Tales from the Archives - Seven

Tales from the Archives - Seven

By: Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

Written & Narrated by:  Helen E. H. Madden

Format: Podcast, 36.20 minutes & 35.26 minutes

Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk

Series: 7th in Tales of the Archives podcasts, part of A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series

Recommendation: Yes. Nice way to meet new characters in this steampunk-ish world particularly if you enjoyed the book; A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Phoenix Rising. A case with the famous Agent Thorne with sacred yet dangerous monkeys, and a touch of magic.

Synopsis:
Hanuman’s Gift,

Deep in the Archives, Augustus Whitby toils through his duties in the Archives, dreaming up romantic stories far more plausible than the supposed “investigations” of the field agents. A story from Agent Harrison Thorne and an unassuming artifact from his recent case, however, proves much to Whitby’s chagrin that there are some truths that are far stranger than fiction.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Eliza and Wellington find old journals from Wellington's predecessor in the Archives.  The man, Augustus Whitby, wanted to be a writer or fancied himself to dabble in the world of writing.  Augustus had mysteriously disappeared... in the archives...  But what catches Eliza's eye is the mention here of her last and now deceased partner Agent Thorne and a case he had worked on never mentioning to her, as he loved to tell his tales of the cases he worked.

We start with meeting Augustus's very dangerous and sultry leading lady, Lady Catherine Blackwell and Hanuman's Gift, a jeweled monkey from the monkey god.  Augustus hates his job in the Archives and wants more, an adventure and one that could help fuel his imagination for writing.  Augustus feels the agents of the ministry over exaggerate their cases with spooky occurrences and are only writing lame fiction stories based on little pieces of facts.  Agent Thorne brings his latest case file to Augustus for filing.  Augustus and Thorne don't see eye to eye on the 'story telling case files' and Augustus's ability to write his fiction stories, and a comparison starts and Thorne tells Augustus of his latest case and the files he is delivering.  All happening in a part of India where monkeys are worshipped as sacred animals, hunting for a murderous monkey ramped with lesions and thought dead but isn't as the wounds are deadfully infected.  And how the monkey devastates one mans life through his beautiful wife who is buried twice.  Augustus doesn't believe Agent Thorne's tale of his case as it seems to have to many parallels with his story Thorne read when first showing up in the Archives.  Which could lead to trouble for Augustus...

This story is in two parts of about 35 minutes each.  You can listen to at two different times if you need to, or go straight into the second half if you can't wait.  Eliza and Wellington make it easy coming into the second podcast with a short refresher of the first half as Eliza sums up the case to Wellington leading us into wanting to know what happens next.  The second podcast doe repeat the ending of the first to bring you back to the mood of the happenings.

In these podcasts we learn more of the Archives.  It is neat the view we get here of a different room with secret storage.  I'm very curious about this room and the hidden item here.  And makes me wonder if we might see more of this or not...  Or even of poor Augustus and the India troubles.  We don't get much in the way of steampunk weapons here but we do get a touch of magic.  And a story with the famous Agent Thorne.  I was happy to see more of Thorne after hearing so much about him from Eliza in Phoenix Rising.

Another wonderful addition to the Archives.


Would you like to listen to these? For a taste of the characters or in addition to the book... Visit The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrances.

There are short stories always added to the listing. So keep checking back!

I listened to this short story for my own enjoyment.