Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* DoomsdayCult: The first Simon Ark story, "The Village of the Damned", deals with the mass suicide of members of a doomsday cult. In the anthology ''The Quests of Simon Ark'', Hoch notes that in 1955--several decades before the Jonestown massacre--several editors rejected the story as they considered the premise too far-fetched.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* LineOfSightName: In "The Man from Nowhere", Simon explains that Douglas Zadig is an amnesiac who appeared in England at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. He knew that his first name was Douglas but nothing else. The press gave him the surname Zadig because the only possession he had on him was a copy of the novel ''Zadig'' by Creator/{{Voltaire}}.
Added DiffLines:
* NothingUpMySleeve: In [[spoiler:"The Man from Nowhere"]], the VictimOfTheWeek is seemingly stabbed to death in the middle of the empty field. However, he was actually a ConMan who had been persuaded into FakingTheDead by bursting a blood pack under his shirt. However, his partner is the first to reach the 'body' and--under the cover of checking the body--stabs him for real using a spring-loaded bladed concealed up his sleeve.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SinisterMinister: In his first story ("The Village of the Damned") , Simon exposes the leader of a religous community who drove his followers to commit mass suicide.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 23 (click to see context) from:
* ScoobyDooHoax: The series was using this as a standard device before the trope namer was born.
to:
* ScoobyDooHoax: The series was using this as a standard device before the trope namer TropeNamer was born.
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: In "The Faraway Quilters", the VictimOfTheWeek has her drink spiked with chloral hydrate, which causes her her to pass out and fatally wreck her car.
to:
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: In "The Faraway Quilters", the VictimOfTheWeek has her drink spiked with chloral hydrate, which causes her her to pass out and fatally wreck her car.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* CuttingTheKnot: In one story a magician doing an escape trick is placed in a wardrobe that is chained and padlocked shut. To ensure no tampering with the padlock, a matchstick is snapped off in the keyhole and wax poured over the top. [[LockedRoomMystery When the wardrobe is opened the next day, the magician has been murdered and the lock is untampered with.]] Simon later explains the devastatingly simple method the killer used. [[spoiler:The killer cut the lock off, then replaced it after the murder with an identical looking padlock: snapping off a matchstick in it and sealing it with wax to replicate the original. With the matchstick and wax, there is no way to verify that original key actually fits the lock]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 24 (click to see context) from:
* ShoutOut: In "The Automaton Museum", the murder victim has his office laid out identically to the viction in the ''Literature/FatherBrown'' story "The Invisible Man".
to:
* ShoutOut: In "The Automaton Museum", the murder victim has his office laid out identically to the viction victim's in the ''Literature/FatherBrown'' story "The Invisible Man".
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* WomanOnFire: In "The Witch is Dead", Mother Fortune is found burned to death [[LockedRoomMystery inside her locked trailer with nothing else touched]]. SpontaneousHumanCombustion is suspected, but it is actually murder.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ShoutOut: In "The Automaton Museum", the murder victim has his office laid out identically to the viction in the ''Literature/FatherBrown'' story "The Invisible Man".
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
* AFreshClue: In "The Automaton Museum", Simon deduces the killer's identity when he discovers that the automaton in the victim's office has 27 minutes of time left on its spring, meaning it cannot have been running for more seven minutes after the murder.
to:
* AFreshClue: FreshClue: In "The Automaton Museum", Simon deduces the killer's identity when he discovers that the automaton in the victim's office has 27 23 minutes of time left on its spring, meaning it cannot have been running for more seven minutes after the murder.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AFreshClue: In "The Automaton Museum", Simon deduces the killer's identity when he discovers that the automaton in the victim's office has 27 minutes of time left on its spring, meaning it cannot have been running for more seven minutes after the murder.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/city_if_brass.jpg]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: In "The Faraway Quilters", the VictimOfTheWeek has her drink spiked with chloral hydrate, which causes her her to pass out and fatally wreck her car.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* FakingTheDead: In "The Gravesend Trumpet", two conspirators fake the death of the one of them, making it look like the work of an ancient curse. However, one of conspirators is planning to later murder the other, taking advantage of the fact that everyone already thinks they are dead.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AnachronisticClue: In the short story "The Weapon Out of the Past", Simon identifies a diary supposedly written during the American Revolution as a forgery because it uses the word "silhouette", an eponym not coined at the time.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
Simon Ark was the protagonist of a series of short stories by EdwardDHoch.
to:
Simon Ark was the protagonist of a series of short stories by EdwardDHoch.
Creator/EdwardDHoch.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 20 (click to see context) from:
* WanderingJew: Simon claims to be over 2000 years old and says that he was cursed by God for refusing to allow Jesus to rest while he was carrying the Cross. Whether this is true, a delusion, or an elaborate deception on Simon's part is left as an exercise for the reader.
to:
* WanderingJew: Simon claims to be over 2000 years old and says that he was cursed by God for refusing to allow Jesus to rest while he was carrying the Cross. Whether this is true, a delusion, or an elaborate deception on Simon's part is left as an exercise for the reader. Another story suggests Ark was instead the author of a fraudulent gospel so pious that God was unable to punish him with hell or reward him with heaven, and so left him on the Earth instead.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* InterdisciplinarySleuth: Simon claims he gains a lot of his investigative talent from his time as Coptic priest.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 12 (click to see context) from:
* HighVotageDeath: All of the victims is "The Avenger from Outer Space" are electrocuted.
to:
* HighVotageDeath: HighVoltageDeath: All of the victims is "The Avenger from Outer Space" are electrocuted.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 11 (click to see context) from:
* hangingJudge: "The Judges of Hades" takes its title from the nickname given to a trio of small town judges (two of whom end up dead). The DA describes their judgements as being devoid of human mercy.
to:
* hangingJudge: HangingJudge: "The Judges of Hades" takes its title from the nickname given to a trio of small town judges (two of whom end up dead). The DA describes their judgements as being devoid of human mercy.mercy.
* HighVotageDeath: All of the victims is "The Avenger from Outer Space" are electrocuted.
* HighVotageDeath: All of the victims is "The Avenger from Outer Space" are electrocuted.
Added DiffLines:
* SpontaneousHumanCombustion: In "The Witch is Dead", Mother Fortune is found burned to death [[LockedRoomMystery inside her locked trailer with nothing else touched]]. Spontaneous human combustion is suspected, but it is actually murder.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* hangingJudge: "The Judges of Hades" takes its title from the nickname given to a trio of small town judges (two of whom end up dead). The DA describes their judgements as being devoid of human mercy.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 10 (click to see context) from:
* BurnTheWich: Discussed in "The Witch is Dead". When the eponymous witch is found burned to death inside her locked trailer, TheWatson wonders if she was burned for being a witch like at Salem. Simon points out that the witches at Salem were hanged (with one pressed to death).
to:
* BurnTheWich: BurnTheWitch: Discussed in "The Witch is Dead". When the eponymous witch is found burned to death inside her locked trailer, TheWatson wonders if she was burned for being a witch like at Salem. Simon points out that the witches at Salem were hanged (with one pressed to death).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* BurnTheWich: Discussed in "The Witch is Dead". When the eponymous witch is found burned to death inside her locked trailer, TheWatson wonders if she was burned for being a witch like at Salem. Simon points out that the witches at Salem were hanged (with one pressed to death).
Added DiffLines:
* NoNameGiven: The narrator is never named in the stories.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 12 (click to see context) from:
* ScoobyDooHoax
to:
* ScoobyDooHoaxScoobyDooHoax: The series was using this as a standard device before the trope namer was born.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
* TheWatson
to:
* TheWatsonTheWatson: Simon's publisher, who is also the narrator, fills this role.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 11 (click to see context) from:
* OccultDetective
to:
* OccultDetectiveOccultDetective: This is what Simon ''claims'' to be, or at least claims to be ''trying'' to be. It's not really his fault that the mysteries he uncovers aren't really all that occult after all, now, is it?
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 13 (click to see context) from:
* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: "The Avenger from Outer Space"
to:
* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: In "The Avenger from Outer Space"Space", a killer makes a carefully planned series of murders look like the work of a local lunatic.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 10 (click to see context) from:
* LockedRoomMystery
to:
* LockedRoomMysteryLockedRoomMystery: Many of the stories involve some kind of variation on the locked room mystery. The implication is usually that some sort of occult forces are involved. The reality inevitably turns out to be something much more mundane.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 14 (click to see context) from:
* WanderingJew: Simon claims to be this.
to:
* WanderingJew: Simon claims to be this.over 2000 years old and says that he was cursed by God for refusing to allow Jesus to rest while he was carrying the Cross. Whether this is true, a delusion, or an elaborate deception on Simon's part is left as an exercise for the reader.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 9 (click to see context) from:
* AmateurSleuth
to:
* AmateurSleuthAmateurSleuth: Simon ''claims'' to be a Coptic priest. Of course, he also ''claims'' to be 2000 years old, and searching for works of the devil. What he finds is [[ScoobyDooHoax usually more mundane]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
Simon Ark was the protagonist of a series of short stories by EdwardDHoch.
Simon Ark looks to be an ordinary man in his sixties but he claims he is actually over 2000 years old, a Coptic priest who travels the world looking for evil—specifically, Satan. It is said that he is cursed by God, that when Jesus carrying the cross wanted to rest, Ark refused him rest and in turn has never known rest himself, doomed to wander the globe forever. The narrator of the Ark stories, Simon's publisher, believes that the immortality story is just something Simon came up with to make himself sound mysterious, but he does admit that Simon has not visably aged in all the years he has known him. The immortality element is not played up in any way and is just incidental to the stories.
The Simon Ark stories have supernatural themes, although the crimes in them are always found to have been committed by mundane means.
!!The Simon Ark stories contain examples of:
* AmateurSleuth
* LockedRoomMystery
* OccultDetective
* ScoobyDooHoax
* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: "The Avenger from Outer Space"
* WanderingJew: Simon claims to be this.
* TheWatson
----
Simon Ark looks to be an ordinary man in his sixties but he claims he is actually over 2000 years old, a Coptic priest who travels the world looking for evil—specifically, Satan. It is said that he is cursed by God, that when Jesus carrying the cross wanted to rest, Ark refused him rest and in turn has never known rest himself, doomed to wander the globe forever. The narrator of the Ark stories, Simon's publisher, believes that the immortality story is just something Simon came up with to make himself sound mysterious, but he does admit that Simon has not visably aged in all the years he has known him. The immortality element is not played up in any way and is just incidental to the stories.
The Simon Ark stories have supernatural themes, although the crimes in them are always found to have been committed by mundane means.
!!The Simon Ark stories contain examples of:
* AmateurSleuth
* LockedRoomMystery
* OccultDetective
* ScoobyDooHoax
* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: "The Avenger from Outer Space"
* WanderingJew: Simon claims to be this.
* TheWatson
----
