Crossover Cover: The Roebuck Cabal

 

Are you a fan of French pulp fiction?

Then you'll love Martin Gately's story in this anthology, which features Jean Ray's detective Harry Dickson, among other crossovers!

For more information, be sure to purchase 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

Spring 1909

ROULETABILLE AT THE OLD BAILEY 

French journalist Rouletabille reports on an English homicide. Another reporter, Ben Bates, points out the prosecution leader, Sir Wilfrid Robarts; his junior, T. C. Rowley; and Edward Leithen and Impey Biggs representing the defense. The judge is Mr. Justice Wargrave. The prosecution calls consulting detective Harry Dickson, who worked for Nick Carter when he was younger. Dickson has his offices in Baker Street, as do all four of London’s greatest detectives: Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake, Sir Seaton Begg, and Victor Drago. 

Short story by Martin Gately in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 14: Sang Froid, 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, and Les Nouveau Exploits de Rouletabille, Rivière Blanche, 2019; and in The New Exploits of Joseph Rouletabille, Black Coat Press, 2020. Rouletabille is from Gaston Leroux’s detective novels. Ben Bates is from the 1988 TV mini-series Jack the Ripper. Sir Wilfrid Robarts is from Agatha Christie’s “The Witness for the Prosecution.” T. C. Rowley is from John Mortimer’s Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders. Edward Leithen is from the works of John Buchan. Impey Biggs is from Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels. Mr. Justice Wargrave is from Christie’s And Then There Were None. Harry Dickson appeared in German, Belgian, Dutch, and French pulp novels, the latter mostly written by Jean Ray. Nick Carter is one of the most famous dime novel detectives. Sherlock Holmes needs no introduction. Sexton Blake is an iconic British penny dreadful detective. Seaton Begg is an AU version of Blake seen in Michael Moorcock’s The Metatemporal Detective, but apparently a distinct version separate from Blake exists in the CU. Victor Drago, created by Chris Lowder and Mike Dorey, appeared in the British comic Tornado. 

This post is dedicated to author Martin Gately, who sadly passed away last week. Martin was a great guy and a very talented writer with decades of experience, and I will miss him a lot.

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will 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: Gotham by Gaslight

In 1889, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City and takes on the mantle of Batman, and soon finds himself hunting Jack the Ripper, who has fled England. In Austria, Sigmund Freud tells Bruce, “A good student, you have been. My friend, the English detective, said much the same thing,” a clear reference to Sherlock Holmes. Given the recasting of the Batman mythos in the Victorian era, and the final revelation about the Ripper's identity, this story obviously takes place in an AU.

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper

This book is an adaptation of Jack the Ripper, an 1889 stage play by Gaston Marot and Louis Pericot. Nick Carter appears, and the Gentlemen of the Night (from Paul Féval’s Les Mystères de Londres) are mentioned. There are many pastiches dealing with Holmes battling the Ripper, many of which have their own takes on the Ripper's true identity; Win already included one such book in Volume One, Ellery Queen's A Study in Terror, so I've placed this book in the AU addendum.