Weird Tales Magazine No. 368

Occult Detective Issue

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Eric G. Dove, Kevin Kenerly, Andrea Emmes, Robin Miles, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Tim Campbell, Kevin J. Anderson, Robert Fass, Joel Froomkin, Frankie Corzo, Scott Aiello, Simon Vance, Hillary Huber

Additional narrators include Kyla Garcia, Marc Thompson, Heath Miller, and Zura Johnson.

Weird Tales magazine is known for launching a number of sub-genres of fiction—cosmic horror, swords & sorcery, dark fantasy, and others. It has also greatly added to existing genres like science fiction, horror, and—a personal favorite of editor Jonathan Maberry—weird mystery stories. Or, as they became known—occult detective tales. Here are all-original tales about people who peer into the shadows in order to solve a mystery. Sometimes successfully … and sometimes the darkness wins.

The stories range from nail-biting horror to very dark comedy, and there’s a generous mix of short stories, flash fiction (shorter works of about 1500 words), and poems. The lineup is killer, as you’ll discover, and the interpretations of what constitutes “occult fiction” is unique to each writer.

“The Eyrie” by Jonathan Maberry

“Dead Jack and the Mystery of Room 216” by James Aquilone

“Beneath the Scarred Pulpit” by Kenneth W. Cain

“Denizen of Deep Holler” by Jennifer Brody

“The Ephemera of Dreams” by Carina Bissett

“Forming Threads” by Jody Lynn Nye

“The Painted Unseen” by Taylor Grant

“Bull Runs” by Kevin J. Anderson

“Shimmer” by Keith Strunk

“Hold My Beer” by Jeff Strand

“La Silla Del Diablo” by Sofía Lapuente & Jarrod Shusterman

“The Three-Headed Problem” by Rachel Aukes

“Inception” by Brian Lumley

“Laurel Caverns” by Lisa Diane Kastner

“The Taxidermist” by Lyndsey Croal

“Within You, In Time” by Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury

“Sins Will Find You Out” by Cavan Scott

“Night’s Disease” by Colleen Anderson

©2024 by Weird Tales, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without prior permission. Weird Tales, and the Weird Tales logo are registered trademarks owned exclusively by Weird Tales, Inc., in the United States of America and other jurisdictions. Some logos, symbols, and other images incorporated by WEIRD TALES® are also protected as registered or unregistered trademarks, trade names, and/or service marks owned by WEIRD TALES®. © 2024 by Weird Tales, Inc. Material within may be copyrighted by the individual contributors (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing

Second best issue after cosmic horror

Only complaint: Bronson Pinchot only narrated the opening and closing. Love that guy’s audiobook work. But every other narrator was great too, so it’s all good.

Love this genre. Didn’t know this was the name, but they cover it sufficiently in the issue.

Highly recommended if you like weird fiction and short fiction.

The variety of styles was awesome! One of my fave collections in a while!

I’ll keep this short and say I loved this collection. If you grew up loving Occult Detective fiction (Buffy, angel, etc) then you’ll love this

Mostly good stories!

A lot of creative, interesting stories that stood out and were fun. Most of these detectives I’d like to see again. Except the one that works for Satan. He was completely unlikable and the story was awful. Skip A Three-Headed Problem, everything else was fine.

Mostly entertaining

Like any anthology, it was largely interesting. A couple of stories fell flat, one seemed to drag on way too long. I know there are other releases of this, I might grab one if the mood definitely strikes me, but won't go out of my way.

I’ve found a new genre of storytelling I enjoy.

I had never heard of the genre of storytelling called occult detective. It has the creep of horror with the mystery of noir detective all rolled into one. Damn you Audible for making me spend more money now