[Book Review] 'Frost' by Donald Wandrei (2000 F&B reprint anthology)
'Frost by' Donald Wandrei (2000 anthology)
It's the early 1930s in New York City. A corpse covered in green mould crawls on the ground towards its screaming would-be victims. Statues of plaster fall from the sky to shatter on the ground, followed days later by human corpses who also shatter and burn to the touch. A seemingly psychopath is killing all the African black apes they can find within city limits. A woman is held in a castle with a window that overlooks a blood red sea, and only escapes after an antelope enters the room.
All the above is standard fair for the brilliantly quirky Professor I.V. Frost, an amateur consulting scientific detective. A tall , gaunt, somewhat aloof genius who dresses a bit shabbily in laboratory leathers despite his millions, Frost is a bit like Sherlock Holmes crossed with Doc Savage crossed by Solomon Kane. Not content to find missing war-plans or speckled bands, Frost only focuses his brilliant intellect on those most eerie adventures right out of The Spider or the Secret Six, in stories that have such evocative titles as "Bride of the Rats", "Green Man--Creeping", "They Could Not Kill Him", "Death Descending" are but some of the stories included in this anthology. Not content to simply solve problems with his mind, he makes use of machine pistols, anesthetic gases, explosive traps, infrared cameras, bulletproof cloaks, and other gadgets and devices of his own invention.
Originally working solo, Frost is joined in his introductory story "Frost" by the stunning Jean Moray, a young beautiful woman in her twenties whom he hires not only because her arresting appearance can deflect momentary attention to himself, but also for her wits, resourcefulness and bravery. Initially repelled by his odd looks and awful habit of smoking sinister if cognitive enhancing cigarettes of his own manufacture, before long Jean is half in love with the giant intellect and yet frustrated and piqued that he never seems to notice her earnest attentions.
This was quite delightful, a collection of the first 8 (of 18) short stories in the Professor I.V. Frost series written by Donald Wandrei which first appeared in the pulp detective pulp magazine 'Clues' back in 1934. One of the original writers in the 'Lovecraft Circle' I've read some of Wandrei's SF and horror stories and other writings (i.e. 'The Web of Easter Island',) but I was surprised at how good his detective stories were.
This itself was a handsome trade hardback edition first collected together under the Fedogan & Bremer imprint (alas now defunct). Alas plans to reprint the final 10 adventures featuring the brooding Dr. Frost and his lovely if romantically frustrated 'Watson', Jean Moray, never materialized. However, on Haffner Press's web-page you can pre-order 'The Complete I.V. Frost'.
::B::
It's the early 1930s in New York City. A corpse covered in green mould crawls on the ground towards its screaming would-be victims. Statues of plaster fall from the sky to shatter on the ground, followed days later by human corpses who also shatter and burn to the touch. A seemingly psychopath is killing all the African black apes they can find within city limits. A woman is held in a castle with a window that overlooks a blood red sea, and only escapes after an antelope enters the room.
All the above is standard fair for the brilliantly quirky Professor I.V. Frost, an amateur consulting scientific detective. A tall , gaunt, somewhat aloof genius who dresses a bit shabbily in laboratory leathers despite his millions, Frost is a bit like Sherlock Holmes crossed with Doc Savage crossed by Solomon Kane. Not content to find missing war-plans or speckled bands, Frost only focuses his brilliant intellect on those most eerie adventures right out of The Spider or the Secret Six, in stories that have such evocative titles as "Bride of the Rats", "Green Man--Creeping", "They Could Not Kill Him", "Death Descending" are but some of the stories included in this anthology. Not content to simply solve problems with his mind, he makes use of machine pistols, anesthetic gases, explosive traps, infrared cameras, bulletproof cloaks, and other gadgets and devices of his own invention.
Originally working solo, Frost is joined in his introductory story "Frost" by the stunning Jean Moray, a young beautiful woman in her twenties whom he hires not only because her arresting appearance can deflect momentary attention to himself, but also for her wits, resourcefulness and bravery. Initially repelled by his odd looks and awful habit of smoking sinister if cognitive enhancing cigarettes of his own manufacture, before long Jean is half in love with the giant intellect and yet frustrated and piqued that he never seems to notice her earnest attentions.
This was quite delightful, a collection of the first 8 (of 18) short stories in the Professor I.V. Frost series written by Donald Wandrei which first appeared in the pulp detective pulp magazine 'Clues' back in 1934. One of the original writers in the 'Lovecraft Circle' I've read some of Wandrei's SF and horror stories and other writings (i.e. 'The Web of Easter Island',) but I was surprised at how good his detective stories were.
This itself was a handsome trade hardback edition first collected together under the Fedogan & Bremer imprint (alas now defunct). Alas plans to reprint the final 10 adventures featuring the brooding Dr. Frost and his lovely if romantically frustrated 'Watson', Jean Moray, never materialized. However, on Haffner Press's web-page you can pre-order 'The Complete I.V. Frost'.
::B::