Books with author Vic (editor)(Seabury Quinn

“Hercule Poirot meets Fox Mulder” in these stories featuring occult detective Jules de Grandin—volume 4 in a complete series that “raises genuine shivers” (Kirkus Reviews, on The Devil’s Rosary, vol. 2). The pulp magazine Weird Tales was an early platform for many authors of the bizarre and fantastic, including such luminaries as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and Clark Ashton Smith. In the golden age of genre pulp fiction, Weird Tales contributor Seabury Quinn was more popular than them all. Yet in recent years, Quinn and his chilling tales of supernatural mystery have fallen into relative obscurity. Quinn’s most famous character, the French detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey. With shades of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, de Grandin captivated readers for nearly three decades. The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin presents all ninety-three published works featuring the supernatural detective. The fourth volume, A Rival from the Grave, includes all the stories from “The Chosen of Vishnu” (1933) to “Incense of Abomination” (1938).

The fourth of five volumes collecting the stories of Jules de Grandin, the supernatural detective made famous in the classic pulp magazine Weird Tales. Today the names of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and Clark Ashton Smith, all regular contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the first half of the twentieth century, are recognizable even to casual readers of the bizarre and fantastic. And yet despite being more popular than them all during the golden era of genre pulp fiction, there is another author whose name and work have fallen into obscurity: Seabury Quinn. Quinn’s short stories were featured in well more than half of Weird Tales’s original publication run. His most famous character, the supernatural French detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey. In de Grandin there are familiar shades of both Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, and alongside his assistant, Dr. Samuel Trowbridge, de Grandin’s knack for solving mysteries—and his outbursts of peculiar French-isms (grand Dieu!)—captivated readers for nearly three decades. Collected for the first time in trade editions, The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, edited by George Vanderburgh, presents all ninety-three published works featuring the supernatural detective. Presented in chronological order over five volumes, this is the definitive collection of an iconic pulp hero. The fourth volume, A Rival from the Grave, will include all the stories from “The Chosen of Vishnu” (1933) to “Incense of Abomination” (1938), as well as an introduction by George Vanderburgh and Robert Weinberg and a foreword by Mike Ashley.