I'm reading The Man from the Diogenes Club by Kim Newman (Monkeybrain, 2006), a collection of his stories about the early 1970s special occult investigator Richard Jeperson. It's like a collection of old Avenger episodes. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Kolchak. Newman is author of Anno Dracula and its sequels.
If we are talking Occult detectives, I can recommend Blackcoat Press.
They are reprinting/translating a lot of French detective/pulp stories from the late 1800's to the early 1900's, as well as some new stuff with those characters.
Couple of the good ones:
Jules De Grandin ( think Hercule Poirot meets Kolchak)
Sar Dubnatal ( a turban wearing mystic/PI)
as well as lots of thieves, pulp heroes and Jules Verne style sci-fi.
I know Black Coat Press very well, have the first Shadowmen book and the three Tales of the Shadowmen anthologies that mix together a variety of literary characters in a Philip Jose Farmer Wold Newton manner.
I've always been a big fan of Jules de Grandin (I have the old paperback reprints). I thought that Sar Dubnatal seemed interesting -- eventually they are supposed to reprint some of that French pulp material.
There's a great anthology called Dark Detectives that is full of good occult detectives.
I'm also a fan of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series.
Tales of the Shadowmen is a fun series. Some of the team ups have been pretty clever.
Blackcoat is supposed to be reprinting some of the Sar stories as well as Harry Dickson.
Who puts out Dark Detectives?
People keep recommending Kim Newman's stuff. I'll have to grab a copy of Anno Dracula with my christmas money.
Dark Detectives: Adventures of the Supernatural Sleuths edited by Stephen Jones (Fedogan & Bremer, November 1999). Dark Detectives is a collection of short stories combining the detective and supernatural genres. Psychic investigators and investigators of the psychic are brought together in a chronological selection of stories ranging from ancient Egypt to an apocalyptic future. Eghteen stories included, and eight form an interstitial episodic short novel "Seven Stars" by Kim Newman. Some of the greatest fictional detectives who have ever confronted the supernatural, including Hodgson's Carnacki and Manly Wade Wellman's John Thunstone, are included.
This is usually pretty easy to find.
The Manly Wade Wellman stuff is great, he did a number of occult investigator series, including Thunstone, Judge Pursivant, and John the Ballad-Singer (also known as Silver John). Most appeared originally in Weird Tales and Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Most have been collected.I recommend it if you can find it.
Try Anno Dracula, an alternate history novel set in the 1890s, where Dracula defeated Van Helsing and married Queen Victoria.
Supernatural Sleuths: 14 Mysterious Stories of Uncanny Crime edited by Martin H, Greenberg (Roc, 1996) is another good anthology and easy to find. The stories range from "Children of Ubasti," by Seabury Queen, first published in 1929, to "The Chronology Protection Case," by Paul Levinson, published just one year before the anthology.
I also recommend Christopher Golden's "Menagerie" series.
I have a collection of Wellman stories kicking around the house somewhere. Good stuff. I like his various heroes and how every now and then, they'll cross paths.
Thanks for the info on the anthologies. I'll keep an eye out for them.
I caught the premiere of The Dresden Files on Sci-Fi Network last night -- very well done and sure to be of interest to Kolchak fans.
I recently read Occult Detective by Robert Weinberg, a collection of his Sidney Taine short stories. These are pretty good. The book is a reasonably priced trade paperback from a specialist press.
Carnacki,
Who is the publisher for that book?
Ticktock