With Britannia Occultus, we get the second collection of Teel James Glenn‘s Victorian-age occult detective Dr. Augustus Argent. Like the first, this is from Pro Se Press and is also under Glenn’s Other When logo.
This time we get six stories, most of which appeared elsewhere. Two are short, the others longer (novella? novelette?)
Dr. Argent is a “minister without portfolio” for the British Crown, focused on dealing with occult matters. He is assisted by Capt. Jack Stone of the Horse Guard. Basically, he’s Dr. Watson to Argent’s Sherlock Holmes. Another character who appears or is mentioned in some of these stories is Horatio Venture, a reporter. I’m not sure if he’ll return in future stories.
For the two short stories, one finds the pair in New Orleans dealing with a vampire who has stolen something for “The Dragon,” a dangerous international criminal mentioned in the last volume. In the other, they help an old colleague of Jack who is seeing a dangerous ghost at his home, which may be linked to Merlin.
For the longer stories, we get the matter of an English lord, who is carried off by enemy forces while serving in the military. When he is finally returned to England, he is under a horrible curse. Sadly, his wife hasn’t been as faithful as she should have been. Dr. Argent is called in to see if he is able to help. In lifting his curse, things don’t go quite as some have hoped. But maybe that’s for the better for some.
Another story is actually narrated by Horatio Venture, who is on the track of Count St. Germaine in the south of France, when his quest brings him back to England. There he connects with an old associate, Jack Stone, who brings in Dr. Argent who will help him in dealing with this false count. But Venture is the main character in this story until the end.
Next, we have a story with only Jack Stone, who gets involved with a witch, gets turned into a werewolf, and puts an end to some nasty people. The ending was not what I expected, and I wonder if we’ll see a return of this new character. Finally, we have certain forces in Germany who are attempting to attack England’s defenses. Those involved include Dr. Mabuse and someone from Ruritania. They try with a tin soldier, but things don’t go as expected. I also hope we’ll see the return of some of these people. And I wonder if we’ll ever have a confrontation with the Dragon, or will he just be a long-term background foe?
This is another good collection of occult-detective stories. I enjoyed this as much as the previous volume. I have no idea when we’ll see another. I wonder if some of the secondary characters will return?
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