The 10 best short stories in ‘The X-Files: Secret Agendas’ (Book review)

I’ll take my fix of new “X-Files” material where I can get it, but it’s irritating that in IDW’s third volume of “X-Files” short stories, “Secret Agendas,” Jonathan Maberry and his team (if there is one) still make too many errors. The line-editing gaffes, such as “peak” instead of “peek,” aren’t as numerous as in the first volume, but the number of continuity errors is inexcusable.

One story tells us it is set in November 2002 – after Season 9, when the Files are closed and Mulder and Scully are off the grid – but somehow the duo is investigating a case and flashing their FBI badges. In at least two stories, the way the agents greet each other is off-point – “Fox,” “Dana” and “Mr. Skinner” instead of “Mulder,” “Scully” and “Skinner” – as if the writer hadn’t watched the TV series. In one yarn, Mulder is inexplicably skeptical of a paranormal possibility, and in another, he’s anxious to depart the case, having been spooked out. In another story — supposedly set during her skeptic phase — Scully is as well-versed in the conspiracy lore as Mulder is.

A lot of these entries feel like audition pieces where the author is trying to capture the right tone, and about half of them don’t quite connect. That having been said, it’s not like there are dozens of new “X-Files” volumes to choose from. If you want your “Files” prose fix, “Secret Agendas” offers some pleasures. Here are the 10 best short stories out of the book’s 15:

1. “Love Lost” by Yvonne Navarro (2015, Baltimore/Washington International Airport) – Considering that Navarro wasn’t one of my favorite “Buffy” tie-in writers, this is surprisingly the best entry of this volume (which also features a couple more “Buffy” novelists). In present day, Scully believes she sees her high school boyfriend, Marcus — unaged — in the airport. Then we learn she had not seen him since he went missing back in the day. It’s a stretch that she had never mentioned this before – especially since a missing loved one is central to Mulder’s life – but I’ll buy it, since Scully does have a history of playing her personal life close to the vest and because she had assumed there were rational reasons for Marcus’ disappearance. Bonus points for guest turns by Marita Covarrubias and Alex Krycek.

2. “Kanashibari” by Ryan Cady (1993, Southern California) – Although it’s very similar to an issue from the Topps comics, I appreciate this SoCal-based story of Japan’s “Old Hag” ghost lore for its meat-and-potatoes portrayal of the way our agents investigate the case and put clues together.

3. “Grandmother Black Hands” by Weston Ochse (2002, Fort Apache, Ariz.) – The military writer breaks free of his area of expertise and pens a solid story about a Native American curse set in the “Files” favorite stomping grounds of the desert Southwest. It can’t possibly be set in November 2002, as the time-stamp indicates, but the events play fine if you overlook that mistake.

4. “Seek and You Will Find” by John Gilstrap (2000, Manassas, Va.) – “Secret Agendas” kicks off with Mulder in fine form as the only person who believes a teenager who says he didn’t kill his friend, despite all evidence to the contrary. The fact that Mulder literally travels into another dimension to pursue the case is a bit more blunt than the “X-Files” norm, but I think a TV episode could’ve pulled off this story with a subtle touch.

5. “Perithecia” by Andy Mangels (undated, Purcell, Okla.) – The author, who has written “Roswell” tie-ins and “Star Wars” reference books, gives us a story in the tradition of the mythology actioners, where Mulder nearly gets himself killed after discovering a secret government experiment (which is then promptly covered up). Bonus points for a guest appearance by Mulder’s informant, X.

6. “Transmissions” by Marsheila Rockwell and Jeffrey Mariotte (1996, Sulphur Springs Valley, Ariz.) – Yet another tale in the desert Southwest, this one (co-written by Mariotte, from the old “Buffy” novel gang) taps into the concept of people being controlled by their TV satellite dishes. It’s a little blunt in its delivery, but it fits in the tradition of Season 1’s “Conduit,” Season 3’s “Wetwired” and Season 5’s “Kill Switch.”

7. “Thanks and Praise” by Joe Harris (undated, New York City) – There are two “X-Files” continuities now, and that caused confusion for some readers in Volume 1, which featured a story where the Lone Gunmen are alive in present day, as per the “Season 10” comics continuity. This one helpfully starts with a note that says it comes from the pre-TV-revival continuity; comics author Harris takes us deeper into Gibson Praise’s strategy for using the rebirthed Syndicate and the Acolytes in Season 10. It’s a satisfying way to get a better understanding of Harris’ dense comics arc.

8. “All Choked Up” by Lois H. Grash (1996, Washington, D.C.) – This one pushes the envelope to the point where I was certain it was all a dream sequence, but I’ll (just barely) let it get away with it. Grash posits that there are several sub-basement levels below Mulder’s office in the Hoover building. The agents flat-out follow the Smoking Man to find an experiment in one of the hidden rooms, and then flat-out attack him.

9. “Stryzga” by Lauren H. Forry (1994, Pocono Mountains, Pa.) – In this story of a monster in the Pennsylvania woods, Forry shows more knowledge of the region than of the main characters — at one point, Mulder declines an offer to stay in a camp’s cabins in order to track the nocturnal creature; you’d think he’d jump at the opportunity. But it does work as a nice companion piece to the Season 3 classic “Quagmire,” where the “monster” might be Earth-bound after all. Bonus points for the very “X-Files”-ish title.

10. “A Scandal in Moreauvia, or The Adventure of the Empty Heart” by Nancy Holder (1995, London) – Holder, another of those “Buffy” tie-in veterans, bites off more than she can chew here, with an attempt at giving the “Files” a Holmesian feel. Still, it is fun to revisit Mulder’s ex-girlfriend Phoebe Green from Season 1’s “Fire”; the series itself tended to forget about M&S’s old acquaintances who were peppered throughout the first season.