Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey

Solar Pons #6

by August Derleth

Who Done It?

Mr. Fairlie set out for London but never reached his destination. His dead body was found en route and in the lining of his hat was the address of . . . Solar Pons!

No one had any evident motive to kill Jonas Fairlie -- but someone did. This wasn't the first time this clever killer had slain and it wouldn't be the last -- unless the master of detection, Solar Pons, could stop him.

Why was Mr. Fairlie carrying Pons's address? And who was this murderer whose killings were planned with utmost care? These were the related puzzles laid before Solar Pons within hours of the discovery of Fairlie's murder .

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Cosmic Horror genre, as well as his founding of the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK), Derleth was a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography

A 1938 Guggenheim Fellow, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious Sac Prairie Saga, a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augus...]

Reviews

[C.O. Bonham · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the Solar Pons books, a cheap and somewhat lifeless knock off of Sherlock Holmes. The mystery is pretty interesting and the solution holds with all of the evidence. It is infact a case worthy of Holmes; A man has been murdered in his train car with the detectives address in his coat pocket. The problem is the Detective. He is just so obviously Holmes without being Holmes that it is confusing. The pipe smoking, non sleeping, heavy thinking, Solar Pons even steals many Holmesian quotes and claims them for his own.

When an author creates a character and puts it on the page they must infuse it with a piece of their own soul in order for it to acheive life in the readers imagination. I think that Derleth skipped this step and instead tried to use a ready made character. Too bad that Doyle's soul was not compatable with Derleth's abilities.

[Laura Rye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this a 3-star rating for the mystery....I was terribly disappointed in August Derleth's "copying" of the Sherlock Holmes template---down to his assistant being a doctor---and using the term "the game's afoot"....surely such a writer as AD could have created his own singular detective. The storyline was good---I didn't guess the murderer, just the "second secret"....its worth a read if you come across it and can get past the obvious Holmes copy.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about Derleth's "Solar Pons" books. On the one hand, he was one of the better Sherlock Holmes pastiche writers, and I get some enjoyment in reading him. He successfully recreates the ambience or the Conan Doyle originals, but afterward, you're left thinking he was like a cover band. The AD novel and stories are like cover band performances. You're reminded of greatness and of an artist "going by the numbers." Less is less.

[Jc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairlie's Final Journey (1968) allows Solar Pons a little more room to work than in previous stories, given that this the only Derleth Pons novel published in his lifetime (the Pons novel Terror Over London was released posthumously in 2018). Fairlie's Final if not the best of the Pons stories, is certainly above many of Derleth’s early short stories. If you get into Solar Pons adventures, Fairlie’s Final is well worth the visit.

[Nemo Erehwon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early homage to Sherlock Holmes by Derleth, who is also known for his work with the HP Lovecraft canon. Entertaining and easy to follow mystery. Some whodunnit's are extremely convoluted to the point of being overly contrived. Not this one. Some might find it too simple, but I enjoyed it.

Note, for those looking for Cthulhu or the supernatural, it is not here.

[Katherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wikipedia calls Solar Pons a "pastiche" of Sherlock Holmes. Well, I have another word for it: fanfiction.

Solar Pons was created by a man who wanted so badly for Sherlock Holmes stories to continue that he made up his own character that was entirely a ripoff of the original. He does the same things. He has a partner in crime solving who is a doctor. He has an older brother named Bancroft, for crying out loud. Even his name is similar: two syllables, one syllables, starts and ends with S, etc. And yet, for all of Holmes' powers which Solar Pons possesses, he has none of the former's character.

This is lukewarm writing by someone who is well-versed in Sherlock Holmes literature, yet lacks any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's talent. The story itself was not overly bad. The writing was overly focused on places. The dialogue was rife with banalities: "Let us do this"; and then we did it. Derleth made a severe mistake in naming two of his main characters Fairlie and Farway; this plus the dozen or so characters to whom we are introduced made the plot incredibly difficult to follow in places.

By the end of the novel, I was hoping that Pons would find his own Reichenbach Falls. This is, after all, the final story August Derleth wrote. That there are Solar Pons societies and as many of these stories as exist baffles me. I have to assume that, at the time they were written, readers were so starved for Sherlock Holmes that they would accept any imitator.

[Read1000books · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the story goes, August Derleth (1909-1971) found out that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wasn't going to do any more Sherlock Holmes tales, so he decided to write his own. How he managed to not be charged with outright copyright violations or at least plagarism I do not know (too many similarities to list). Long story short, Derleth is no ACD and this story is no Hound Of The Baskervilles. It is the only full length novel Derleth wrote featuring his detective Solar Pons; all the rest with Pons and his sidekick Dr. Parker [six books] are short stories. However, if you have read and re-read all of ACD's original 60 Sherlock Holmes stories as I have, you might like these since the plots will be different. It won't be hard to imagine as you read them that the characters are really Holmes and Watson.

[Ken Swiatek · Rating 3 out of 5]

These pastiche characters are deliberately "clones" of Sherlock & Watson. It is very similar to reading a Doyle story. Most of Derleth's Solar Pons works were short stories, and this was the only novel. If you wished you could read another Doyle Sherlock adventure, this one's a good choice.

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost as good as the real thing - if you enjoy Sherlock Holmes, this is worth a look

[Ronald]

read some time in 1983