One of Mundy's later works, Full Moon appeared at the start to be little more than a workman like addition to his usual fare. Maybe nothing more than a way to generate income. Gradually, however, it evolves into something much grander, more elusive, and somehow generating a sense of completeness at the same time. Blair Warrender's search for love, while being torn towards his sense of duty makes for the tension in the novel. But all that is background to the larger world revealed in the last chapter--a world which Blair and his love, Henrietta, catch but a glimpse (Henrietta seeing far more than he) and do not manage to cross the threshold and enter. That awaits.

Meanwhile, Mundy throws in influences from previous novels and short stories. There is the wandering in dark caverns, reminiscent of Caves of Terror, the hidden labyrinth found in King of the Khyber Rifles, a dragon lady in the form of Wu Tu who echoes many of the qualities of Yasmini in that series of Yasmini adventures, the mysticisim of the later Jimgrim and Ommony novels, and the straight out adventure found in nearly all Mundy's work. And, oh, yes, once again, the story travels to a mountain eyrie, Gaglajung, which contains the secrets of an older world and a race of titans. Yes, Mundy alludes to Atlantis again. And there is his protagonist, Blair, who combines the commitment to officialdom of Athelstan King, the philosophic bent of Cottswold Ommony, and the persistence of Jimgrim.

Finally, one more thing: fourth dimensional space. This is precisely the sort of issue that makes Mundy so intriguing. What other pulp fiction adventure writer would venture into this area and talk about it competently? In one passage, for instance, we get Blair's thoughts on cubism, painting, mathematics, and the fourth dimension. Here, Mundy is picking up on a movement that began at the turn of the century and had gained quite a few adherents by the mid 1930s. In fact, Full Moon was serialized just a few years before the publication of Charles Sirato's Dimensionist Manifesto. As the signatures to this manifesto were mainly names from the "high arts," I don't know what Mundy's association was, if any, with the movement. But he clearly was picking up on ideas filtering through the visual arts to the literary--and would thus have fit in with the manifesto's stated aims. And, at any rate, it shows how Mundy was eager, even (or maybe especially) at this late stage of his career, to engage with ideas. ( )