Simon Ark #04 - The Man from Nowhere

The fourth Simon Ark appearance was in the June 1956 issue of Famous Detective Stories. It was also reprinted in Startling Mystery Stories' Summer 1967 issue. The story, written by Edward D. Hoch, is titled “The Man from Nowhere” and features an enticing premise of “...the story of Douglas Zadig's last day on Earth and the people who were with him when he died.”

The story begins with occult detective (who may be 2,000 years of age) Simon Ark telephoning the unnamed narrator in November 1940ish. Ark asks if the narrator would like to join him on a weekend trip to Maine. In first-person narrative, the narrator explains that any trip with Simon Ark is never as casual as it sounds. He's delighted to unearth some criminal activity with the bizarre detective. 

Ark, who is presented in the series as searching for “Ultimate Evil”, is in Maine to interview an overnight sensation named Douglas Zadig. The 20-yr old man appeared out of the mist one day claiming to have no memory of his past life. He spoke English very poorly, wore clothes that were rags, and possessed a copy of Voltaire's novel Zadig, thus his name was created. However, since the man appeared he has managed to write a book titled “On the Eternal War Between the Forces of Good and the Forces of Evil” that contains word-for-word teachings from a religious leader named Zoroaster – a man that lived seven centuries before Christ. 

When Ark and the narrator arrive to visit Zadig they discover that he has been attacked twice by an unknown entity while sitting alone in his room. There's talk that Zadig may be a target for the Devil himself. Through an investgation both Ark and the narrator learn about a similar man named Kaspar Hauser that also appeared “out of thin air” in 1829. He also remembered nothing of his past and was dressed like a peasant. What is the correlation between these two bizarre men and their outwardly appearance of being from another century? Needless to say the story escalates with a murder mystery. 

“The Man from Nowhere” is an excellent representation of what this series is all about – the perfect cocktail of traditional detective-fiction mixed with a dose of Victorian horror and draped in the hints of a supernatural explanation. Like other weird-menace stories in the pulps there is always a logical explanation. But, what I love about Hoch's resolution to these cases is that he leaves it subjective. There is always a brief possibility that the abnormal things happening are really supernatural. That is evident with Ark's last spoken words in this story: “...there are some things better left unexplained, at least in this world.” 

In this world, you can get a copy of the Simon Ark stories HERE.