Introduction
The Tomb’s Secret. Under the name: Patrick Ervin. Featuring Steve Harrison.
The February 1934 issue of STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES carried two stories by REH: “The Tomb’s Secret” and “Fangs of Gold”. It appears that the story titles were inadvertently switched. Howard’s agent, Otis Adelbert Kline, kept a list of titles and the magazines that purchased them. The story was sold for $85 and after Kline had his share, Howard earned $72.25 on the sale.
Above “The Teeth of Doom” on Kline’s list, someone added “The Tomb’s Secret” and above “The People of the Serpent” on Kline’s list, someone added “Fangs of Gold.”
Originally a Steve Harrison story, the main character was changed to Brock Rollins when the story ran in the same issue of STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES as the Steve Harrison story “Fangs of Gold.”
In a letter (#259) to H.P. Lovecraft, ca. September or October 1933 Howard tells him about his story:
Lately I’ve been trying to write detective yarns, something entirely new for me, and haven’t had much success — in fact none, so far, except for a short yarn, “Talons in the Dark”, written in San Antonio last spring, and which Kline, as my agent, sold to a magazine called Strange Detective Stories. Kline has been a big help in teaching me the technique of detective story writing; whether I am able to profit by his teaching remains to be seen. (Kline marketed another yarn for me since I wrote the above.)
The other story mentioned is probably “The Teeth of Doom,” published as with the title “The Tomb’s Secret”.
Alternate title:
Published in:
- STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES VOLUME 5 NUMBER 3, Nickel Publications, February 1934
- WRITER OF THE DARK, Dark Carneval Press, 1986
- PULP REVIEW #17, Pulp Collector Press, September 1994 (facsimile)
- ROBERT E. HOWARD: WORLD’S GREATEST PULPSTER #1, Dennis McHaney, September 2001
- GRAVEYARD RATS AND OTHERS, Wildside Press, August 2003
- THE HOWARD REVIEW #12, Dennis McHaney, October 2004
- GRAVEYARD RATS AND OTHERS, Wildside Press, December 2004
- THE EXOTIC WRITINGS OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Girasol Collectables, October 2006
- THE TOMB’S SECRET, Dodo Press, February 2008
- THE DEVILS OF ERLIK KHAN, Francis DiPietro, August 2008
- THE BOOK OF THE HOWARD REVIEW, Dennis McHaney, June 2009
- GRAVEYARD RATS AND OTHER DETECTIVE STORIES, Halcyon Press, Ltd., December 2009
- THE ROBERT E. HOWARD OMNIBUS: 99 COLLECTED STORIES, Halcyon Press, Ltd., May 2010
- 50 CLASSIC HORROR BOOKS, Golgotha Press, December 2010
- THE BOOK OF THE HOWARD REVIEW, Dennis McHaney, December 2010
- STEVE HARRISON’S CASEBOOK, REH Foundation Press, January 2011
- ROBERT E. HOWARD’S COLLECTED WORKS, Jame-Books, February 2013
- THE OCCULT DETECTIVE MEGAPACK: 29 CLASSIC STORIES, Wildside Press, September 2013
- PULP FACSIMILE EDITION: STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES VOLUME 5 NUMBER 3, Adventure House, December 2013
- THE TOMB’S SECRET, eStar Books, November 2014
- STEVE HARRISON AND COLLEAGUES, Ulwencreutz Media, March 2015
- STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES, Ozymandias Press, August 2016
- STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES, Jovian Press, November 2016
- STEVE HARRISON. DETECTIVE DEL MACABRO, Providence Press, April 2017 (Italian)
- БОГИ БАЛ-САГОТА (THE GODS OF BAL-SAGOTH), AST, November 2017 (Russian)
- THE BOOK OF THE HOWARD REVIEW (2ND EDITION), Old Tiger Press, August 2021
- THE NECRONOMICON: TALES OF ELDRITCH HORROR FROM THE MASTERS OF THE GENRE, Arcturus Publishing, August 2021
- THE HAUNTER OF THE RING (NECRONOMICON BOXED SET), Arcturus Publishing, November 2021
- STEVE HARRISON’S CASEBOOK (2ND EDITION), REH Foundation Press, June 2022 (as “The Teeth of Doom”)