The Adventures of Jules De Grandin

Rating:
Summary: A Pearl From A Pulp Shell
Review: I became familiar with this character totally by chance. When the paperback collection was released in the 70s, I was baited by the tag line calling him a "supernatural Sherlock Holmes". The stories are well written almost to the point of classic literature, introducing characters with a taste for excitement, a never-ending knowledge of the bizarre and an interesting sense of justice (The Corpse-Master from "the Casebook Of Jules de Grandin" is an excellent example this.) Who cares if a few of the stories were a little campy, even those tales were fun to read. Since I bought the collection in the seventies, I've lost two of the volumes to "Acts Of God" but the four survivors have remained a treasured part of my library, worthy of rereading several times.

Rating:
Summary: A Pearl From A Pulp Shell
Review: I became familiar with this character totally by chance. When the paperback collection was released in the 70s, I was baited by the tag line calling him a "supernatural Sherlock Holmes". The stories are well written almost to the point of classic literature, introducing characters with a taste for excitement, a never-ending knowledge of the bizarre and an interesting sense of justice (The Corpse-Master from "the Casebook Of Jules de Grandin" is an excellent example this.) Who cares if a few of the stories were a little campy, even those tales were fun to read. Since I bought the collection in the seventies, I've lost two of the volumes to "Acts Of God" but the four survivors have remained a treasured part of my library, worthy of rereading several times.

Rating:
Summary: A Pearl From A Pulp Shell
Review: I first became aware of the Jules DeGrandin stories by sheer luck. When a collection of stories was made available in the 70s I was suckered in by the the thought of an "Occult Hercules Poirot." What I found in these books, were a true gems. Since his introduction into my library, I have never been without his stories. His stories are interesting, his approach to supernatural detection are fun and his sense of justice are quite entertaining. If you like Sherlock Holmes and wonder what he would do against a more supernatural opponent, you'll love these stories.

Rating:
Summary: A Pearl From A Pulp Shell
Review: I first became aware of the Jules DeGrandin stories by sheer luck. When a collection of stories was made available in the 70s I was suckered in by the the thought of an "Occult Hercules Poirot." What I found in these books, were a true gems. Since his introduction into my library, I have never been without his stories. His stories are interesting, his approach to supernatural detection are fun and his sense of justice are quite entertaining. If you like Sherlock Holmes and wonder what he would do against a more supernatural opponent, you'll love these stories.

Rating:
Summary: The Adventures Of Jules de Grandin
Review: This is a collection of the first de Grandin tales ever published, in Weird Tales, spanning 1925-27 (we are notified that "Horror on the Links" has now been re-titled "Terror on the Links", but I know not why; I mean, is there really much difference?).

The monster round-up is perhaps disappointingly routine: a vampire or two, a werewolf, a zombie, some ghostly spectres, a giant octopus, a large demonic serpent, a savage simian, and some cannibals. An Afterword to the stories is congratulatory towards Quinn for daring to ignore previous stereotypes of these assorted beasts, but to my mind, all Quinn has done, in producing his own monstrous variations, is present us with various trad creatures that are more vulnerable than their more mythical counterparts. The best story of the lot, "The Curse of Everard Maundy", manages to avoid culling from the usual stable of overused B-Movie threats, and presents a disturbing villain whose words can persuade victims to feel despair to the point of violent suicide. The story also has an extra surprise, where the creature behind the scenes, successfully hidden this time, has a final dangerous trick up its, uh, "sleeve", whereas I felt that most of the other stories share a common weakness: the reader can deduce as easily as de Grandin most of what is going on well before the finale, who is a culprit, or worse yet, a monster in disguise. It's just our narrator, likeable but dense Dr Trowbridge, who, like Poirot's friend Hastings, can't put the pieces together. But I sympathize somewhat with Hastings (Agatha Christie's companion-creation) because Poirot does get challenged with some pretty tricky puzzles, that only the little Belgian detective with the marvellous "little grey cells" can really get unsnarled. De Grandin's cases, by contrast, are reader-friendly when it comes to deciphering clues that point out strange or nonhuman evil-doers, and so more resemble Poe's "creepy mystery" efforts, perhaps, than Ms. Christie's brain-teasers. Quinn and Poe put the accent on creepy, rather than mystery.

I was particularly happy with two other stories that are featured as part of The Adventures of Jules de Grandin--"The Tenants of Broussac" (transparent but lively, and good for a shudder or three, and at least we have a sinister house to go along with a nasty but fairly routine monster) and "The Isle of Missing Ships" (more familiar camp, but here we get some above-normal gore and wickedness, though I wouldn't place it at stomach-turning level, involving the horrid murder of an innocent lass, and a nauseating dinner menu courtesy of the main villain). Finally, though it is brief, Quinn's depiction of a human morphing to werebeast is quite graphic, and reminds me of the famous scene from John Landis's film The Werewolf of London; of course, Quinn subjects us to the entire werewolf-transforming treatment way back in 1927!

Other than that, Quinn's style ranges, often on the same page, from undistinguished and plain, to dazzlingly descriptive. I like him better in "dazzlingly descriptive" mode, as he tries to rival Clark Ashton Smith's word-choice.