The Secrets of Dr. Taverner

As supernatural detective fiction goes, this is quite good. It's about a doctor who runs an asylum but is a sort of wizard on the side and each chapter is a different 'monster-of-the-week' style story about a patient. It covers the usual assortment, ghosts, dark magic, past lives, nature spirits etc.

Dion Fortune (Violet Firth) is one of the few esoteric writers with a sense of humor. Dr. Taverner runs a hospital for 'strange cases' and only Dr. T. has the 'esoteric training' to deal with the very individual cases. Suffice it to say that the good Dr. never, or almost never consults any of the methods of Benjamin Rush or his ilk. There are no side splitting laughs in Fortune's collection, but don't let this keep you from looking into the matter. You will not go away disappointed.

Just a horrible book about the occult. Horrible in many ways: formatting. There were chapter numbers in the middle of a sentence, about every 3-4 pages each page was only a half page and the 2nd half was a lot of numbers and letters looking like somebody's cat was playing on their keyboard. And last but not least, the story (ies) were far fetched. Most of them dealt with Dr. Taverner reuniting people's essence (souls) with their bodies. I can see these stories are very loosely based on Sherlock Holmes type sleuthing. The author, according to the book, was a spiritual guide (medium) which founded The Order of the Fraternal Light in the 1920's. She has written several books and supposedly dictated the last 2 chapters of one such book from show more beyond the grave show less

Violet Firth actually posseses a sense of humor. Not of the slapstick variety but funny enough. Too many occultists are as dull as ditchwater, and even more pretentious. Nuncle Al Crowley is funny, tho usually at some poor gulls expence.