Originally released in audio drama form as part of Thorn and Talon, Dan Abnett’s short story Regia Occulta sees a young Eisenhorn, not long qualified as a full inquisitor, working as a sort of temporary travelling magistrate-slash-investigator. Stranded on the dreary world of Ignix, he braves the weather and the strange electrical storms to investigate a series of killings which at first have all the hallmarks of cult activity. It quickly becomes apparent that the culprit is not a cult after all, but Eisenhorn’s continuing investigation proves dangerous all the same.
Where the main Eisenhorn novels are all interconnected and filled with events of great import, there’s something rather nice about a story that sees Eisenhorn pottering around solving a rather less grandiose mystery. It’s written with all of Abnett’s usual trademarks, but the absence of a bigger backdrop, and Eisenhorn’s relative youth, mean it feels somewhat like a ‘cosy crime’ story, albeit still with plenty of violence and bloodshed in the end. The first-person Eisenhorn voice is present and correct, and while none of the wider cast are around it does just feel like a natural extension of the overall story, and proves to be a hugely entertaining standalone tale.
Click here to see how this fits into the wider Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin arc.
Check out Regia Occulta in short story form on Amazon or audio drama form on Audible, or as part of The Magos & The Definitive Casebook of Gregor Eisenhorn – available as a book or an audiobook. If you buy through any of these links you’ll be helping to support Track of Words as well.