A Rival from the Grave

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, includes 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.

Seabury Quinn was a pulp magazine author, whose popular stories of the occult detective Jules de Grandin were published in Weird Tales between 1925 and 1951. Quinn penned ninety-two short stories and one full-length novel featuring 'the occult Hercule Poirot,' which were enormously popular with readers. Quinn lived in Washington, D.C., United States, and died in 1969.

Praise for the Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin

"Hercule Poirot meets Fox Mulder . . . gruesomely effective, and purists who object to detective stories with paranormal elements will find that the moment each story crosses the border to the supernatural raises genuine shivers."—Kirkus Reviews

“Connoisseurs of pulp adventure . . . will be delighted.”—Publishers Weekly

"A collection of wonderfully fun mashups. Seabury Quinn's stories are bloody and action-packed, with the sort of shameless, disreputable charm that characterizes the best of the pulps. Even if there's little that's truly original in his work, his clever assortment of monsters and occult menaces make for tremendously entertaining stories. His admirers have every reason to be thrilled with these comprehensive new collections, and the writer will find new fans among those who enjoy truly weird horror."—Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

"A fun, spooky trip back to the golden age of weird . . . De Grandin, 'his little blond mustache twitching like the whiskers of an excited cat,' is an exuberant, delightful creation."—Publishers Weekly

“A true 'time lost literary treasure' brought back into print for the benefit of a new generation of appreciative readers, "The Dark Angel" is an extraordinarily entertaining read from cover to cover . . . unreservedly recommended for community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections.”—Midwest Book Review

“Read this and you will get a blast of the past...It's nice to see the old stories gathered up and being shared again. Stories never die as long as there's still one storyteller left.”—Book Faerie

"Many of these stories have been unavailable for years. I applaud Night Shade Books for bringing these wonderful stories back into print. I can't wait for Volume Two! GRADE: A"—GeorgeKelley.org