Masterman, Walter S
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1876-1946) UK author of detective thrillers some of which, like The Yellow Mistletoe (1930), combine romance, detection, mystery and Lost Races; in this case a young woman named Diana has been abducted by the representative of an ancient fertility cult whose members live in a hidden valley in the Balkans, and who conduct fertility rites (see Sex) in the springtime. Similarly told, but of stronger sf interest, The Flying Beast (1932), in which the discovery of an Underground race of troglodytes beneath a mysterious mansion, and of the eponymous Antigravity-driven aircraft, leads to a long-hidden Edenic civilization in Arabia. [JC]
Walter Sydney Masterman
born London: 19 December 1876
died Brighton, West Sussex: 16 May 1946
works (selected)
- The Green Toad (London: Victor Gollancz, 1928) [hb/nonpictorial]
- The Yellow Mistletoe (London: Jarrolds, 1930) [hb/]
- The Flying Beast (London: Jarrolds, 1932) [hb/]
- The Border Line (London: Jarrolds, 1937) [hb/]
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