{"id":12720,"date":"2021-12-29T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T15:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=12720"},"modified":"2025-11-05T14:26:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:26:24","slug":"teel-james-glenns-semper-occultus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2021\/12\/29\/teel-james-glenns-semper-occultus\/","title":{"rendered":"Teel James Glenn’s ‘Semper Occultus’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new occult detective set in the Victorian Age of Sherlock Holmes<\/strong> is Teel James Glenn<\/a><\/strong>‘s Dr. Augustus Argent<\/strong>. Pro Se Press<\/a> put out the first collection of his stories: Semper Occultus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\""Semper<\/a>It’s the first of a new series. We get eight stories, several of which appeared elsewhere. Some are very short, others longer.<\/p>\n

We meet Dr. Argent in our first story. We learn he is a “minister without portfolio” for the British Crown, focused on dealing with occult matters. This first story is also the first time Capt. Jack Stone<\/strong> of the Horse Guard meets him as well, and he will become his associate and aide-de-camp. Basically Dr. Watson<\/strong> to Argent’s Sherlock Holmes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In that very short story, Argent is dealing with a dangerous pack of wolves who are lead by a werewolf. They had killed Jack’s sister, and Argent takes care of both. From that point on, Stone will be helping him and narrating these stories.<\/p>\n

In a few of the stories, Inspector Lestrade<\/strong> of Scotland Yard will be calling in Dr. Argent rather than a certain other detective. We are told that both Holmes and Carnacki<\/a><\/strong> exist in this world. Whether these will meet Dr. Argent in the future remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

But I was bothered by this: These stories seem set in the 1880s, when Holmes was active. But Carnacki is set in the 1910s, and made use of electricity, so I don’t feel he quite fits in this time period. I wonder if Dr. Argent exists in the same world as Glenn’s other two New Pulp<\/a> heroes, Dr. Shadows<\/strong> or Skullmask<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Dr. Argent is oldish, very tall, with long white hair, mustache, and pointed beard. His eyes are either blue or green. He lives in a converted stable on Carnaby Street, with the first floor being an office\/workshop. He lives in the converted loft, while Jack lives in a nearby apartment with his wife. Argent has skills and knowledge of the occult, including the use of spells at time. Personally, I prefer occult detectives who don’t use spells, but am ok with the use occult objects, as they are more detectives than urban wizards.<\/p>\n

As to the rest of the stories, the two go up against man a who learned how to cross over to another world through a mirror. Now years later, he tries to bring over his wife and daughter. Can Argent and Stone save them?<\/p>\n

In an early case for Jack, the two are pulled into a case that seems to have a return of Jack the Ripper<\/strong>. But it’s someone or something else. And it involved a sinister international criminal mastermind known only as the “Dragon<\/strong>.” To help get to the bottom of things, this involved having Jack transformed into a horse! But things don’t go quite as planned. We don’t meet this Dragon. At first he seems more Fu Manchu<\/strong> than Moriarty<\/strong>, but we learn he is a master of the dark arts, so more dangerous than Fu Manchu. I expect him to return, though hopefully used sparingly.<\/p>\n

A curse from Roman times seems to still hang over a English noble family who live near Hadrian’s wall. When the current lord is killed in a strange manner after finding a statue of a roman sea god, his son, the new lord, returns with Jack. Soon Dr. Argent appears. Can they figure out the curse and put an end to it?<\/p>\n

Another case deals with a strange death tied to dolls that Dr. Argent must work out. And in another, they deal with a murder by a djinn.<\/p>\n

We get a pair of stories that have Jack working alone. One has him get into an adventure after buying a “wish ring” from an old beggar. This leads to an adventure with a young girl he discovers in Limehouse who seems to be chased by others. This then leads to a strange family in a village with a sinister history.\u00a0 Some elements of this one didn’t quite work for me.<\/p>\n

The other has Jack in India at the request of Dr. Argent. There, with a pair of fellow soldiers, he must deal with a curse placed on them by a follower of Kali that sees his friends tranformed.<\/p>\n

Overall, this is an enjoyable collection of stories. It was nice that the length of the stories varied. As noted, it’s the first of a series, so we should see more, but I have no idea when. And I wonder if we’ll see more of his other characters.<\/p>\n

I was surprised that Bold Venture Press<\/a> reprinted Glenn’s Skullmask collection, which I will be reviewing soon, and Airship 27<\/a> did a Jon Shadows volume.\u00a0 And Glenn is back with Pro Se on this one.<\/p>\n

So will we see more of these characters and from whom? Wherever they appear, get them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new occult detective set in the Victorian Age of Sherlock Holmes is Teel James Glenn‘s Dr. Augustus Argent. Pro Se Press put out the first collection of his stories: Semper Occultus. It’s the first of a new series. We get eight stories, several of which appeared elsewhere. Some are very short, others longer. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at Teel James Glenn's \"Semper Occultus.\" #newpulp","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[652,19,80,6,413],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-12720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-pulp","tag-dr-augustus-argent","tag-occult-detectives","tag-pro-se-press","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-teel-james-glenn"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2021\/12\/semper-occultus-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-3ja","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12720"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21792,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12720\/revisions\/21792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12720"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=12720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}