The supernatural horror that isn’t; the most wicked women in the world, and emus. Everyone should read L T Meade, especially Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts. Not because of her brilliance per se, but because of the pivotal importance of the detective stories she wrote with Robert Eustace. In these, you will find the most brilliant and twisted female villains, murders by extraordinary means, and the tireless intertwining of evil across continents. Some say that she established the first female ‘Moriarty’, the first female leader of a Mafioso brotherhood, and even the first female occult detective. We shall explain…
Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (1844–1914), writing as L T Meade, was a clergyman’s daughter from County Cork in Ireland. With more than 300 books and many magazine stories to her credit, she was widely read at the time, particularly because of her books for young people. She did however produce many adult romances, mysteries and thrillers, and the one we want to mention to day are in the latter categories, the results of a curious collaboration.
Eustace Robert Barton (1854–1943) was a doctor and writer from the south of England, who used the pen name Robert Eustace. If you’ve heard of him in any other context, it’s probably because he provided Dorothy L Sayers with the plot of her non-Peter Wimsey crime novel, The Documents in the Case. Although she thought his plot and suggestions capital, she felt she hadn’t done Eustace’s ideas justice. We mention that because when we come to his collaborations with L T Meade, those stories certainly overflow with medical and scientific madness.
Meade was vastly more prolific than Eustace, and we give her primary credit here because it seems likely that the bulk of the broad story flows from her fingers, whilst many of the convoluted technical twists must have come from her collaborator. In addition, their detective thrillers are notable for their strong female characters, and L T Meade was an early feminist (she was a member of the egalitarian women’s Pioneer Club, which made no distinctions between class).
USELESS TRIVIA: The name of the Pioneer Club was drawn from a poem by that odd American poet, Walter Whitman (1819-1892), ‘Pioneers! O Pioneers!’. As a campaigner for abstinence, a man of broad sexual views and a bit of a loony, he was well-regarded in some progressive circles back then.
Meade kept female characters to the fore in much of her work. Although we don’t discuss them here, the L T Meade – Robert Eustace machine also wrote three tales of a palmist, Diana Marburg. These stories are highly unusual in that they utilise a degree of the supernatural – normally there is a practical explanation for all of L T Meade’s mysteries. This short series was known as The Experiences of the Oracle of Maddox Street, and was first published in Pearson’s Magazine in 1902.
In addition, Meade and Eustace were responsible for the detective Florence Cusack stories, serialised in Harmsworth Magazine between 1899-1902. In her female villains, she played away from any suggestion of old conniving crones or the commonplace. As you’ll see below, her Ms Moriartys were charming, beautiful, talented and scientifically accomplished – and they succeeded, for the most part.
Today we can only give the broadest introduction to three particular sets of mystery thrillers which stand out, and we’ll scribble a little about each to give you a taste. The inventiveness of late Victorian science is prominent in all three sets. Any occult detective enthusiasts should especially note the John Bell stories, in which, as a ‘ghost exposer’ he manages to prove that everything he encounters is non-occult. In fact, such is the peculiarity of some proofs that it might have been more believable to have just used the supernatural.
The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings
“THAT a secret society, based upon the lines of similar institutions so notorious on the Continent during the last century, could ever have existed in the London of our day may seem impossible. Such a society, however, not only did exist, but through the instrumentality of a woman of unparalleled capacity and genius, obtained a firm footing. A century ago the Brotherhood of the Seven Kings was a name hardly whispered without horror and fear in Italy, and now, by the fascinations and influence of one woman, it began to accomplish fresh deeds of unparalleled daring and subtlety in London. By the wide extent of its scientific resources, and the impregnable secrecy of its organisations, it threatened to become, a formidable menace to society, as well as a source of serious anxiety to the authorities of the law.” (Intro to Brotherhood)
This episodic novel should really be a classic. It can be read as a series of linked short stories, and began serialisation in The Strand in January 1898. The highlight is Mme Koluchy, their first shot at creating a female Mistressmind, a truly wicked genius. Although the prime investigators are men, Mme Koluchy is the star – and in addition, later in the chase, a female detective is brought on board.
Miss Beringer, that detective, is spoken of in terms of admiration throughout as a person to be reckoned with. The fact that one of the characters says, of Beringer, that there is “not a cleverer lady detective in the whole of London,” is interesting, because it maintains L T Meade’s clear message of women’s capabilities. And it presses the point that, in fiction at least, professional men of the time are aware of the talents of “lady detectives”, and see them as an established force for good.
As for Mme Koluchy, she is introduced as the head of an Italian-based criminal organisation, the eponymous Brotherhood of the Seven Kings. The main protagonist is a certain Norman Head, who had once been under the spell of Koluchy (known to him back then as Katharine) and a full member of the Brotherhood. A scientist and philosopher, he is aided by a lawyer friend, Colin Dufrayer in his hunt to make good his past and bring Koluchy to justice. But madame has inveigled her way into society.
“She is quite the most wonderful, delightful woman in existence. She, indeed, is a doctor to have confidence in. I understand that the men of the profession are mad with jealousy, and small wonder, her cures are so marvellous.” (The Winged Assassin)
As a novel or a short story collection, this is a jolly good read. It has a number of qualities which recommend it:
- The protagonists regularly lose to the villain’s machinations, and are outmanoeuvred at almost every turn by Mme Koluchy and her confederates.
- Characters die. And we mean focal characters, not minor nobodies.
- Eustace’s ingenuity is outstanding, as he utilised everything from sound waves to cathode ray tubes, complex mechanical devices to TseTse flies, in his search for unexpected turns. Hypodermics and toxins abound as well.
- Mme Koluchy herself is a totally unrepentant killer, organiser and manipulator to the very end, a top-notch baddie.
The Sorceress of the Strand
Madame Sara may be seen as L T Meade’s embellishment on Mme Koluchy, with Eustace’s ingenious plot devices still operating at full throttle. She first appeared in The Strand Magazine (‘Madame Sara’, The Blood Red Cross, ‘The Face of the Abbot’) July-December, 1902, and then ‘The Talk of the Town’, ‘The Bloodstone’, and ‘The Teeth of the Wolf’ in The Strand for January-June, 1903.
In these six stories, Madame Sara is a woman of remarkable talents, being a beautician, herbalist, perfumer, surgeon and dentist, as well as an accomplished singer and socialite who draws everyone around her into a bedazzlement. Her knowledge of poisons is unsurpassed, and once again she has the mystery of a woman with foreign blood. To most of London society, as with Koluchy, she is charming, a friend and confidante to many fine ladies. To the ‘heroes’, Dixon Druce and police surgeon Eric Vandaleur, she is a monster.
In Mme Sara, Meade observes the networks of society, especially those of the women, and through the madame’s role as a beautician – with hints of strange ways in which to combat ageing and magnify beauty – some of the preoccupations of that world. She is more appealing than Koluchy, but just as dangerous.
“The woman who had done all this was to share my spoils.”
“Her name?” I cried.
“Sara, the Great, the Invincible,” he murmured.
As he spoke the words he died. (The Face of the Abbot)
Again a good read for those who love a period mystery, with yet more unusual approaches to murder – and lots more hypodermics.
The first of the Madame Sara mysteries was televised as part of the Rivals of Sherlock Holmes TV series, not without some success, but with an unnecessary added layer of attraction between Druce and Sara. Vandaleur the police surgeon was promoted to Inspector.
Delightfully, this adaptation included a key performance by Roger Delgado, the Master from the original Dr Who, which leads us nicely on to…
A Master of Mysteries
.Finally, a series of short stories without a female villain, in which one John Bell concentrates on exposing the supernatural, finding complicated and unlikely practical explanations for everything under the sun. These were first serialised in Cassell’s Magazine, from June 1897 onwards. Bell is Carnacki without the occult tales, an investigator into the seemingly paranormal. From L T Meade comes a good yarn, with a likeable enough protagonist in Bell, whilst from Robert Eustace comes a series of yet more unusual exposes, including major domestic engineering, acoustic theology, and a man in a diving suit. If the solutions seem at times too bizarre, they have a pleasing madness about them.
We promised you emus, and will not disappoint. Not included in the Master of Mysteries is the ‘The Secret of Emu Plain’, which exceeds the collection in its unlikelihood. A bridegroom disappears at the foot of the massive Emu Rock in Australia, with no sign of how he vanished. He is not the first to go missing there. A stock native tracker (rather poorly written) has panics about bunyips; white people are thrown into confusion, and eventually despair. True to L T Meade’s politics, the prospective bride insists on taking John Bell out to the area again and again.
“Do you think anything that is possible for a man is impossible for a woman?” she said. ”We can take some food with us, and start at once. We won’t consult anyone. If we are quick, we can reach the rock an hour or two before sunset, and I know the whole of the ghastly place so well that we can return in the moonlight. Oh, don’t oppose me,” she added, “for if you do I will start alone. Anything is better than inaction.”
We won’t spoil the almost impossible end. There is no explanation of what happened in the original story, which might make it almost a completely-nuts precursor to Picnic at Hanging Rock. At the end of it, Cassell’s Magazine printed:
THIS exceedingly clever story is the sequel to the adventures of John Bell, the ghost exposer, related for us by Mrs. Meade last year, under the title of “A MASTER OF MYSTERIES”. Some of our readers will remember that Mrs. Meade spoke then of one mystery which John Bell had not been able to fathom. The above story of Emu Plain is the mystery in question.
The magazine offered ten prizes of one guinea to readers who could explain the story, and was subsequently awash with proposed explanation as unlikely as the ‘truth’. The suggestion that John Bell had been suffering from indigestion, and dreamed the whole episode, is actually as good as any.
Had we been around at the time, we feel that our solution, involving vindictive mountaineering emus who had purloined chloroform and bungee ropes, led by a wicked flightless matriarch, would have won first prize…
L T Meade Fiction
You can find various of L T Meade’s works at places like Project Gutenberg. Amongst their offerings they have A Master of Mysteries:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22278
Project Gutenberg Australia has the full text of The Brotherhood of Seven Kings:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606121h.html
The three Oracle of Maddox Street stories can be found in Tim Prasil’s anthology here:
http://amzn.eu/bZjOWKZAnd The Sorceress of the Strand can be read online:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/meade/sorceress/sorceress.html
Many other print or e-versions of L T Meade’s fiction can be found via Amazon, but we advise careful examination to check what you’re getting. Some are single stories only; others don’t say how many of the tales are contained within.
(Drawn illustrations above are from The Sorceress of the Strand)
