Crossover of the Week

Winter 1939

THE CASE OF THE PAINTED LADIES 

Anthony Bathurst investigates the murder of Stock Exchange operator Aubrey Coventry. Chief Inspector Andrew MacMorran says, “We may be on to something” to Bathurst, who replies, “If we go all Poirot and use our little grey cells—we shall be—undoubtedly.” Bathurst later remembers Holmes’ disparaging comments to Watson about Lecoq, and later still quotes to MacMorran Holmes’ statement about a person’s “brain-attic.” As part of his plan to trap the killer, he arranges to be a guest on a radio quiz show, along with three other detectives: Reginald Fortune, Colonel Anthony Ruthven Gethryn, and Philip Trent. 

1940 novel by Brian Flynn. Given the other crossovers, there is no reason why Bathurst’s reference to Poirot could not be to a real fellow sleuth. Holmes’ comments, including the one about Emile Gaboriau’s detective Monsieur Lecoq, are recorded in Doyle and Watson’s A Study in Scarlet. H. C. Bailey’s Reginald Fortune, Philip MacDonald’s Colonel Gethryn, and E. C. Bentley’s Philip Trent are all in the CU already.

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds found 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 Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert!

Crossover of the Week

1927

LES CINQ DÉTECTIVES (THE FIVE DETECTIVES)

            Bob, who was allegedly raised by Sherlock Holmes; Jonas, who was raised by Monsieur Lecoq; Scipion, a former collaborator with Nick Carter; Leonard, a former assistant to Inspector Tony; and a man named Valentin team up to solve a case.

            Novel by Gabriel Bernard, 1928. All of the first four detectives’ mentors are already in the CU. It is unlikely Bob was actually raised by Sherlock Holmes, but he is probably a former student of the Great Detective’s.

Crossover of the Week

1857

THE NEXT OMEGA

 An old man seeking a younger fellow who claims to be Doctor Omega remarks, “A Morlock would feel right at home in this neighborhood.” The older man, who is also known as Doctor Omega, carries a robot head in a hatbox that he acquired in the future, in the city of Metropolis. His companion Fred is mentioned. The two Doctors’ carriage is driven by Eugene Papillon. The duo discovers a card bearing the name Maupertuis. The older Omega refers to Lecoq and “that Marple woman.” The Omegas find themselves pursued by robed men that appear to be followers of the Ubasti. The elder Omega tells the younger how a wave of radioactive turbulence separated him and his traveling companions, and asks if he has been to Quinnis in the fourth universe. The apparent Ubasti cultists work for Baron Oscar Maupertuis. Omega refers to a suppressed account by Watson. They are attacked by the robed men, who turn out to actually be Red Lectroids. The younger Omega shows his elder namesake a crystal, which the latter identifies as from Metebelis-Three. The young Omega regains his memory of traveling to the Moon, where he met one of the Lunian Immortals, and realizes that he is really balloonist Antoine Gerpré. Omega recognizes Maupertuis as Ozer, one of many immortals claiming to be the Wandering Jew. Omega departs with Helvetius, his fellow traveler in space and time.

Short story by Travis Hiltz in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 10: Esprit de Corps, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2013; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 16), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2015. Doctor Omega is from Arnould Galopin’s novel of the same name, as are Fred and Helvetius. The Lofficiers’ translation and adaptation of Galopin’s book implied that the Doctor was the Crossover Universe counterpart of the time and-space-traveling Doctor from the television series Doctor Who. Quinnis in the fourth universe is mentioned in the Doctor Who serial “The Edge of Destruction,” while Metebelis-Three is from the serials “The Green Death” and “Planet of the Spiders.” The Morlocks are from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. The robot and the city of Metropolis are from Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis. Doctor Omega visited Metropolis in Hiltz’s story “The Robots of Metropolis” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 7: Femmes Fatales, 2011.) Lecoq is Emile Gaboriau’s sleuth. Eugene Papillon is from Gaboriau’s novel Monsieur Lecoq. Baron Maupertuis is mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Reigate Squire”; here, he is conflated with Ozer from Paul Féval’s novel The Wandering Jew’s Daughter. “That Marple woman” is Agatha Christie’s detective Miss Jane Marple. The Cult of Ubasti is from the serial The Return of Chandu, and has also appeared in Hiltz’s stories “The Treasure of the Ubasti” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 6: Grand Guignol, 2009) and “In the Caves of the Serpent” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 8: Agents Provocateurs, 2011.) The serial was based on the radio series Chandu the Magician, which spawned a spin-off, Omar the Mystic. After being separated from Omega, Fred found himself in the year 1776, where he also encountered Red Lectroids, as seen in Hiltz’s tale “What Lurks in Romney Marsh?” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 9: La Vie En Noir, 2012.) The Lunian Immortals and Antoine Gerpré are from Alfred Driou’s book The Adventures of a Parisian Aeronaut in the Unknown Worlds, which has been translated by Brian Stableford for Black Coat Press.

Crossover Cover: Wyllard's Weird

In this novel, set in 1881-1884, Mademoiselle Beauville, a female fashion designer, has “cherished one bitter and unappeasable hatred, and that was against Messrs. Spricht, Van Klopen, and the whole confraternity of men-milliners.” Later Beauville boasts about a client, “I made all her gowns, and I was proud that she could challenge comparison with actresses who squandered their thousands upon such impostors as Spricht and Van Klopen.” Hilda Heathcote “had read of gentlemanlike murderers—assassins of good bearing and polished manners—Eugene Aram, Count Fosco, and many more of the same school.” Rick Lai notes, “Van Klopen was the criminal fashion designer who was part of the Mascarot blackmail ring in Emile Gaboriau’s Lecoq series. Van Klopen was still at liberty in Gaboriau’s non-Lecoq mystery novels set in the early 1870s. Eugene Aram was a real-life murderer from the 18^th century. His life was fictionalized in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Eugene Aram. Count Fosco is the villain of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Mentioning Fosco alongside Aram implies that both were historical criminals whose lives were fictionalized.”

Crossover of the Week

1911

THE LEGACY OF ARSÈNE LUPIN

            Arsène Lupin, disguised as Prince Sernine, tells his biographer Maurice Leblanc a tale involving the Comte de Guy’s ownership of d’Artagnan’s sword, having heard rumors of how the Comte acquired it: “There’s been talk of dealings with the Chinese fence, Hanoi Shan—his path has crossed Lupin’s before—rumors of a murderous thug named Gurn…half-whispered rumors of Cagliostro, Saint-Germain, and the Englishman Barrington, who had defrauded the great Cagliostro of a fortune and the sword; talk that the sword had once been the trust of one Prince Rodolphe; that it was stolen by Colonel Bozzo-Corona or by that young rogue Rocambole; that British cracksman took a shot at it; and there was a suggestion the Devil Doctor in Limehouse had shown an interest; Josephine Balsamo’s name came up…” The sword was brought to Lupin’s attention by the young journalist Rouletabille. The Comte asks Lupin, in his guise as M. Lenormand, head of the Sûreté Nationale, to guard his valuables at a masked ball. Lupin says, “Even old Lecoq might have found himself challenged by this problem!,” and assures the Comte, “The cracksman Bunn is in Perth, by all accounts, and that Englishman Raffles who has plagued Scotland Yard has not been heard of since the Boer War.” The Comte introduces “Lenormand” to his daughter, the Comtesse Emmeline de Guy. Lupin encounters a young boy who calls himself “Stephen Tarleton” and wishes to steal the sword from the Comte. The Comte stores his valuables in a safe made by the Dale company in New York, which the American called the Gray Seal had remarkable luck in cracking. Marie Antoinette’s necklace was stolen by Cagliostro, then in England by George Barrington, the Picaroon, king of the London underworld, and from the Dreux-Soubize family by Lupin himself, as a boy. Lupin recognizes members of Paris’ infamous Vampires and the Union Corse from Marseilles at the ball, as well as deadly enemies of the English cracksman, Cleek.

            Short story by David L. Vineyard in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Arsène Lupin, the Dreux-Soubize family, and Josephine Balsamo are from Maurice Leblanc’s novels. The Comte de Guy is one of the many aliases used by Carl Peterson, the archenemy of H.C. “Sapper” McNeile’s adventurer Bulldog Drummond. The Countesse Emmeline is really Carl’s mistress Irma. Hanoi Shan is from H. Ashton-Wolfe’s Warped in the Making: Crimes of Love and Hate. Hanoi Shan encountered Lupin in Vineyard’s story “The Jade Buddha” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 5: The Vampires of Paris, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2009.) Gurn is better known as Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre’s villain Fantômas. Count Cagliostro was a historical figure, who also appeared in novels by Alexandre Dumas, and was identified as the founder of a villainous branch of the Wold Newton Family by Philip José Farmer. The Comte de Saint-Germain was also a real person, and has appeared in a number of works of fiction. George Barrington is from Ernest Dudley’s novel Picaroon. Prince Rodolphe is from Eugène Sue’s The Mysteries of Paris. Colonel Bozzo-Corona is the leader of the gang known as the Black Coats in novels by Paul Féval. Rocambole is the villain-turned-hero of novels by Ponson du Terrail. The British cracksman is E.W. Hornung’s A.J. Raffles. The Devil Doctor is Sax Rohmer’s Doctor Fu Manchu, whom Farmer conflated with Hanoi Shan in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Apparently, it is not common knowledge that Fu and Shan are the same person, and doubtless that is how the criminal mastermind prefers it. Rouletabille is a young reporter featured in novels by Gaston Leroux. Lecoq is Emile Gaboriau’s detective. Smiler Bunn is a thief appearing in comedic stories by Bertram Atkey. “Stephen Tarleton” is really Simon Templar, who will later be known as the Saint, the “laughing Robin Hood of crime” created by Leslie Charteris. Lupin thinks that Templar is fourteen years old. In fact, Templar would be ten years old in 1911. The Dale company is owned by Jimmie Dale, aka the Gray Seal, who appears in books by Frank L. Packard. The Vampires are from Louis Feuillade’s silent film serial Les Vampires. The Union Corse is a real organization, but a fictionalized version of the group appears in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Hamilton Cleek, “the man of forty faces,” was the protagonist of books by Thomas W. Hanshew.