The Shroud of SPECTRE

by Franklin W. Dixon

From the original canon and rejected by Grosset & Dunlap in early 1967, THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE follows Frank and Joe Hardy's international investigation into the disappearance of the Shroud of Turin.

20. Chapter XX: Postscript

CHAPTER XX

Postscript

The initial draft of THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE was written hurriedly, spurred by the excitement of this rare occasion of such a trinity of heroes uniting together, and energized by the prospect of reporting on the rather unusual open-ended climax, of which no reports, journals, or diaries from Bond, Jones, Chet, or the Hardys contain any information on how Alduous H. Drollinger was nabbed.

Utilizing my instincts honed in journalism, I approached THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE as if a newspaper account: immediate, urgent, without the intricacies I usually spend in the requisites of mystery plotting. I thought Grosset & Dunlap would leap at the manuscript. Indeed, I anticipated a negotiated fee of my long-term contract, so favorably would they respond.

I was wrong.

No sooner was I off on documenting three successive stories at once—The Secret Agent on Flight 101, The Mystery of the Whale Tattoo, and The Arctic Patrol Mystery—when Grosset & Dunlap sent a rejection notice to my home here in Pemberton in February 1967. I received it, ironically, via Western Union while reviewing stunning SHROUD OF SPECTRE artwork by Rudy Nappi. The terse message is reprinted here:

Grosset & Dunlap

New York

Mr. Dixon:

Thank you for your submission of The Shroud of SPECTER (sic). Unfortunately, Ms. Adams and our executive board have declined to publish this work, given its seismic break from canon and established tropes. Your lack of an ending, furthermore, shows either contempt for your loyal audience or poor writing. We hope it is the former. Given also the fantastic alignment of popular figures in this rather outlandish tale (let alone intellectual property from other houses), we must bar you from peddling this anywhere else in Manhattan or the outlying metropolitan region. If you do, any copies will be snatched from bookshops and destroyed. To that end, please sign the attached non-disclosure agreement (white paper, yellow is your copy) indicating your silence on the events depicted in this tale.

Best,

T. Mulvey

Editor

That night, sharing some highballs with Rudy, we burned the glorious artwork in my fireplace. When Rudy suggested I toss THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE manuscript in as well, I hesitated. Fearing any suspicious activity on my part would prompt Rudy to report my behavior to Grosset & Dunlap, I instead threw in my original m.s. of Footprints Under the Window under the auspices it was the new work. What did it matter, I thought, since Grosset & Dunlap was inexplicably rewriting my stories?

Twelve years passed until in the chaos over the fall of Grosset & Dunlap and the rise of Simon & Schuster it appeared I might finally push THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE through to publication. At this point, early 1979, not only had James Bond been etched in the mainstream public consciousness, but so also were the Hardy Boys. Indeed, ABC had just canceled The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries midway through season three. Hollywood moviemakers were preparing a motion picture about Indiana Jones. The time was right.

Again, however, executives ignored the work, instead retailing such trite work as 1980's The Pentagon Spy, even if Mystery at Smugglers Cove proved only a temporary reclamation of the canon glory years. Yet THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE still languished. Perhaps Rudy was right on that cold February in 1967. Perhaps I should have just pitched it.

Yet once again, the digital landscape has provided another outlet for my rejected work. Many thanks to those de facto Bayporters who continue to stoke the flame of mystery: hbndgirl, Cherylann Rivers, Caranath, and others.

Time has shown the enduring relevance of themes in THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE. The Shroud itself remains encased in Turin to this day, even surviving a threatening 1997 fire. As suggested in dialogue in the text, a radio carbon dating was in fact performed, with the results reported in 1988 deeming the cloth to be dated between 1260-1390, the timeframe when it originally became known in the West. Such a report seemed to seal speculation over its authenticity. Yet in the last 30 years new scientific studies have originated questioning the dating. Not only was a single strand taken for carbon dating—as opposed to standard procedure of multiple areas for examination—but it was a corner piece of the cloth. Any visual documentation detailing showings of the Shroud over the centuries will reveal the contamination endured by those corners. Microscopic studies have also shown embedded cotton fibers in the area of the sample, suggesting patchwork over time. The results from recent tests of a vanillin test, infrared spectroscopy test, testing of fibers, the pollen grains discovered on the cloth, and other findings at least point to the direction that still further dating testing is needed.

Most recently, confirmation that the human blood found on the Shroud revealed creatinine and ferritin iron nanoparticles, indicative that the person whose image is on the Shroud suffered severe polytrauma, only adds to the fascination of the cloth and image, not the least being the enduring mystery of how a perfect three-dimensional image was left on a non-photographically sensitive linen cloth without scorching the material.

As for Silicon Valley, reports of brilliant, eccentric tech CEOs seeking ways to halt death frequently emerge, particularly when TIME's 2013 cover story, "Can Google Stop Death?" detailed the establishment of the search engine's company Calico and its sole purpose to, in fact, halt death. Silicon's Valley romance with biotechnology and influence on the populace may veer towards conspiracy, yet there is a plethora of mainstream information on the topic. The further technology and humanity meld together, the sooner evolution into a new life form, not unlike a cyborg, remains a possibility, if not the dream of a select, wealthy few.

Finally, Byzantine and art history remain areas in desperate need of rediscovery to Western culture, pillars to this adventure of the search for the Shroud. Not only did Constantine move the Roman Empire east, with the resultant beauty of Constantinople as the political center of the empire, but also in the religious and artistic realms, the ancient importance of iconography and icon-making suggests a strand of connection to the icon of the Shroud.

As a new Indiana Jones moving image is in development at the time these chapters have been posted, with a future James Bond picture in the works, and continuing publication of Hardy Boys books, I am not subscribing for an adaptation of THE SHROUD OF SPECTRE, but rather am only urging its creators to continue to seek compelling, life-giving stories worthy of these amazing characters.

To think outside the box. To break out of the sarcophagus of tentpoles and tired plotting.

To vacate the tomb.

F.W.D

Pemberton, New Jersey

February 20, 2018