Between 1894 and 1914, Paul d''Ivoi (1856-1915) wrote a series of 21 volumes, collectively entitled The Eccentric Voyages, clearly inspired by and updating Jules Verne''s classic Extraordinary Voyages.
While not quite matching Verne for verve and invention, d''Ivoi succeeded in appealing to a new generation of readers by updating many of the great author''s ideas, featuring amongst other concepts, an airship with mobile wings, an amphibious mobile fortress, a super-submarine, various types of death rays, futuristic weapons and other mechanical sci-fi devices.
Doctor Mystery (1900) is the third in a series of four volumes of The Eccentric Voyages to be published by Black Coat Press, after Around the World on Five Sous (1894) and Miss Musketeer (1907), in order to illustrate d''Ivoi''s not insignificant contribution to the French roman scientifique.
In it, the hero travels through India in a sophisticated, electric-powered vehicle with his young companion, a Parisian street urchin nicknamed Cicada, on a mission of revenge, as well as a plan to free India from the yoke of the British Empire. Who is Doctor Mystery? What secrets are buried in his past? Will his scientific arsenal prove sufficient to fight the dark forces who have decreed his death?
