A small but satisfying collection of mysteries with an occult tinge featuring Sax Rohmer's fictional detective Moris Klaw. I first came across Moris Klaw in my grandfather's copy of 'Fifty Famous Detectives of Fiction', containing the story "The Tragedies in the Greek Room" and it is fully as good as I remembered it. ( )

Sax Rohmer's version of Sherlock Holmes is classic early pulp, including the racism. Unlike his yellow perils Fu Manchu stories, though, racism isn't essecial to the plots of this set of connected stories. Moris Klaw is the Dream Detective, because one of his methods is to sleep in the room where a crime occurred, on a special pillow, so that his brain will absorb the "odic" vibrations of the thoughts of the victim or perpetrator at the time of the crime. Rohmer is smart enough not to have this solve the crime. It simply provides a clue not otherwise available. Despite the fact that the crimes frequently appear to involve hauntings and curses, all (but perhaps one) turn out, in good Scooby-Do form, to be be definitely non-occult. happened.

Other than oddity and colorfulness, there is little to recommend these stories. Though the mysteries have a locked room flavor to them, all are resolved by revealed background information, not by piecing together clues scattered around. Klaw, and his incredibly beautiful (as we're told repeatedly) daughter Iris are never given any backstory, or reason to exist other than to further the plot. ( )

My very favorite Rohmer. This guy sleeps in the same room as the person who has been murdered and thereby solves the crime. ( )

Moris Klaw is an antique dealer, student of the occult, and detective. His cases often involve ancient relics, and sometimes genuinely occult forces, but not always. He solves them at times by dreaming to pick up the thoughts surrounding the crime. He is assisted by his beautiful daughter Isis. ( )

Moris Klaw is no Simon Ark, but the Rohmer stories still make for enjoyable reading. ( )