Black Moon

The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume Five

By: Seabury Quinn

Narrated by: Paul Woodson

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 over half of Weird Tales's original publication run. His most famous character, the French supernatural 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 captivated people for nearly three decades.

The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin collects all ninety-three published works featuring the supernatural detective. The fifth volume, Black Moon, includes all the stories from "Suicide Chapel" (1938) to "The Ring of Bastet" (1951).

©2019 the Estate of Seabury Quinn (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Love these stories!

The review say that the stories can be formulaic repetitive, and that might be the case, but there are only so many plots mystery can use. I especially love these, because the writing in this era was not only time capsule for us to experience that time frame, but also because writers in that era knew that writing wasn’t just flashy dialogue and settings and characterization, but also the mechanics of correct, grammar, diction, Punctuation. I also like this, because these writers borrow each other’s characters and even mention their writers. Manly Wade Wellman is one of my favorite riders from this era, and it’s a shame that Seabury Quinn didn’t mention him and his character John Sunstone until this last collection of short stories.

More formulaic excellence

The narrator’s inspired performance brings to life this unique detective and his supporting cast as they explore more arcane mysteries. These are more short story adventures than mysteries, which works fine for me.