Horler, Sydney
Entry updated 8 May 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1888-1954) UK journalist – active from about 1905 – and author, most of whose 150 novels are thrillers, all of them published between 1916 and 1955. Some of these tales incorporate sf elements in the form of fantastic Inventions and/or McGuffins, as for instance in the early Curse of Doone (1928), in which a German spy impersonates a vampire who might in fact exist, while simultaneously an sf Invention – a Ray which causes planes to crash-land by stopping their engines by remote control – motors the plot. Some of the Paul Vivanti sequence – specifically The Mystery of No. 1 (1925; vt The Order of the Octopus 1926), The Screaming Skull, and Other Stories (coll 1930; cut circa 1945), The Worst Man in the World (1930), Lord of Terror (1935) and Virus X (1945) – are of interest in their admixture of occult and fragmentary superscience elements, with Death Rays making an appearance or two. The title novella in The Man Who Shook the Earth (coll 1933) features an attempt to blackmail the world by a Scientist who has discovered the secret of atomic energy. [JC]
Sydney Harry Horler
born London: 18 July 1888
died Bournemouth, Dorset: 27 October 1954
works
series
Paul Vivanti
- The Mystery of No. 1 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1925) [Paul Vivanti: hb/]
- The Order of the Octopus (New York: George H Doran, 1926) [vt of the above: Paul Vivanti: hb/]
- The Worst Man in the World: Paul Vivanti Again (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929) [Paul Vivanti: hb/]
- The Screaming Skull, and Other Stories (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930) [coll: Paul Vivanti: hb/Hastain]
- The Screaming Skull, and Other Stories (Bognor Regis, Devon: John Crowther (Thrillers), 1945), [coll: cut version of the above: Paul Vivanti: hb/]
- Lord of Terror: A Paul Vivanti Story (London: Collins, 1935) [Paul Vivanti: hb/]
- Virus X: A Paul Vivanti Story (London: Quality Press, 1945) [Paul Vivanti: hb/]
individual titles
- The Curse of Doone (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1928) [hb/]
- The Man Who Shook the Earth (London: Hutchinson, 1933) [coll: hb/]
- The Formula: A Novel of Harley Street (London: John Long, 1933) [hb/]
- The Charlatan (Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1934) [vt of the above: hb/]
- The Vampire (London: Hutchinson, 1935) [hb/]
- Dying to Live and Other Stories (London: Hutchinson, 1935) [coll: hb/]
- The Evil Messenger (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938) [hb/]
- The Lady with the Limp: A Tiger Standish Adventure (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1944) [Tiger Standish: hb/]
- The House with the Light (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1948) [hb/uncredited]
- The House of the Uneasy Dead (London: Arthur Barker, 1950) [hb/]
- The Devil Comes to Bolobyn (London: Percival Marshall, 1951) [hb/]
- The Face of Stone (London: Arthur Barker, 1952) [hb/]
links
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