William MeikleReseñas

Three fantasy stories -
1. Ask the Cosmos - what does a drunk Dave Ask the Cosmos while attending a diner party.
2. Deep into the Green - silver prospectors call on the Wee Folk for help, unfortunately.
3. Morning Sickness - a pregnant couple win a holiday on the coast of Jura, what could go wrong
Three entertaining short stories.

This is the second Midnight Eye File novella (short story?) I’ve read, so I’d a pretty good idea of what vibe to expect. This time, the detecting takes place in Glasgow’s west end. Since I lived there for over ten years, I enjoyed revisiting the place through Derek’s eyes, though I’m mightily glad my own experiences were more mundane! As we’d expect from a short work, the plot is straightforward and it moves along at a good pace.
Overall, an entertaining and somewhat creepy short read.

Novella

Novella

Novella

It’s not a gentle rain that falleth from the heavens here, and it definitely isn’t merciful. Fireman Jim Noble in St. Johns, Newfoundland finds that out when he comes across an accident scene where a car plowed into a building. The driver’s skull is oddly deformed, his bloody is watery and brown colored. His bones are an odd color, his skin covered by red welts.

In many ways, this is a similar story to Meikle’s The Creeping Kelp. Both use Lovecraftian elements. Both feature a biological menace that threatens human life on Earth though here far more of the ecosystem is in danger than just homo sapiens. In both, Meikle uses material from others of his stories though here that is only a bit from one of Meikle’s Carnacki pasiches that I haven’t read.

Meikle describes this as a “wee homage” to John Wyndam, H. P. Lovecraft, and William Hope Hodgson.

The ChiComs have been genetically experimenting on turning some of the mushrooms from the “high plains of Leng” into a food source. But a decidedly unserendipitous combining of that with nuclear weapon testing produced a fungal menace that threatens the world. That combination brings to mind John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids whose killer plants also resulted from weapons testing and biological experimentation.

And both feature a heroic scientist, here the Pakistani mycologist working in St. John’s Newfoundland, the main setting and near Meikle’s current home. Meikle trained as a botanist and did archaeological research involving fungi, so he puts that to good use in giving us details on how that mysterious kingdom of life works.

Both books feature compulsions imposed on characters infested by the menace. Here, those touched by the fungus speak of the Blue Hills, and Jim Noble does want to dance under its influence, but Meikle tones that down from his usual use of that motif.

This book is slightly longer, and Meikle uses the extra space well. Both books feature scenes of widescale death and destruction, but here most of them are not experienced by any of the viewpoint characters (however briefly they’re around) but heard on news reports.

We begin with Noble, a fireman in St. John’s, Newfoundland. (Yes, Scottish ex-pat Meikle has trashed his new Canadian home,) That accident he comes across is not the first in the city, and it won’t be the last. The fungoid menace is going to evolve to far more bizarre manifestations, most plausible.

There are four viewpoint characters: Noble; Rebecca Lovatt, mother of two boys and wife of Shaun; Shaun, a logger out in British Columbia; and Rohit, that mycologist. He’ll develop a relationship with Irene, a woman working in the university cafeteria, since both are trapped inside by the fungal rain and the infected people outside. Noble deals with the chaos and death that follows the fungus showing up in St. Johns but becomes infected himself. Shaun has to make his way back from British Columbia. He finds the earth and forests blighted and human society coming apart.

We end on not quite as triumphant a note as in The Creeping Kelp. Knowledge of how to defeat the menace is gained, but it’s hard won, and not all the characters are going to survive this story.

Generally, I liked this one even better than The Creeping Kelp except I had a quibble with an obvious feature of the fungal menace not playing a crucial role until the end.

Another reliable creature feature, this one has a Lost World setup but is set in contemporary times. Not that modern techology is much help… The action is interspersed with a journal from a long-dead explorer. I’m not sure how necessary that was, and it made the current-day narrative feel a tad rushed. Overall, a lot of fun.

Overall: As usual, mild horror and a lot of fun.

This was a fun, fast-paced monster story from Meikle with a substantial helping of a particular bit of Lovecraftian horror.

We start with David Noble in the North Atlantic. He’s assisting research on plastic waste in the ocean onboard the Earth Rescue. On the way back to the ship, the propellor of his Zodiac’s motor is fouled by a black, tarry substance. He is picked up by the ship where he goes for a beer in the lab of Suzie, a researcher

But, no sooner than he’s aboard, that substances attacks the ship from the water. Tentacles fly. People die. Lots of people. The sound “Teke Li” is heard in the air which reminds Suzie of something she read in a journal from one of the Pabodie Expedition members. (That expedition is, of course, the subject of H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.)

Soon, Noble and Suzie are battling for their lives. But rescue comes, and they are taken to a military base in Weymouth, UK.

Meanwhile we get lots of one off scenes (because their viewpoint characters all die) of the shoggoths (because that’s what the monsters are) attacking London and Lyme Regis on the British coast.

Meikle doesn’t let anything slow the pace of his story. Descriptions, including those of the characters, are just basic enough to keep the plot moving.

It all ends up in a nice set piece – which could have used more description – back in the Atlantic.

Thrilling, short, and fast, this is another winner from Meikle.

This is another solid offering from William Meikle in his Weird Holmes world. This time, we follow Holmes and Watson between the foggy streets of London and mouldering country estates as they tease apart the real, the rumoured and the unexplained (some of it weirder than the rest). The events in The Long Sleep aren’t as inexplicable (within the world context) as they are in some of the other stories, which I appreciated.

In this collection of cases, Inspector Lestrade comes into his own away from the influence of Sherlock Holmes. Although (Sherlock) Holmes remains off-page, we encounter other characters familiar from the original stories including Watson, Mrs Hudson and of course… the woman.

The investigative style doesn’t make the mistake of imitating Holmes’. Instead, the mysteries mainly run as police procedurals. Since these are William Meikle stories, we experience a good chunk of the supernatural and unexplained.

Overall, a solid and satisfying collection of stories to expand the Holmesian universe.

I’ve enjoyed the author’s S-Squad books and a few of his more historic ones. So I was curious what he’d do with a noir approach.

This is a short read, but a lot of fun. Derek seems unflappable, no matter what’s thrown at him, whether it be regular threats from thugs or interdimensional incursions. I liked his voice (it’s told in first person from Derek’s point of view), which was “noir” without being overdone.

As we’d expect for a novella, the plot is quite straightforward. It’s less Derek unravelling a complex mystery and more him following the history and current impact of the oddity he’s investigating.

I’m not sure if this would count as “Tartan Noir.” Myself, I’m inclined to dub it “Tartan Weird.” Will certainly be picking up the other adventures in the series.

Another fast-paced creature feature, as we follow Wiggo, Banks and a rather small team into the frozen North to rescue a team of researchers. This time, the immediate problem is Bears of Unusual Size. There’s no mystical/supernatural element (that I noticed).

In comparison to previous books in the series, the cast of characters here is relatively small, giving the story a more intimate feel. I do like Wiggo as a viewpoint character :) It was fun seeing the team sneak around and improvise to get out of various scrapes.

A solid creature feature. I’m looking forward to the next one already.

Another enjoyable uncanny tale recounted by the long-suffering Watson. This book felt more like a adventure than a mystery, with Holmes drawing on other skills than his deductive mind. The challenge here wasn’t quite so much “What’s going on?” as “How?” and “How can we stop it?”

The prose was tidy and easy to read. As I’d noted in the previous book, the voice feels Watson-ish and period-appropriate without being too stuffy or stodgy.

Overall, a quick fun read for Victorian detective fans who like a dollop of weird.

I'm going to start out by saying I skipped through about chapter 20 to about chapter 30ish because, well, I was bored. That is pretty much the jest of it. I skipped the chapters because the book was due back, and I wanted to know if the ending was going to change anything.

If you are a person that loves setting / world building driving books, then you're going to love this book. Stephen King has built an expansive fantasy world, tying in all of your favorite fairy tales—in a horrific manner in many cases. The supporting cast, the quirks of everything, it's all fantastic.

While I loved his world build, it wasn't enough to keep me interested. The main character is a snooze fest, and his story arc is equally as boring/predictable. I'm more of a character or plot driven reader though, so this book just missed the mark for me personally.

The style reminds me a lot of IT and a few other King books, so I'm sure fans of his will adore this one as well. I just wanted more pulling me forward than discovering the next quirk about the world.

Home from the Sea
by William Meikle

This is a collection of stories in a "Lovecraftian" vein, and all are connected to the sea/water in some way.

Overall, the collection is quite fun. It bounces between exciting novelty, and a somewhat telling repetition of ideas and even sentences. The whole seems to create an almost original branch of the mythos that is all Meikle's, particularly the influence of music and rhythm on the mind and the "others."

Some of my particular favorites among these stories are perhaps "Inquisitor," pitting a shoggoth against a member of the Spanish Inquisition (bet you weren't expecting that!); and the title story, in which whalers are faced with something horrific from the depths. They both take some basic familiar ideas and use them in novel ways to create something very interesting.

The book does have some minor little editing issues (one story had a bunch of commas replaced by the 3/4 symbol. What?) but is generally very well done and quite readable.

Definitely worth a read for horror and Lovecraft fans.

As you’d expect from the title, this is a creature feature novella in a nautical environment. I’ve enjoyed several of the author’s previous books. Here, he again delivers a fast-paced adventure with a touch of horror. The action is straightforward and the gore pretty light.

Since the team is based on a boat, the setting was relatively intimate. We got a good introduction to the characters and their not-always-harmonious relationships. Assuming Shonisaurus is the start of a series, I look forward to meeting them again :)

I’ve enjoyed the author’s military action S-Squad books, so I was curious to see how he’d handle a mystery. This short book was a lot of fun: no enormous twists or surprises, but satisfying combination of investigation and action. As with the original Conan Doyle books, we experience the story through Watson’s eyes rather than Holmes’. The language feels suitably Watson-ish without being obtrusively old-fashioned, and I didn’t feel the author had taken liberties with the period. (Though I’ll note here I’m not a Holmes purist).

Since the reader is probably expecting a weird/eldritch tale, the findings are more of a surprise to our heroes than to us. I had fun wondering just when Holmes would cotton on.

Overall, an entertaining light mystery horror.

The Copycat Murders: A supernatural novella by William Meikle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Newsreaders are being killed in locked rooms. But how is the main suspect doing it. Lieutenant Ryan and Sergeant Dave Thorne investigate .
An entertaining paranormal mystery.
Disclaimer - written by my husband.



View all my reviews

Two brothers, John a cop and Alan a journalist fight to stop a child murderer that uses the children as sacrifices to cross to another world.

It’s a fast pacing book, The beginning before you learned the truth about the other world was best when everything still was a mystery. I liked the thought about another world that is guarded by a mythical creature. 2/3 of the book was good. They are racing against the clock to stop the killer from finishing the sacrifices’ and becoming too powerful to stop.

The last part of the book was unfortunately not that interesting. You learn the “truth” about the world. Well, as much as it is possible to learn and you get a final fight between the brothers and the killers. But my interest in the book faded the last 1/3 of the book. I just couldn’t care less what happened to Alan and John.

I wanted to know more about the other world, where it just humans that had crossed over to the other side or had it been another race (or races) of people living there before. Who build the fortress and the cathedral? What’s the story about Jonas and James? What is so special about Alan, John, and Sandra that makes the three of them able pass over to the other side easy? I wanted to know more about Simon and Cobbe, how did Simon learn about Cobbe, did he just invent the story about Cobbe or did someone tell him about the creature? Too many questions, too little answers for my taste.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

This is an excellent, very creative story of terror in the mountains! The story is told in a unique manner by a Sherpa and a lost journal.

More fun with Banks and his buddies, this time with a Jurassic Park-style setup.The mission starts with a touch of luxury, courtesy of a billionaire sponsor who wants to show off his genetically rederived prehistoric animals. Of course, the creatures get out of control, and the squad have to battle for survival.

The story moves at a good pace, and the science (plausible or otherwise) isn't too obtrusive.

An enjoyable couple of hours escapism.

Entertaining adventure where four men and a dog head off in search of mysterious treasure. As I've learned to expect from a Meikle story, the group have bitten off more than they can comfortably chew. Trapped underground, they have to run the gauntlet of beasts peculiar and dangerous in the hope of making it out alive.

I enjoyed the sense of exploration. The characterisation wasn't deep, but I liked seeing how the mislaid explorers interacted with each other. That said, Elsa the dog was the real star! The hazards started to feel a wee bit repetitive, and I lost track of how often a monster barrelled towards them (possibly the same monster more than once), but overall a fun, pulp-y read.

Now I have a hankering to go off and read Conan Doyle's The Lost World :)

Banks is back! In this mission, the squad head off to explore an old Antarctic base that was the site of a strange and secret Nazi project. The action is interspersed with substantial chunks of text from a journal found at the scene. So we learn the historical background (featuring Churchill and Carnacki) while the team are trying to cope with what they find. With that information it's no surprise (at least for the reader) that supernatural elements are involved.

Perhaps because of the split timeline, the pacing felt quite stop-start. As with the previous book, I didn't always remember which character was which. But still, a very readable adventure, and a nice-sized snack in between more substantial tomes.

As Dr. Ian Malcolm stated in Jurassic Park "Life finds a way!" S-Squad are sent to Siberia to escort some scientists who are due to inspect an unusual Zoo. As usually happens in these scenarios, the Zoo is soon overrun by all manner of Human ineptitude, technical issues, and general mayhem from the Beasties. This is Meikle's third S-Squad book and I am thoroughly enjoying this series. The adventures of S-Squad remind me somewhat of the comic books of the 1980's like Battle and Victor. Great stuff and I finished this one in a few nights.

Action-packed creature features with guts and gore aren't typically my thing, and neither is horror, but I enjoyed this fast-paced adventure (from the page count, I guess a novella rather than a novel). A squad mission goes weird when the Russians they're supposed to be investigating seem to have accidentally unearthed beasties that they ought not to. Chaos and a battle for survival ensue.

The prose was very readable, and I just noticed one typo. The characters... I had difficulty keeping track of which squad member was which, though that didn't particularly matter. Minimal personal introspection although there were a few quiet moments. We didn't get too bogged down in explanations as to why or how things had come about, but there was just enough background info that it felt cohesive without provoking my internal scientific sceptic.

A quick, fun read if you're after some action.