Crossover Cover: Strange Magic

Occult investigator Quincey Morris and white witch Libby Chastain find themselves up against an attempt by the CIA to use demons as weapons in the War on Terror. The agency is trying to recreate an experiment in Fairfax, Virginia in 2002 that summoned the demon Asmodeus, with disastrous results. Quincey tells Libby about an occult detective named William Sebastian who had a run-in with Asmodeus in the 1970s. Quincey Morris is the great-grandson of the character of the same name in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Fairfax experiment was the subject of Gustainis’ non-series novel The Hades Project. William Sebastian is from the 1977 television pilot Spectre, co-written and produced by Gene Roddenberry.

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

Crossover Cover: Terovolas

Dr. Abraham Van Helsing travels to Texas to deliver the cremated remains of Quincey Morris to his brother Coleman, encountering werewolves in the process. Van Helsing twice refers to an adventure he had with his colleague Hamish and his famous friend, the Great Detective. Apparently Van Helsing prefers calling Dr. John Hamish Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ best friend and biographer, by his middle name. The afterword describes how Erdelac discovered Van Helsing’s papers at the University of Chicago in 1997. The papers had been earmarked for the Ravenwood Collection. The Collection is named for Abner Ravenwood, Indiana Jones’ archaeology professor at the University of Chicago and the father of his future wife Marion. Among the names listed in the acknowledgments are Dr. Byron McFynn Jr., History Department, Marshall College, Connecticut (the school Indy taught at); Professor Stanislaus Laff, History Department, Empire State University, New York City, New York (the college attended by Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man); and Professor William Wallace Spates III (the grandson of Professor Alfred William Wallace Spates from Erdelac’s Merkabah Rider books, himself based on a reference to “Spates’s catalog” in the movie Ghostbusters), Special Collections, Miskatonic University, Arkham, Massachusetts (the site of numerous Cthulhu Mythos stories by H.P. Lovecraft and others.) Quincey Morris’ body being recovered and cremated does not fit with the events of P.N. Elrod’s novel Quincey Morris, Vampire, which Win included in the original volumes, and so this book, while very good, unfortunately cannot be included in the CU.

Crossover Cover: Lifeblood

Jack Fleming, a vampire P.I. in Chicago, meets fanatical vampire hunter James Braxton, who possesses a copy of the Necronomicon. The appearance of Lovecraft’s Necronomicon places Jack Fleming in the CU. All of Elrod’s vampire series are set in the same universe. Fleming was bitten by Maureen Dumont, who was herself turned by the title character of Elrod’s Jonathan Barrett, Gentleman Vampire series, who met Lucie Manette and a young Percy Blakeney in Elrod’s story “Death in Dover.” Barrett was himself turned by Nora Jones, who also turned Quincey Morris, as seen in Elrod’s novel Quincey Morris, Vampire, a sequel to Stoker’s Dracula that has already been included in the CU via a reference to Colonel Sebastian Moran. Quincey Morris, Vampire also has an appearance by Lord Richard d’Orleans from Elrod and Nigel Bennett’s Ethical Vampires series.

Crossover of the Week

May 1, 2011-September 11, 2012

MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

            Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain battle a Middle Eastern terrorist cell that has acquired control of an afreet. A Navy SEAL and combat magician volunteered to spend six months in the U.K. under the tutelage of an ex-SAS sergeant major, who was said to be the greatest combat magician living. Quincey and Libby’s ally, FBI agent Colleen O’Donnell, mentions a blood spatter analyst named Morgan who worked on a case in Chicago. Quincey and Libby discuss the time they traveled to London for “that Castor thing.” Quincey meets with another colleague, Barry Love, who refers to rumors of an afreet driving a cab in New York for a while. Quincey and Barry set up a meeting at Strangefellows Bar and Grill; Quincey says that there’s another bar of that name in the U.K., and Barry knows a man in the same line of work as them named John who hangs out at the English bar. When Quincey arrives at Strangefellows, Barry is talking to a werewolf named Larry Talbot. Barry tells Quincey about a vampire he once encountered named Jerry, who was fond of apples and was killed by a high school kid after going to California. As Quincey and Barry part ways, Barry says that he is planning to deal with a guy called Pinhead. The terrorists use a spell called the Tarnhelm Effect to mask their breaking into a zoo, and discuss potential threats to their plot, including a magician in Chicago named Dresden and a woman named Blake in St. Louis.

            Novella by Justin Gustainis, 2013. The ex-SAS Sergeant Major and combat magician is William Gravel from Warren Ellis’ comic books Strange Kiss and Gravel. Morgan is Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst and secret serial killer of other murderers, from the television series Dexter. However, Dexter works for the Miami Metro Police Department’s Homicide division, and has never been based in Chicago. Most likely, Dexter was on loan to the Chicago Police Department for this case, and O’Donnell merely assumed he worked for the CPD full time. “That Castor thing” is a reference to Felix Castor, an occult detective created by Mike Carey. The Castor books take place in a world where the public knows supernatural beings exist, so the Castor mentioned by Quincey and Libby must be the Crossover Universe counterpart of the character seen in Carey’s novels. Barry Love is a disguised version of Clive Barker’s occult investigator Harry D’Amour. Pinhead is from Barker’s story “The Hellbound Heart,” as well as the Hellraiser film series. The afreet that drove a cab in New York City appears in Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods. The British Strangefellows is featured in Simon R. Green’s Nightside books; the main character of that series is private eye John Taylor. Larry Talbot is from the classic horror film The Wolf Man and its sequels. Jerry is Jerry Dandridge from the movie Fright Night.The Tarnhelm Effect is from Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy books, which take place in an alternate universe where Richard the Lionheart did not die in the year 1199 and magic has supplanted science. Obviously, the Tarnhelm Effect exists in both Lord Darcy’s universe and the CU. Dresden is Harry Dresden, the protagonist of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series of novels, while Blake is Laurell K. Hamilton’s vampire hunter Anita Blake. Like the Felix Castor novels, the Anita Blake novels take place in an alternate universe where the general public is aware of the existence of the supernatural. Therefore, the Anita Blake mentioned in Gustainis’ Morris and Chastain Supernatural Investigations novels must be the CU counterpart of Hamilton’s character. Although this novella supposedly takes place shortly after the last entry in the series, Play with Fire, Gustainis must have compressed the timeline of events. Play with Fire begins shortly after the novel preceding it, Sympathy for the Devil, which ends the day after Inauguration Day. The last Inauguration Day before the publication of Sympathy for the Devil was January 20, 2009. The inspiration for the terrorists’ actions in Midnight at the Oasis is the death of Osama bin Laden, which occurred on May 2, 2011.

Crossover of the Week

Late January-March 2009

PLAY WITH FIRE

            Occult detectives Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain and their allies – FBI agents Dale Fenton and Colleen O’Donnell, hitman Mal Peters, and a demon using the mortal alias Ashley –battle a cult that is literally trying to raise Hell on Earth. Quincey says that one of his ancestors was a Marshal in Dodge City. Quincey and Libby help occult P.I. Barry Love clear a hellhound out of his office. O’Donnell refers to a report written by Monica Reyes of the New Orleans Field Office. Fenton and O’Donnell’s boss Susan Whitlavich became head of the Behavioral Science Unit after her own boss, Jack Crawford, suffered a fatal heart attack. Whitlavich tells Fenton and O’Donnell that she’s smoothed things over for them with Bernie Jenks at the Las Vegas Field Office.

            Novella by Justin Gustainis, 2012. Quincey’s ancestor is Marshal Matt Dillon from the radio and television series Gunsmoke. Barry Love is a disguised version of Clive Barker’s occult detective Harry D’Amour. Agent Monica Reyes is from The X-Files. Jack Crawford is from Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels. Crawford died of a heart attack in Hannibal. Las Vegas-based FBI agent Bernie Jenks met Carl Kolchak in the TV movie The Night Stalker. Bernie would be elderly by 2009, so this Bernie Jenks must be a relative of his, likely his grandson. The end of this novella leads directly into the next entry in the series, Midnight at the Oasis. However, as explained in the 2011 entry for that novella, Gustainis must have compressed the actual amount of time between the two stories.