The Occult Detective (anthology)

I love anything with hardboiled detectives — and I do mean anything. From Sam Spade, to Harry Bosch, to Eddie Valiant, to Det. Harry Philip Lovecraft, to Mike Hammer, to… OK, you get the idea.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had never heretofore discovered Sidney Taine! The Occult Detective anthology is a must-have for any like-minded armchair detective. The brainchild of veteran author Robert Weinberg, Taine is a psychic gumshoe who specializes in the uncanny. Fans of the old Kolchak TV program will be reminded of some of that intrepid reporter’s cases (in fact, Weinberg has also written professional fac-fic on the Kolchak theme) but instead of just stumbling onto weird and woolly cases, people seek Taine out and pay him dearly to solve their most vexing mysteries.

Taine comes with a cool counterpart, but she’s not exactly a sidekick. Weinberg himself describes it best: “Sid and Sydney Taine are brother and sister. Sort of. They live eight hundred miles and eighteen dimensions apart. Sid is the serious one, while Sydney is more the trickster. Sidney investigates the occult. Sydney is part of it.”

There are seven supernatural, scary stories in all, but I do have a few personal faves.

“Enter, the Eradicator!” is a really fun, intricate story about a gem-snatching villain called The Red Minstrel. The sparkly stone that catches his eye isn’t just any big rock — it’s the Red Ruby of Mercury, discovered in the center of a giant meteor and now on display in the Rose Center, a high-security museum in New York. When Minstral does the old smash-and-grab, it’s Taine on his tail!

I also enjoyed “Terror By Night”, the story of assorted tenants disappearing from a seemingly nondescript office building in Chicago. When one of the occupants, an old friend of Taine’s, calls him in to help solve the case, things take a deadly turn. Of course, our intrepid hero escapes with the skin on his back, but there’s a very well-written, intense fight scene which pits Taine against a horrifying, otherworldly creature.

The story I liked best, “Kiss Me Deadly” centers on Sydney, and it’s a blast. Conjuring up images of Lon Chaney, Harlem in an alternate reality, and voodoo galore, this is one of the most complex and tightly woven stories.

The Occult Detective is what I’d call “hardboiled horror” — Weinberg does a great job in hooking you right in with the first few sentences of each story (and he’s always got a bang-up closing line, too) — there’s definitely something for everyone in this collection of seven super stories.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson