Review: “Occult Detective Quarterly", Issue #5 - Winter 2018

GRANT, John Linwood, et.al (eds.), “Occult Detective Quarterly”, Issue #5 – Winter 2018, Ulthar Press, Warren RI, 2018.

Octavo; paperback, with illustrated wrappers; 166pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. New.

Some time ago – when this issue first emerged – I made a deliberate decision to not review it. There were three reasons for this and they are as follows: in my previous assessments of “Occult Detective Quarterly” (ODQ), I made some comments about a particular regular feature of this magazine at which one member of the journal’s production staff took great offense, regardless of the fact that those comments were based on my personal opinion (which I feel free to express) and were couched explicitly in such terms. They, in turn, felt perfectly free to retail their opinion of my opinion here at this blog and, after some brief exchanges, I felt that the issue had been concluded, although, at the same time, I felt less than encouraged to make any further efforts at promoting this organ. That’s reason one. Reason two is that it wasn’t apparently concluded there, because the editor chose to rake the matter up again in the introduction of this issue – apparently, honour wasn’t quite satisfied, and this was a bone that needed more chewing. The third reason is the obvious one: I have a story published in this issue and it felt a bit on the nose to review a vehicle parading my own efforts.

However, things have come to light which wipe the slate clean and which force me to rise above this tawdry clash of personal opinions. John Linwood Grant, the spiritual leader of this journal, contacted me to discuss payment for the story which appears here. I had practically written-off any notion of being paid at all for my efforts and was surprised that the topic had suddenly materialised. It transpired that Sam Gafford, head of Ulthar Press, which had taken over publishing duties for ODQ, had died suddenly and now the other ODQ stakeholders were trying to sort out some kind of future, not only for the magazine, but for the Press overall. This meant tracking down all contributors and ensuring that monies owed became monies paid. I told John to pour any cash owed to me back into Ulthar Press and to keep the journal alive, because a world without ODQ is a poorer one for it. To that end, I decided to write a review despite the reasons outlined above, because forums such as these need to survive so that writers can showcase their efforts, particularly the kind of niche writing that this magazine promotes. Reviews lead to sales; sales lead to longevity; therefore, I’m doing my bit (and pretending that my own work doesn’t exist between the covers of this magazine!).

First things first: the book is physically smaller this time around. The previous four issues were quarto-sized, perfect-bound affairs with colour cover art and glossy wrappers; in this iteration, we’ve downsized to the octavo format with gloomy monochrome artwork and a velvety lacquer on the covers. Personally, I dislike this finish because it feels kind of ‘creepy’ – which is, ironically, why I used it on my own book of ghost stories – and it marks easily, especially when retailers clog up the panels with their pricing and promotional stickers (admittedly, this isn’t too likely to happen, given current print-on-demand platforms). As a distinct break from the previous issues, this all works well – the art is suitably moody and nicely executed and the smaller size is perfect for those occult detection fans who like to read on public transport.

On the inside, there’s a lot less art than in previous issues, which might be due to fewer contributors in this sphere or due to time or material constraints. (I know that my story, in particular, was bit on the long side, and I was told that it would have to wait until space became available in order for it to see print.) There are still quite a few advertisements though, usually at the end of the stories after the now-trademark ‘skull dingus’ that signifies a gap in the proceedings. Ads are lifeblood for these types of journals and it’s good to see them represented. The rest of the content breaks down into two sections – fiction mostly up front and articles in the back. Let’s start on the stories:

First up is Tim Waggoner’s “The Empty Ones”. This is a return to an interesting world which was first presented to us within the pages of ODQ #2. In that issue’s tale – “The Grabber Man” – we encountered Ismael Carter, psychologist with heterochromia, who has the ability to see into a dangerous dimension, or reality, which he calls “The Shadow”, and who takes it upon himself to work against the evil incursions of that realm. Here, the stakes are incredibly high, as he strives to help a childhood friend avoid the attentions of the eponymous Empty Ones who pursue him through time and space trying to devour reality as it forms and who he distracts by slaughtering innocents for them to feed upon instead. This is a tight little tale that really delivers and helps to push open wider the enticing doorway to this concept.

In “The Curious Adventure of the Homesick God”, Sandy Chadwin introduces us to Finbar Coryat, occult detective, and his friend Newman, who together investigate various spooky goings-on at the Great Museum of the North in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It turns out that an avatar of the Legionnaire’s god Mithras is manifesting within a museum recreation of a typical Mithraeum, or site sacred to Mithras. In getting to the bottom of the manifesting deity’s discomfort, they encounter the ghost of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian princess and avoid the wrath of a gallery’s worth of taxidermized animals, killed and stuffed and put on display for no good reason. The colophon to this tale states that the author used real locations and elements for his story, and it shows in the amount of detail which he brings to the narrative. It kind of feels that he loses track of the story somewhat in trying to show how intimate with the Museum he is – and in trying to force the laughter here and there – but overall it’s a nice concept, well executed.

“Shadow’s Angle” by Brandon Barrows tells the story of a Japanese exorcist, Azuma Kuromori, tailing a demon-possessed body through a modern Japanese city. This is a well-written story with plenty of twists and turns and a nice sting in the tale. My only issue with it is that it could have been set anywhere, so bland is the location detailing and so American is the idiom. I couldn’t tell if the setting was Japanese or if only the characters were Japanese. Possibly, this was the result of trying to tiptoe around potentially racist minefields but, at the end of the day, it simply speaks of a failure to commit, both racially and culturally.

“The Unquiet Office” by Marion Pitman tears a page out of a Dorothy L. Sayers mystery and dials things up a notch with ghosts and an intrepid spinster-investigator invested with just a hint of the essence of Miss Marple (or even of D.L.S. herself!). Jane Oliver, an editor at a London publisher’s during the Thirties, learns that the man in the office next door to hers is afraid to work there because the place is haunted. She tells her circle of friends about the situation and her best friend’s maiden aunt – Irene Rogers – invites herself along to try a bit of ghostbusting. The unravelling of the situation is expertly handled and ties things off in a quite satisfying manner. There were one or two instances when information was awkwardly dumped on the reader in an attempt to show how much the author knew about the time and place, but these can be glossed over. (Dracula, by Bram Stoker, for instance, wasn’t a popular book at all at the time it was written; everyone was reading The Beetle by Richard Marsh instead.)

“Brown Eyes Crying In The Rain” by Steve Liskow will please fans of “Supernatural” with its set-up. Our investigator patrols a deadly stretch of road on a rainy night hoping that the often-spotted ghost of a girl who died there will reappear. Todd is in luck: the girl appears and what happens next solves her seventeen-year old cold case. This is a nicely done piece which hits all the right notes and deeply satisfies. Those looking for the typical ‘Sam & Dean’ denouement, however, will probably be disappointed.

In a necromantically warded tower on the outskirts of an ancient kingdom, master vampire Lord Bloodthirst, vassal of the Eternal Empress of the Night, has been staked to death by an unknown assailant. Desperate to solve the mystery, Prince Sanguine arranges for the abduction of Serena Cordosa Arabella Enchanté Alacansa, First Princess of Lacasse-Epstein and Heiress of the Malachite Crown – she, the only one able to thwart the Plots of the Iron Knave; who solved the Puzzle of the Dolmens of Heath; and who completed the Unsolvable Riddle of the Sunken Donjon - to undertake an investigation of the murder. In “A Princess Calls”, I.A. Watson and Chelsea Vance concoct a delicious and hilarious romp which Princess Enchanté herself calls “your classic locked castle mystery”. I needn’t point out (what with the J.B. Priestley-riffing title) that there’s a sting in the tail, but in the meantime, readers are left wondering - was it Lord Blackgoth in the Feasting Hall with the chair leg? Or some other form of nefariousness…?

“Storm Stones” by Cody Schroeder treads some tired old ground in its narrative, albeit well-written in an engaging style. Essentially though, it’s another tale of a rough-and-tumble monster-hunter getting dragged into a case that he feels overly conflicted about. In his instance, our hunter is “Sam Hain” (which, I don’t need to tell you, is wrong on so many levels) and the Monster Of The Week is a giant crystalline porcupine-cum-grizzly bear called a Lyn Dyr. (America, it seems, is the melting-pot and stomping ground of every world mythology that there is.) The local police presence wants the creature dead and our investigator would rather conserve than kill and thereby hangs the tale. It’s a highly entertaining read in the style of Jim Butcher, but predictable. And Mr. Hain also has heterochromia which clashes unfortunately with Mr. Waggoner’s earlier piece…

I was a bit nervous getting into Megan Taylor’s “Exposing the Dead”. There’s a tendency for some writers to play with the tense of their story - especially when it involves young, street-savvy, or homeless youths - because it seems that, when everything is in the present, it speaks more to the recklessness of youth. It’s a very tired technique, to be frank. Here we have two young women daring each other to break into an abandoned Spiritualist church on the other side of a busy road. Fully in the present tense, we see them cajole and bully each other into completing the task at hand, with a bucketload of revelations about their individual pasts and their relationship, only to be brought up short by the terrible reveal at the end. These are a pair of amateur investigators who are having a Really Bad Night. Despite my trepidations, this turned out okay.

In “Daddy’s Girl” by Julian Wildey, we encounter “Merodack the Magnificent” a bona fide occult investigator slumming as a carnival fortune-teller and magician. One night in western upstate New York – “the old ‘Burned-over District’ that had birthed Spiritualism, Mormonism, and any number of sects and failed Utopias of the last century” – Lisbeth Duttee pays a call on the canny carny and tells him a strange tale of woe about her unwell father. The resulting magical after-hours house-call involves a twist and double twist with the unnatural birthing of a three-headed spider demon and some of the lightest Mythos touches I’ve ever read. Mr. Wildey knows his occult literature as well and that always scores points in my book. Excellent stuff!

Loren Rhoads’ nifty story “Something In The Water” outlines the precarious events which transpire after a San Francisco Aquarium worker inadvertently adds a liquid-bodied nereid – or water spirit – to its collection. Called in to try and explain odd goings-on at the aquarium that have resulted in at least one death, local mystic Alondra DeCourval awakens ichthyologist Jacki Ruiz to a world of magical underwater possibilities – one armed with a load of pointy teeth and a bloody single-mindedness. Rhoads makes deft use of her understanding of the aquarium setting and the history surrounding it which never feels like an intrusive ‘info dump’; as well, her occult detective is solidly grounded and feels like a real person, rather than just a ‘dashing tailored coat with a big gun and a magic talisman in one pocket’ which is all too often the case with these characters. Great stuff!

Cliff Biggers’ “Hastur in Hyades” continues the Occult Legion series, detailing an occult detective’s attempts to trace the source of a 1960s rock band’s demonically backmasked recording (clue: it starts with the letter ‘H’). A well-written installment.

So much for the fiction, the rest of the issue is a bunch of articles pertinent to the themes of ODQ along with some thoughtful reviews. Bobby Derie gives us an overview of the career of - largely-forgotten, nowadays - author Seabury Quinn’s occult investigator Jules de Grandin, mainly through the pages of “Weird Tales” magazine. Meanwhile, Paul St. John Mackintosh details his experiences at the annual CrimeFest convention in Bristol, 2018, where occult crossovers in crime fiction were the hot topic du jour. James Bojaciuk’s regular column (“Aural Apparitions”) on audio recordings and podcasts of the supernaturally investigative, covers what might prove to be (sadly) the last in the “Omega Factor” audiobook series. Finally, Dave Brzeski takes us on a tour of the novels and screen writing of William Hjortsberg, which includes one of my favourite films, “Angel Heart”.

With that, it’s another successful issue put to bed. There is so much to enjoy in each episode of this magazine that it endlessly repays investment. The notion of the investigator working with or against supernatural elements is so endlessly reiterative that inspiration looms on every page, whether you are a reader, writer, or roleplayer. It’s true that some of the writing isn’t always as polished as it could be, but the ideas are almost always solid and are definitely worth the entry fee. If it wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t write for it.

Three Tentacled Horrors from me.

*****

Contents:

“The Empty Ones”, Tim Waggoner

“The Curious Adventure of the Homesick God”, Sandy Chadwin

“Shadow’s Angle”, Brandon Barrows

“The Unquiet Office”, Marion Pitman

“Brown Eyes Crying In The Rain”, Steve Liskow

“A Princess Calls”, I.A. Watson & Chelsea Vance

“Storm Stones”, Cody Schroeder

“Exposing the Dead”, Megan Taylor

“Daddy’s Girl”, Julian Wildey

“Something In the Water”, Loren Rhoads

“The Devil Drives”, Craig Stanton

Occult Legion: “Hastur in Hyades”, Cliff Biggers

Articles:

“The Occult Jules de Grandin”, Bobby Derie

“CrimeFest 2018, Report”, Paul St. John Mackintosh

Aural Apparitions: “The Omega Factor” (Big Finish), James Bojaciuk

Cold Cases: reviewing selected works by William Hjortsberg – Falling Angel, Angel’s Inferno & “Angel Heart”, Dave Brzeski