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‘Sgt. Janus Returns’

"Sgt. Janus Returns"I recently posted on Sgt. Janus, an occult detective created by Jim Beard. Flinch! Books had brought him back in print with three volumes. I read and reviewed the first one, and moved on to the second, Sgt. Janus Returns. And I would recommend if you like the first one, read this one as they were intended to be a pair.

Sgt. Roman Janus is an occult detective in the mode of Carnacki and similar Edwardian-era characters, and is set in the same timeframe, though the time is not exactly clear. The prior volume left us with a quandry: Sgt. Janus is either dead or taken to the beyond. When we start this volume, he has been missing for awhile and Janus House seems to be falling into disrepair. There is no sign of his mysterious housekeeper.

Then a strange woman shows up in a nearby town, who does not know who she is. A local man, Joshua Hargreaves, comes to her aid and claims to be her chronicler. She then takes care of a couple of spirits who need to move on, taking on the role of Janus. She is soon called Lady Janus, and after a sort-of trial, takes up inhabitation at Janus House along with Hargreaves who seems captivated by her.

Unlike the last volume, while we get several adventures of this Lady Janus dealing with spirits, now all are chronicled by Hargreaves rather than an assortment of people. Another character who quickly comes to prominence in this volume is Valerie Havelock-Myers, a widow of a rich man, now running his restaurant. She seems to have a connection with Sgt. Janus and strangely wants to prove Lady Janus is a fraud.

Soon Lady Janus and Hargreaves are dealing with cases that leads them (and us) in learning more about Sgt. Janus. They visit the woman who was menaced by a group of spirits at her farmhouse during a storm that was recorded in the previous volume. They realize they are spirits of soldiers, and this leads them to what they believe are the source, a nearby military installation, Fort Temper.

There they learn this is where Sgt. Janus had served, meeting an officer who knew him well, and learn that his commanding officer was a General Havelock, the father of Valerie, now dead. There is also a mysterious secret society called the “Order of the Blood-Red Rose” that seems to operate at the base and Havelock had a major involvement with. And we learn that Valerie had been Janus’ fiance at one point, but he broke off the engagement, in part over the love of another, a girl named Nocturne Planchette, who died under mysterious circumstances.

Things come to a head and Sgt. Janus returns. But what about Lady Janus? And Nocturne? You’ll need to read this and come to your own conclusions.

Overall, it’s kind of an unusual adventure for an occult investigator. While many questions are answered, others are left unanswered. There is a third novel, which is set after this one, which I will be reading soon. If you haven’t checked out the adventures of this occult investigator, do start with the first volume.

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