Sun 29 Jun 2008
Reviewed by Walter Albert: R. CHETWYND-HAYES – The Psychic Detective.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[4] Comments
R. CHETWYND-HAYES – The Psychic Detective. London: Robert Hale, hardcover, 1993.
The psychic detective is Frederica (“Fred”) Masters, a young woman both phenomenally endowed with looks and psychic powers, who hooks up with an occult specialist, who convinces her that he can help her “achieve her potential.” He does, with results that almost destroy both of them, as they venture into twilight zone realms where no sane person goes.
The jacket sports the information that the book is to be a Hammer Film, a promise that was never fulfilled, to my knowledge. It’s just as well, since this is a far-fetched, pseudo-humorous caper that strains the imagination and collapses under its own weight. This won’t go on my short shelf of novels featuring psychic sleuths.
[COMMENT] 06-29-08. R. Chetwynd-Hayes, who was born in 1919 and died in 2001, was a British author and anthologist known best for his ghost stories and tales of “sedate” horror.
Although the two are not identified as series characters in Al Hubin’s Revised Crime Fiction IV, I’ve discovered that Francis St. Clare and his assistant Frederica Masters appeared in eight short stories besides this novel. I’ve not yet been able to identify them all; any assistance would be welcome. —Steve
[UPDATE] 07-13-08. Thanks to Jerry House and the comment he left as a first step in putting a list together of the Francis St. Clare–Frederica Masters short stories.
Doing a little more searching on the Internet, I’ve come up with the following list. John Llewellyn Probert is the person who did the research. All credit goes to him.
“The Fundamental Elemental” in Looking for Something to Suck: The Vampire Stories of RCH.
“The Wailing Waif of Battersea” in The Night Ghouls
“The Headless Footman of Hadleigh” in Tales of Fear & Fantasy
“The Gibbering Ghoul of Gomershal” in The Fantastic World of Kamtellar
“The Astral Invasion” in Tales from the Dark Lands
“The Phantom Axeman of Carleton Grange” in Tales from the Haunted House
“The Cringing Couple of Clavering” in Tales from the Hidden World
June 30th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Steve:
The first Francis St. Clare story appears to be “Someone Is Dead” from Chetwynd-Hayes’ The Elemental (Fontana, 1974; reprinted in Stephen Jones’ The Dark Detective; presumably more information on St. Clare may be found in Jones’ story notes/introduction ). According to Mike Ashley in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, St. Clare returns in “most later collections”; since there were at least 19 later collections…
Per the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, two of the short stories are “The Astral Invasion” and “The Cringing Couple of Clavering”. “Cringing” also tied into Chetwynd-Hayes’ Clavering Grange series and can be found in Tales from the Hidden World (London: Kimber, 1988); I don’t know where “Astral” appeared.
Chetwynd-Hayes may be best known today as an editor. He edited 13 volumes of the Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories series and six volumes of The Armada Monster Book series and at least 6 other anthologies; two retrospectives of his anthologies have been published.
John Carradine portrayed Chetwynd-Hayes in the 1980 film The Monster Club. If I remember correctly (it’s been a lo-o-o-ong time since I have seen the movie) Chetwynd-Hayes (the character) was recognized as an extremely famous author of horror stories.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Thanks for all of the chunky tidbits of information, Jerry. It doesn’t seem as though it should be so difficult to put together a list of the St. Clare stories, but little by little, we’re getting there.
— Steve
August 25th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Thank you for writing this. I had never heard of this series until now. I’m going to go check it out, keep up the good work.
May 2nd, 2019 at 9:43 am
Thanks for the tip. Love John Carradine and Vincent Price. I will look for it.