SUPERNATURAL DETECTIVES

These six stories are the full collection of tales involving Algernon Blackwood's best-known protagonist, John Silence. Sometimes called supernatural mysteries, these are less mystery than adventurous encounters with strange phenomena, often in the battle of good vs evil.

Arthur Machen’s occult investigator, Dyson, features in three short stories and the longer narrative, The Three Impostors. Dyson is not a professional detective, but has a keen interest in mysterious events. He investigates strange deaths and disappearances, and encounters weird beings and secret orders. Machen creates a world layered with shadows and wrapped in illusions, requiring all of Dyson’s skill to ferret out reality, however strange it turns out to be. But will he find the truth in time?

Introduction by Tim Prasil.

The supernatural detective was created through the early merging of scientific deductive mystery stories and the tales of hauntings and otherworldly horrors.

These take different forms, with some stories embracing paranormal fantasies, while in others a protagonist detective determines a logical explanation behind the strange mystery. (John Silence is in the former category.)

This collection brings together two different detectives. Carnacki searches for the truth with both scientific and paranormal techniques, and finds both supernatural and human dangers. John Bell is a "ghost exposer," using logic and reason to extinguish supernatural trappings and (usually) explain the mystery.

Aylmer Vance investigates the unknown, using his gifts to determine the source of unexplained phenomena, and helping where he is able. His encounters include both the lovely (as the Lady Green-Sleeves) and the frightening (a vampire curse). These stories were first published in 1914.

Sax Rohmer's Morris Klaw is an eccentric investigator who, along with his beautiful daughter Isis, confronts both supernatural and criminal mysteries. Klaw's strange methods include sleeping at crime scenes to imprint the 'odic forces' and his theories on the Cycles of Crime.

This third pairing of supernatural detectives brings together two very different investigators. Flaxman Low is a typical "psychic detective" investigating strange deaths, ghostly encounters, and weird events. All 12 stories of Flaxman Low (first published 1898-1899) are collected here. Lord Syfret is just bored, and a bit of a busybody, poking his nose into unusual things he encounters, managing to find several puzzles to solve along with encounters with strange or supernatural phenomena. The seven Lord Syfret stories (first published 1896 in The Ludgate Magazine) are collected here.

This fourth duo of supernatural detectives is of the feminine variety. Tim Prchal (Oklahoma State University) introduces these two women as early examples in the genre, and questions why there are so few female supernatural investigators in the early literature.

Shiela Crerar lost her home, so sets out to become a solver of "uncanny mysteries" and "layer of ghosts." She almost meets more than her match. Her six stories were published in 1920.

Luna Bartendale is a professional "supersensitive" who is called in to help end the curse of a bestial monster that haunts the lineage of an old family. This is the full novel, The Undying Monster, first published in 1922.

The Colour-Criminologist: Dr. John Durston uses colour mentation to study chromatic vibrations, allowing him, among other things, to see visions of events elsewhere. Miss Dalrymple joins him in his research, leading to strange adventures. These stories were first published in 1917 as The Rainbow Mystery: Chronicles of a Colour-Criminologist, by William Le Queux (1864-1927).

From Whose Bourne: William Brenton is dead. Was it murder? If so, was it his wife, Alice? The police think so. A detective is needed, but the only one pursuing the inquiry is William himself. As a ghostly investigator, William finds he needs help from both sides of the veil. From Whose Bourne by Robert Barr (1849-1912) was published in 1896.