost ship at Whitby” is from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Graustark is a European monarchy appearing in novels by George Barr McCutcheon. The kingdom of Ruritania is from Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau. Van Dusen is Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, aka “the Thinking Machine,” a sleuth created by Jacques Futrelle. Lambert Strether and Little Bilham are from Henry James’ novel The Ambassadors. Private detective Martin Hewitt appeared in stories by Arthur Morrison. Young Wimsey is Dorothy L. Sayers’ future sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. The Great Old Ones and Miskatonic University are from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.