In 1919, author Robert James Pearsall introduced, via the pages of the pulp Adventure Magazine, John Partridge, Specialist of the Unknown; within a few months, he was joined by Hazard, adventurer extraordinaire, and together the two traveled throughout revolutionary-era China, battling the evil Ko Lao Hui, a secret society centuries-old, and its enigmatic despot, the evil tong-lord Koshinga. From August, 1919 to November of 1920, the exploits of Hazard and Partridge appeared in stories that demonstrated not only a flair for mystery and adventure, but also a personal acquaintance with the Far East, on the part of the author. Robert J. Pearsall spent some years in China, both before the 1911 revolution that abolished the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China, and immediately after this tremendous upheaval, when warlords, republicans and would-be emperors vied for power. The Adventures of Hazard and Partridge take place in the years following the revolution, in a China struggling between the old and the new, a China Pearsall was all too familiar with. Basing many aspects of his stories on historical figures, groups, and events, Pearsall supplied a tether to actual Chinese history that one would not necessarily expect to find in the pulps. This collected edition of Pearsall’s adventures, contains all stories in the Hazard and Partridge saga, as well as an introduction by historian and author Nathan Vernon Madison, which provides both a look at Pearsall’s life, as well as the events and experiences that may have helped shape his narratives.
The Complete Adventures of Hazard & Partridge by Robert J. Pearsall contains the following stories:
- “Rogue’s End”
- “Undue Influence”
- “Fair Loot”
- “The Eight Vultures of Kwang-Ho”
- “Silver Sycees”
- “The Wizardry of Fear”
- “The Tablet of Shun”
- “Ghost-Ruled”
- “The Test of the Five Arrows”
- “Ming Gold”
- “Intrigue”
- “The Shu King”
- “The Escape”
- “The Dragon Speaks”
