Some Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons

Solar Pons

by Basil Copper, Stephen Jones (Editor)

I am not writing new Solar Pons stories. My Solar Pons material was authorised and commissioned by Arkham House Publishers, Inc. back in the 1970s, and was written then but, owing to changes at Arkham House, they were never published by that imprint.
The tales remained in limbo for something like twenty years before the originals began to be published by Fedogan & Bremer of Minneapolis. All date from the 1970s and early 1980s so perhaps original copyright lines should have been printed together with the new publication dates which would have obviated all misunderstandings.
So, the present volume and all the Pons tales from my pen were commissioned and authorised by the then editorial and legal personnel at Arkham House and by the estate of the late August Derleth, who was a great friend of mine and very enthusiastic about my work.

—Basil Copper

Genres: Mystery

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2017

About the author

Basil Copper was an English writer and former journalist and newspaper editor. He has written over 50 books and scripts. In addition to fantasy and horror, Copper is known for his series of Solar Pons stories continuing the character created by August Derleth.

Copper edited a 1982 two-volume omnibus collection of Derleth's stories of the 'Pontine' canon, published by Arkham House, a publishing firm founded by Derleth himself and chiefly publishing weird fiction (such as Cthulhu Mythos tales); in that edition, Copper "edited" most of the tales in ways that many Pontine aficionados found objectionable[citation needed]. A later omnibus, The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition, was issued in 2000 under the imprint of Mycroft & Moran (a name which is itself a Holmesian jest).

He also wrote the long-running hard-boiled detective stories of "Mike Faraday" (58 novels from 1966 to 1988).

Copper has received many honours in recent years. In 1979, the Mark Twain Society of America elected him a Knight of Mark Twain for his outstanding "contribution to modern fiction", while the Praed Street Irregulars have twice honoured him for his work on the Solar Pons series. He has been a member of the Crime Writer's Association for over thirty years, serving as chairman in 1981/82 and on its committee for a total of seven years.

In early 2008, a bio-bibliography was published on him: Basil Copper: A Life in Books, compiled and edited by Stephen Jones.

In March 2010, Darkness, Mist and Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper was launched at the Brighton World Horror Convention as a two-volume set by PS Publishing.

Reviews

[Alex Budris · Rating 3 out of 5]

More picturesque adventures in a Holmesian tradition. Featuring all the expected eccentric characters and clever red herrings. Many of these situations initially seem touched with the supernatural, but are always revealed by Pons to have a very real-to-this-world explanation. In the hyper-rational world of the great detective, the impossible is impossible.

Murder at the Zoo is one of the more memorable Pons tales, to me, at least. Maybe because the zoo was the exact same zoo that I pictured in Steve Duffy's story "The Lion's Den" (The Faces at Your Shoulder; Sarob Press, 2023.) I love that story. I'm unsure as to where this archetypical Zoo comes from; it is nothing like the Pittsburgh zoo, the only zoo that I've ever been to.

No, that's not true. There was a doomed trip to the Washington Zoo back when I was living in Virginia. We were at a Murder by Death concert the night before - I spent the whole time outside the venue drinking whisky with a homeless man in a wheel chair. Then the four of us slept in the car in the middle of an empty parking lot. Lucky for us, Patrick and myself were pretty well oiled and slept great, snoring in the back seat.

So we woke up in the morning, the other two guys having gotten no sleep, and we went to the Washington D.C. Zoo. What a terrible fracas! Carl and I got lost and didn't see any animals. I'm not totally sure how that worked. I remember feeling like I was marching around a work-camp. So, the point is - this isn't the Zoo that I've been inhabiting in my imagination either...

So there goes both of my zoos. And what are we left with? The magic of Literature, of course. It will transport you. Out of all those brightly colored cliches that hung around the school in fourth grade, the only ones that hold up are the posters from the library. Most of the others - to me - come off as asinine and occasionally insulting: Be Strong. Be Brave... Actually, that sounds like an ad for the Navy. Talk about insulting. Come do dangerous grunt-work for the wealthy and get a pat on the ass! Join today!

I was just thinking, and prob next on my to-do list should be to find more literature about the zoo. I would like to spend as much time as possible exploring this new Archetype. It's a seductive prospect, though I feel it may lead to terrible revelations. Such is the way of the Seeker. There's no room for Mystics in the world today. Sad.

So, in conclusion - For those wishing to explore the fundamentals of fictional zoological publications, a good place to start is the next to last story in Some Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons.