The title story in the second Casefiles of the Royal Occultist anthology from 18th Wall Productions, Josh Reynolds’ Royal Occultist short story Hochmuller’s Hound sees Thomas Carnacki and his apprentice Charles St. Cyprian up to their knees in mud and blood in the trenches of the Great War. Something has been tearing apart soldiers on the edge of No Man’s Land, and it wasn’t the Germans. When Carnacki and St. Cyprian’s investigations are interrupted by a ferocious German assault on the lines, however, the two men come face to face with more than just a dangerous beast out for blood.
Reynolds’ Royal Occultist stories are always entertaining and this is no exception, blending a little of the usual occult detective stylings with a gritty, bloody trench warfare setting and lashings of black humour. Unlike most of them this is told from Carnacki’s perspective (one of several across the series, two of which are included in the first Casefiles anthology), and his older, more experienced viewpoint provides a slightly different tone to the more familiar St. Cyprian stories. For all the usual dry, stiff upper lip humour this gets dark and nasty pretty quickly, and is more of a straight-up monster horror story than a detective story. It’s a bleakly entertaining tale in its own right while also introducing a recurring enemy for St. Cyprian, and makes for a great addition to this consistently compelling series.
Hochmuller’s Hound is available in the anthology Casefiles of the Royal Occultist Volume Two: Hochmuller’s Hound, which is out now from 18th Wall Publications.
See also: my review of the first Casefiles of the Royal Occultist anthology – Monmouth’s Giants.
Many thanks to 18th Wall for sending me a review copy of Casefiles of the Royal Occultist Volume Two, in exchange for my honest review – keep an eye out for a full review of the anthology as well.
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