Dr Muncing Exorcist

Dr. Muncing, Exorcist is a horror tale by Gordon MacCreagh. MacCreagh was an American writer of horror and mystery. Excerpt: "The plump, limp bulk moaned again. The lips moved; inarticulate sounds proceeded from them, the fragments of unformed words; then a quivering sigh and silence. The doctor took occasion to lean first to one side and then to the other to listen to the breathing of Mr. Jarrett and the boy. Both were a little faster than normal; under the circumstances, not strange. With startling suddenness words cut the dark, clear and strong."

A Retrospective Collection of Classic Occult and Supernatural Detective Stories by Some of the Field’s Greatest and Best-Known Weird Fiction Authors Since the gaslit nights at the end of the nineteenth century, the occult detective has been a beloved and recurring archetype. Mixing the best aspects of the detective tale and weird or supernatural fiction, and capitalizing in part on the massive popularity of Sherlock Holmes, these stories portrayed men and women pitted against surreal and horrifying foes, usually with little to defend them but their own savvy, experience, and know-how. From William Hope Hodgson’s Thomas Carnacki, to Seabury Quinn’s fearless Frenchman Jules de Grandin, to Jessica Salmonson’s Penelope Pettiweather, the occult detective has taken a variety of forms, investigated a wide array of supernatural and otherworldly cases, and entertained generations of readers. This new collection compiles thirty-one all-time classic occult detective stories as it traces the genre’s growth from its nineteenth-century origins to the late twentieth century, showcasing the work of acclaimed pioneers of weird tales alongside cult favorites and exciting modern talents. So, step into the shadows, join us on this journey into the dark, and become a fighter of fear . . . CONTENTS Introduction, Mike Ashley Green Tea, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu The Shining Pyramid, Arthur Machen The Haunted Child, Arabella Kenealy The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel, L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace The Story of Yand Manor House, E. & H. Heron The Tapping on the Wainscott, Allan Upward Samaris, Robert W. Chambers The Whistling Room, William Hope Hodgson The Woman with the Crooked Nose, Victor Rousseau The Sorcerer of Arjuzanx, Max Rittenberg The Ivory Statue, Sax Rohmer The Stranger, Claude & Alice Askew The Swaying Vision, Jessie Douglas Kerruish The Sanatorium, F. Tennyson Jesse The Villa on the Borderive Road, Rose Champion de Crespigny The Room of Fear, Ella Scrymsour The Seven Fires, Philippa Forest The Subletting of the Mansion, Dion Fortune The Jest of Warburg Tantavul, Seabury Quinn The Soldier, A. M. Burrage The Horror of the Height, Sydney Horler The Mystery of Iniquity, L. Adams Beck The Thought-Monster, Amelia Reynold Long The Shut Room, Henry S. Whitehead Dr. Muncing, Exorcist, Gordon MacCreagh The Case of the Haunted Cathedral, Margery Lawrence The Shonokins, Manly Wade Wellman The Dead of Winter Apparition, Joseph Payne Brennan The Garden of Paris, Eric Williams St. Michael and All Angels, Mark Valentine Jeremiah, Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Although fantasy and supernatural literature have long and celebrated histories, many critics contend that the fantastic and the supernatural have no place in the logical, rational, world of the detective story. This book is the first extensive study of the fantastic in detective fiction and it explores the highly debated question of whether detective fiction and the fantastic can comfortably coexist. The "locked room" mystery--which often uses the fantastic as a red herring to eventually be debunked by reason and logic--has long been among the most popular subgenres of detective fiction. This book also explores stories featuring almost supernaturally gifted detectives, stories where the supernatural is truly encountered, and stories with ambiguous endings. Close to 500 detective stories from 1841 to 2000, in which the fantastic or supernatural plays a central role, are discussed and analyzed. Although not all the stories are judged to be successful as detective tales, in the great majority, the fantastic enlivens the tale and deepens the mystery without weakening the detective elements.

CRIMES OF TERROR AND DARKNESS In the battle between good and evil, the supernatural investigators form the first line of defense against the unexplainable. Here are eighteen pulse-pounding tales featuring uncanny sleuths battling against the weird, written by Clive Barker R. Chetwynd-Hayes Basil Copper Neil Gaiman William Hope Hodgson Brian Lumley Brian Mooney Kim Newman Jay Russell Peter Tremayne Manly Wade Wellman Featuring the entire ‘’Seven Stars” saga by Kim Newman, pitting the Diogenes Club against an occult object with the power to ultimately annihilate mankind!

STRANGE TALES OF MYSTERY AND TERROR . . . When Strange Tales first appeared in 1931 as a pulp magazine, it was clearly something new. Edited by Harry Bates as a companion to Astounding Stories, it combined the supernatural horror and fantasy of Weird Tales with vigorous action plots. Had the Great Depression not intervened and killed it after seven issues, the whole history of fantastic fiction might have been different. Strange Tales rapidly attracted the most imaginative and capable writers of the day, including such Weird Tales regulars as Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Henry S. Whitehead, Hugh B. Cave, Ray Cummings, and numerous others. Certainly Strange Tales gave Weird Tales a serious run for its money. The March 1932 issue features work by Paul Ernst, Henry S. Whitehead, Gordon MacCreagh, and more. The fine cover by H.W. Wesso illustrates "The Duel of the Sorcerers," by Paul Ernst.

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.

The literature of the supernatural has had a distinguished history over the past two centuries, and the incorporation of the supernatural in literary works can be traced back as far as classical antiquity.

When Strange Tales first appeared in 1931 as a pulp magazine, it was clearly something new. Edited by Harry Bates as a companion to Astounding Stories, it combined the supernatural horror and fantasy of Weird Tales with vigorous action plots. Strange Tales rapidly attracted the most imaginative and capable writers of the day, including such Weird Tales regulars as Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Henry S. Whitehead, Hugh B. Cave, Ray Cummings, and numerous others. Had the Great Depression not intervened and killed it after seven issues, the whole history of fantastic fiction might have been different. The January 1933 issue features Hugh B. Cave's classic "Murgunstrumm," as well as stories by Robert E. Howard, Henry S. Whitehead, and many more.