Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Volume 12

 

This anthology includes three stories with crossovers.

In I. A. Watson's "The Nottingham Crakster," Holmes is visited by a police inspector who seeks a gem belonging to Lord Roger Roxton, which has been stolen by criminal and “crakster” (a Northern slang expression for a trickster) Jemmy Wilson, and which he believes Holmes himself has stolen. Holmes deduces that the so-called policeman is in fact Wilson himself. A footnote to this story suggests that Lord Roger Roxton may be the father of Lord John Roxton from Doyle and Malone’s The Lost World and other Professor Challenger tales. To square this with Philip José Farmer’s genealogy for Lord John in Tarzan Alive, we must conclude that “Lord Roger Roxton” is a Watsonian pseudonym for George Wimsey, the 14th Duke of Denver, Lord John’s adoptive father. Obviously, Edward D. Malone used the same coded surname as Watson in his written accounts of his, Roxton, and Challenger’s exploits. Jemmy Wilson is from Doyle’s “Selecting a Ghost: The Ghosts of Goresthorpe Grange.”

In Barbara Doran's "The Adventure of the Counterfeit Secretary," Holmes and Watson team with Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, aka the Thinking Machine, and his companion journalist Hutchinson Hatch to thwart sabotage of the Berlin International Trade Exposition. Professor Van Dusen and Hutchinson Hatch are from Jacques Futrelle’s detective stories and novels. 

In Brad Mengel's "The Adventure of the Stolen Tattoo," Watson has dinner with Dr. Stamford and his new wife, who honeymooned in Australia, where they were robbed by the bushranger known as the Stingaree. During the Second Opium War, a chap by the name of Flashman came by the Barrington house and told Richard Francis Barrington’s mother of her husband’s death. The Stingaree is from E. W. Hornung’s Irralie’s Bushranger and Stingaree. Flashman is Harry Flashman, whose service in the Second Opium War is described in George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman and the Dragon.

These crossovers are among 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 Cover: Mr. American

 

Are you a fan of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels?

Then you'll love this standalone novel by Fraser, which has a prominent appearance by Harry Flashman himself!

For more details, see my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House. All three volumes are official and AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's 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: Flashman and the Mountain of Light

Harry Flashman tells his great-niece Selina the story of a man who lost a rifle in Paris and tripped over it in West Africa twenty years later. The man who lost the rifle is Captain Battreau from P. C. Wren’s story “No. 187017,” included in the collection Flawed Blades. “No. 187017” and Wren’s other books and stories involving the French Foreign Legion are interconnected, including Beau Geste, which Philip José Farmer referenced in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. The main events of Fraser’s novel take place in 1845–1846, but the framing sequences, which refer to Flashman telling Battreau’s story to Selina, were written by Flashman after 1894 and before 1902.

Crossover Cover: The Fifth Heart

A Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Colonel Moran is identified as Colonel John Sebastian “Tiger Jack” Moran, the same full name and nickname given for him in George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman and the Tiger. Inspector Hanaud (a detective seen in novels by A. E. W. Mason) and Hercule Poirot are mentioned, and the Lakota Indian Paha Sapa from Simmons’ novel Black Hills appears. The revelations in this novel about Holmes and Moriarty place it in an alternate universe.

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.

Crossover Cover: Black Ajax

Tom Molineaux, a freed black American slave, becomes a champion boxer in Britain, initially under the patronage of Captain Buckley “Mad Buck” Flashman. Young Bob Logic and his friends Tom and Jerry witness one of Molineaux’s fights. Tom Molineaux was a real person. In Robert E. Howard’s story “The Apparition in the Prize Ring,” Molineaux’s ghost appears to a black boxer named Ace Jessel, whom Matthew Baugh brought into the CU in his story “The Tournament of the Treasure.” Captain Flashman is the father of Fraser’s most famous character, Harry Flashman. Bob Logic and his friends Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn are from Pierce Egan’s book Life in London. Interestingly, Egan himself appears as a character in Black Ajax, and a footnote mentions his authorship of Life in London, which must have been based on the real life exploits of Bob, Tom, and Jerry.