Occult Detective Magazine #10 (magazine review).
Here’s another edition of Occult Detective Magazine, the too-infrequent periodical dedicated to the heirs of Carnacki with stories that blend the fantasy and detective genres in entertaining ways, and it’s made in Britain.
First up is Something Old, Borrowed, Blue And Cursed by Joe Talon, a Lorne Turner supernatural mystery. Clearly, Lorne has a series of books out there, but this story can be read as a standalone. On our hero’s wedding day, a sapphire pendant worn by his bride triggers his psychometric powers and inflicts visions of corpses being buried by men in uniform. Lorne and his friends set off to London to find the pendant’s original owner. He’s an ex-SAS middle-class country gentleman, giving the story a Jack Higgins thriller vibe mixed with the supernatural. A decent yarn that might entice you to seek out the books.
Secret Of The Lark by prolific short story author Mike Adamson is set in the Fens, near Isleham. Landscape painter Lacy Cantwell finds her work becoming dark and brooding, which her agent dislikes, as prettier pieces sell better. But she can’t help it. She dreams of a band of horsemen in sheepskin and leather roaming the ancient local trackways. Turning detective, she investigates the past to restore her peace of mind. An interesting, well-crafted story with a strong sense of place.
The Scarlet M by Michaela Jordan starts in the morgue with Jenny dead, killed by Kay, her old college roommate, and Mister Blake, a skilled practitioner of magic, investigating. It’s a deeply emotional story that has to be read and can’t be summarized very well. So I won’t try.
Leviathan by John Paul Fitch is an Anna And Turk mystery, part of a series but readable as a standalone. It begins with the murders of a scout troop in remote Scotland. As with episodes of Columbo, the audience knows who did it right away. Anna’s a punk sorceress and Turk’s a ghost, but are they a match for the powerful foe up north? I liked the team, and they would make for a good comic strip in 2000AD.
The Butcher Of Hemming Street by Naching T. Kassa introduces Lady Dahlia Battleroost, a private detective, and her peculiar staff, who are all ghosts. It takes so long to introduce them, in a highly amusing way, that it reads like the first part of a novel. The mystery of the butcher is a relatively minor affair, but her ladyship and company are such good fun, you don’t mind.
Nightslinger: Sins Of The Werewolf by Steven Philip Jones starts with action as Feril Nightlinger is plunged into a freezing lake by an attacking werewolf. Can his lovely lady assistant, Mike Segretto, save him? Can he save himself? An adventure detective yarn with big guns and silver bullets, a loathsome bad guy, and a very American pulp feel, which is no bad thing.
Inn Good Spirits by Nancy Hansen is equally American but in a more sedate way, in keeping with its setting of an old colonial stagecoach stop. The Webster Inn is a hotel now but has trouble keeping guests because it seems to be haunted. Owner Henry Windham hires occult investigator Chandra Smoake and her understudy, Emma Galbraith, to investigate. Chandra is short, plump, well-tailored, and rather old-fashioned in her manner. She often has to chastise young Emma for her ‘beatnik talk’, and rightly so. The whole thing was low-key and quite quaint, like Little Women or Pollyanna. Thoroughly pleasant.
The Mysterious Gesture by Rhys Hughes has all the ingredients of the classic detective tale but is taken to an extreme degree for amusement. Nathan Gesture is an intelligent gentleman with arcane knowledge. His bumbling assistant, Jubjub, is a complete idiot but loyal and good at pedaling the tandem, which is their mode of transport. Inspector Mimsy of Ditchwater police station is pompous and stupid and arrests the wrong man when wealthy magnate Burton Fisk is strangled with a brass chandelier. An easy, pleasant read.
An Isolated Case by Robert Runté is presumably set in the near future, as there’s a three-week lockdown due to Covid 27, and Rolland has to make his inquiries by Zoom call to client John Wilcott, who is being bothered by poltergeist activity. There are neat twists. Telling the whole story in this limited setting took some ingenuity. I believe Nero Wolfe conducted all his investigations without leaving his room, but he had someone else do the legwork.
The Nature Of Panic by Simon Avery begins, ‘The act of taking one’s life is not something one does without a great deal of soul-searching, but I simply cannot live with what I did. Signed F.’ It’s narrated in the first person by F. I never caught his name. He is strawberry picking in Devon with a Welshman called Twicey and one hundred and fifty Eastern Europeans. However, his real mission is to track down his cousin. His Aunt Frances lived her bohemian life nearby in a large farmhouse and was reputedly a witch dedicated to Pan. It’s a long, unhappy story lightened by moments of comedy and driven more by the characters than the magic. It kept me gripped. I liked Twicey.
As well as the stories, Occult Detective Magazine has book reviews and other non-fiction content for variety, but I have enough books to read without being tempted by others, though I was. This is another fine issue. The occult detective genre is usually a blend of classic detective and ghost stories but has evolved to allow for modern pulp adventure and more hard-boiled fare. Regrettably, my Kindle version didn’t allow for proper appreciation of the fine illustrations by Mutartis Boswell, Broci, and Andy Paciorek. Treat yourself to the full-blown paper edition for that. Paper is definitely more apt for this kind of fare. An old well-stuffed armchair would suit, too. A pipe. Slippers. A roaring fire. You get the idea.
Eamonn Murphy
January 2024
pub: Cathaven Press, 2023. 225 page paperback. Price: £ 9.95 (UK). Kindle price: £ 4.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-91602-128-0.
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