Crossover Cover: The Bride of the Hound

 

In this story by Joshua M. Reynolds, Charles St. Cyprian, Nadja Highmill, and Philip Wendy-Smythe attend a party at Myrdstone Manor. Carnacki’s death at Ypres is mentioned. Nadja has said barely two words to their host, Delilah Myrdstone, since Gussie’s Christmas party last year. Delilah’s fiancé Mueller tells St. Cyprian certain translations of the Bible reference “the ghouls that burrow.” Wendy-Smythe mentions the primitive buildings found at Exham Priory a few years ago and says von Juntz was right about ghouls. “The Myrdstone Witch-Cult” is mentioned in Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak story “Curse of the Black Pharaoh.” Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. Carnacki’s death was likely staged, given his post-World War I appearances in the CU. Gussie is Gussie Fink-Nottle from P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves books. The Biblical references to “the ghouls that burrow” are fictional and derived from Robert Barbour Johnson’s “Far Below.” Exham Priory is from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.” Friedrich von Juntz, the author of Unaussprechlichen Kulten, is from Robert E. Howard’s Mythos fiction.

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

Summer 1920

THE DOOR OF ETERNAL NIGHT 

Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass meet Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle, the latter of whom says Holmes used to talk to himself. Holmes and Carnacki worked together on a case in 1899 involving a man named James Phillimore. Doyle says Watson spoke of that affair once or twice. After the case, Carnacki became Edwin Drood’s apprentice. Supposedly, the King of Ruritania lives at Claridge’s when he isn’t serving as the doorman at Barribault’s. Colonel Bobdillo is taking Houdini, his wife, and Doyle to dinner. St. Cyprian draws the odd angles of the Voorish Sign and has a vision involving the three-lobed burning eye. An old man called Captain James Basil helps St. Cyprian and company out of a spot. St. Cyprian knew a man during the war who knew a little something about clouding men’s minds and had the most eerie laugh. Gallowglass refers to a previous case involving Bellingham and his mummy. Ten years ago, a cult in Cairo sealed Houdini into a pyramid. St. Cyprian tries to use a move on his opponent the Thin Man that Captain Drummond had shown him one night in Marseille. The Thin Man is St. Cyprian’s old foe, the mummy Nephren-Ka. If it hadn’t been for the debacle in Seven Dials, Bellingham’s influence among the subtly inclined might have grown to outstrip that of Crowley or Mocata. Doyle wonders if Bellingham is the same man a surgeon of his acquaintance named Abercrombie Smith spoke of. The Starry Wisdom is an offshoot of the Cult of the Great Pyramid Bat. Bobdillo knows the night-music of Khem. Houdini, recognizing Bobdillo from Egypt, asks him whatever happened to Abdul Reis. Captain Basil, who is really Sherlock Holmes, says Colonel Bobdillo was not a real Colonel, but took up the rank when the late, unlamented Colonel Sebastian Moran was locked away. 

Novella by Josh Reynolds, 18thWall Productions, 2016, reprinted in Casefiles of the Royal Occultist Volume One: Monmouth’s Giants, 18thWall Productions, 2019. James Phillimore is the subject of an untold Sherlock Holmes case mentioned in Doyle and Watson’s “The Problem of Thor Bridge.” This Phillimore is a distinct individual from the shape-changing alien who used that name in Farmer and Manders’ “The Problem of the Sore Bridge – Among Others.” Holmes used the alias of Captain Basil in “The Adventure of Black Peter.” Colonel Sebastian Moran is from “The Adventure of the Empty House.” Holmes’ description of Moran as “late” should not be taken literally, as the Colonel will not meet his end until 1935, as described in Kim Newman’s “The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train.” Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. Edwin Drood is from Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The ex-King of Ruritania and Barribault’s are from the works of P. G. Wodehouse. Ruritania itself is originally from Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda. Colonel Bobdillo is from Elliott O’Donnell’s “The Mummy Worshippers.” The Voorish Sign is from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” The three-lobed burning eye is an avatar of Nyarlathotep from Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.” Nephren-Ka and the Starry Wisdom Church are also from that story. Houdini’s interment in a Cairo pyramid and Abdul Reis are from “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs,” supposedly a factual account by Houdini himself, but a fictional story penned by Lovecraft. Khem is from both stories. The man St. Cyprian knew during the Great War is the future pulp hero of the shadows. Edward Bellingham and Abercrombie Smith are from Doyle’s “Lot No. 249.” Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is H. C. “Sapper” McNeile’s hero. Mocata is from Dennis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out. The pyramid bat is a fictional species seen in Sax Rohmer’s Brood of the Witch-Queen. The bat is also mentioned in Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak story “Curse of the Black Pharaoh.” Nephren-Ka appears in that tale under the name Khotep, and as Kephren in “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs.”

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 TV Episode: Colours

 

In this episode of Endeavour, Chief Inspector Thursday and his wife attended the Stuart-Hargreaves Dance Studio in Bicester. Murder victim Jean Ward is really the Right Honorable Moira Creighton-Ward. The South Oxfordshire Regiment was at Mboto Gorge. One of the Regiment’s members is Private “Geordie” Collier. A pair of British fascists named Spode and Webley are mentioned. Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves were the dance instructors at the holiday camp Maplins in the TV show Hi-de-Hi!, which takes place in 1959-1960. Apparently, they left the camp and opened a dance studio in Bicester sometime between 1960 and 1968. The Right Honorable Moira Creighton-Ward is apparently a relative of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward from the television series Thunderbirds, which has already been established as a possible future for the CU. The Battle of Mboto Gorge is from the Blackadder Goes Forth episode “Goodbyeee.” Private Collier may be Newcastle native Terry Collier from the television series The Likely Lads. Terry joined the army in the last episode. Roderick Spode is from P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels. Everard Webley is from Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point. 

This crossover is one of hundreds covered 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: Second Violin

 

Are you a James Bond fan?

Then you'll love this entry in John Lawton's Inspector Frederick Troy series, which has a cameo by a young Bond, as well as nods to Margery Allingham's Albert Campion mysteries, John Osborne's play The Entertainer, George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, and P. G. Wodehouse's Uncle Fred series! 

For more information, be sure to pick up a copy of my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when Meteor House publishes it! 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 1925

THE CREEPING CRAWLERS OF CLAVERING 

Charles St. Cyprian, the Royal Occultist, and his assistant Ebe Gallowglass are summoned to Clavering Grange by Philip Wendy-Smythe. St. Cyprian carried his fair share of bags when he’d played batman for Carnacki. The Sign of Koth is marked on the billiards room door in jam. Wendy-Smythe has one of Vance’s monographs on elementals and has just completed the first English translation of The Book of Minor Grotesques. St. Cyprian says he’ll resolve matters in two shakes of a Shadmock’s tail and mentions the time a dog got into the Drones. He also traces the sign of Hloh in the air and takes the Voorish Sign out of a box decorated in Hyperborean iconography. The sound of rodents reminds Gallowglass of Exham Priory. 

Short story by Josh Reynolds in Shadmocks & Shivers: New Stories Inspired by the Stories of R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Dave Brzeski, ed., Shadow Publishing, 2019. Clavering Grange is the setting of a series of books and stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. The Sign of Koth is from H. P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.” Vance is Alice and Claude Askew’s occult investigator Aylmer Vance. The Book of Minor Grotesques is a recurring tome in Reynolds’ fiction. The Shadmock is from Chetwynd-Hayes’ eponymous story in the linked collection The Monster Club. The Drones Club is from the works of P. G. Wodehouse. Hloh is from Margery Lawrence’s Miles Pennoyer stories. The Voorish Sign is from Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” Hyperborea is from the fiction of Clark Ashton Smith. Exham Priory is from Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.” Since the Clavering Grange stories are in the CU, so are Chetwynd-Hayes’ tales of psychic detective Francis St. Clare and his sidekick Frederica Masters, who visited Clavering in “The Cringing Couple of Clavering.”

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: Jeeves and the Leap of Faith

 

Are you a fan of P. G. Wodehouse's comic novels featuring Bertie Wooster and his valet Reginald Jeeves?

Then you'll love this new authorized novel featuring the duo that has references to two of Evelyn Waugh's novels, as well as P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins books!

All the details can be found in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published in the not-too-distant future 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: 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: Merry John Mock

Hey, like William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki stories?

Then you'll love this story by Josh Reynolds featuring Carnacki's former apprentice and successor as Royal Occultist, Charles St. Cyprian, that also has crossover ties to the Jeeves and Wooster series, among others!

All the details can be found in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, debuting at the Meteor House booth at PulpFest/FarmerCon in Columbus, OH on July 21-24!

Crossover Cover: The Adventure of the Noble Husband

Are you a fan of P. G. Wodehouse's fiction?

Then you must read Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2 to learn all the details about a reference to one of Wodehouse's characters in Peter Cannon's Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Noble Husband!"

Crossovers Expanded is an AUTHORIZED companion to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, and will be coming out from Meteor House next month!

Crossover Cover: Deep Red Bells

This anthology includes “Deep Red Bells,” a Royal Occultist story by Josh Reynolds. Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass try to exorcise the ghost of a shark from St. Cyprian’s friend Gussie Fitzgrace’s body. St. Cyprian has a tremendous amount of respect for the Society for Psychical Research, engendered in him by his mentor Thomas Carnacki. St. Cyprian describes Gussie’s sister Dahlia as “this year’s answer to Rosie M. Banks, producing widely read and inevitably maudlin tripe with a speed that would astound the messenger of the gods himself,” and recalls an incident with an ichthyosaur skeleton in the Drones billiards room. Dahlia mentions “that business with the crystal egg.” St. Cyprian mutters “By their smell can men sometimes know them near,” in response to the odor Gussie is emitting. St. Cyprian asks Gallowglass if he did or did not give her Harzan’s monograph on the detection of abhuman manifestations, and says no two Saaitii manifestations are the same. St. Cyprian traces the sacred shape of the Voorish sign in the air. St. Cyprian possesses a silver disc that has engraved upon its surface the signs of the Saaamaaa Ritual, crafted by the hands of the last of the ab-human priests of Raaee sometime in the 1600s, and confiscated by Dr. John Dee. Thomas Carnacki, Harzan, Saiitii manifestations, the Saaamaaa Ritual, and Raaee are from William Hope Hodgson’s short story collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Rosie M. Banks and the Drones Club are from the works of P. G. Wodehouse. The crystal egg is from H. G. Wells’ titular story. The quote “By their smell can men sometimes know them near” and the Voorish Sign are from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.”

Crossover Cover: PulpWork Christmas Special 2014

This special from PulpWork Press includes three stories with crossovers.

In Josh Reynolds' Royal Occultist story "The Teeth of Winter," Charles St. Cyprian, hunting down a man-eating wendigo in Alberta alongside his assistant Ebe Gallowglass and the elderly Native American gunfighter Lone Crow, makes the third Hloh gesture. St. Cyprian first met the Inuit angakkuq Ukaleq in London, before the War, when he was an assistant to Thomas Carnacki. St. Cyprian and Lone Crow discuss Dr. Silence. St. Cyprian traces the sacred shape of the Voorish Sign in the air. Lone Crow appears in weird Western stories by Joel Jenkins. Hloh is from Margery Lawrence’s stories about occult detective Miles Pennoyer. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, while Dr. Silence is from Algernon Blackwood’s collection John Silence. The Voorish Sign is from H. P. Lovecraft’s story "The Dunwich Horror."

Just as Reynolds' story features a character created by Joel Jenkins, Jenkins' own contribution to the special is a Royal Occultist story. On Maitress Island, St. Cyprian and Gallowglass battle the God of the Dark Burgeoning Deaths. St. Cyprian notes, "Professor Moriarty Moreau is said to have possession of a fragment of the Pnakotic Manuscript which contains directions for sealing portals without the use of human blood." Bella Mae Jobson of the Royal Archaeological Society comes to St. Cyprian and Gallowglass’ aid. St. Cyprian and Gallowglass are from the Royal Occultist stories by Josh Reynolds. Professor Moriarty Moreau’s connection to Professor James Robert Moriarty and Doctor Alphonse Moreau is unknown. The Pnakotic Manuscript is from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Bella Mae Jobson, originally from P. G. Wodehouse’s Drones Club story "The Editor Regrets," first encountered St. Cyprian and Gallowglass in Reynolds’ story "Deo Viridio."

The final story relevant to this blog is "Dillon and the Night of the Krampus" by Derrick Ferguson. Dillon and his friends Wyatt Hyatt and Reynard Hansen battle a Krampus in Reynolds, Alaska. Dillon receives a puppy from Hoover, a man he met years ago. Dillon once sought out a man named Jim Anthony in New York to learn certain specialized knowledge from him. Professor Ursula Van Houghton, who teaches at Grand Lakes University, has been hired by the people of Reynolds to help them deal with the Krampus and recover their stolen children. Dillon took some courses in archaeology and cultural anthropology at the University of Northeastern California under Professor Sydney Fox. Hoover is Alaska Jim Hoover from the German pulp magazine Alaska Jim, Ein Held der Kanadischen Polizei. Jim Anthony appeared in the American pulp Super Detective. Dillon first met Alaska Jim and Jim Anthony in the novel The Vril Agenda, coauthored by Ferguson and Reynolds. Grand Lakes University is from the movie Back to School. The University of Northeastern California is from the sitcom Undeclared. Professor Sydney Fox is from the television series Relic Hunter.

Happy holidays!