While this was a fun mixture of old school Private Eye and Lovecraft horror, it didn't quite grab me as compulsively as other work by Mr Meikle that I've read so far. It's very good, don't get me wrong, but his books have always been hard for me to put down, always wanting to read the next chapter. This one did not quite live up to that. But still, given the broad range of his writing output (a lot more of which I have yet to sample) there's bound to be the odd misfire. But with a misfire of this quality I don't think you have to worry about ever picking up a bad William Meikle book. I'm not sure he's capable of writing one if he tried. In summary - very good but flawed and just dropping below the incredibly high standard set by his other work. ( )

A story based around a conflicted hard boiled detective like Chandler or Spillane. He has many good contacts and is living on the edge with alcohol a focal point of his life, he is still punishing himself for not hearing and acting on his live-in girl friend's cry for help before she climbed into the bath and sliced both wrists and throat with his razor. He didn't know she was pregnant until he read her suicide note. He takes a walk-in case from (of course) an attractive young woman against his personal inclinations (money was short). She asks him to find an Amulet that was stolen from her husband while he was on a trip. Derek Adam's had his bull ship detector fully tuned and gleaned that she wasn't telling him the whole truth about the Amulet and how it came to be missing. He gave her his standard disclaimer about the unlikeable recovery of jewelry and started contacting pawn shops and fences who might know about the piece. He finds out about the strange history of this piece originally recovered at an archaeological dig ninety years ago from the Ur civilization. It is at this point that the story starts to depart from the normal private eye story and reveals the participation of a powerful Wizard and Witch (his clients) and their deadly struggle with ancient evils from a serpent worshiping group that is carried on by modern evil doers. Good battles with evil with the future of the world at risk. Read this engaging book to determine the fate of the world. ( )

The Midnight Eye Files: The Amulet is a newly published book by Willie Meikle. Fortunately for us, it looks like the start of a new series. The publisher is Black Death Books. It is a standard sized trade soft cover, 197 pages that's all story, no introduction or author's notes. The cover art is by KHP studios, with no specific photographer credited. It shows a world weary gumshoe, cigarette in hand, with a femme fatale in the background. My favorite touch was the Elder Sign ring. Production qualities are good with maybe one typo. There may have been a few Glasgow references or language that I missed, but the prose was both accomplished and accessible. In fact, Mr. Meikle's knowledge and characterizations of Glasgow made the book spring to life. It is only $15.00 with free shipping if you order $25 worth of stuff. All in all well worth the money!

I must admit I approached this book with a bit of trepidation. I really was not won over by Island Life, a title by Mr. Meikle from a few years ago. I actually gave my copy away. I need not have worried. The Amulet was a triumph and I hope the beginning of a beautiful friendship with private eye Derek Adams. Maybe I was a sucker for it because my all time favorite movie is The Maltese Falcon, hands down. I just love all those old Bogart flicks. Schizophrenically, I've never read a Raymond Chandler, even after reading reams of Doc Savage, Tarzan, Ludlum, Clancy and other potboilers. Maybe I'll mosey to the bookstore and give them a gander, as Chandler is treated reverentially by Meikle.

To explain how the mythos fits is I have to include some mild spoilers, so stop now if that is going to bother you.

Derek Adams is a down on his luck £250-per-day-plus-expenses gumshoe in Glasgow, what little time he isn't chain smoking he spends getting drunk. Or at least drinking really hard. Man if I had 10% of what he downed in this book I would be completely incapacitated for weeks! In walks a knock out dame with a case and it is trouble (it always is, isn't it?)! It seems there is an amulet from ancient Ur, of the image of a terrible tentacled demon. It was unearthed in an archeological dig decades earlier, perhaps under nefarious circumstances, under the influence of a mysterious ancient Arab. The amulet has been stolen from its current owners under suspicious circumstances, with a mysterious ancient Arab needing sighted around the fringes. What follows is a well paced story of Derek first doing some basic PI work, and some flashbacks to the dig at Ur. Mutilated bodies start piling up, the local police start hassling Derek and it becomes obvious some supernatural agency is involved. After the mystery is largely solved, the book's last 50 or so pages turn into a sorcerous confrontation between the amulet's owners, a scholar and Wiccan witch, and those who want to use its power to open the gates of reality to awaken Great C'thulhu. The demon of the amulet is not a specific mythos entity but is a creation of Mr. Meikle, called the Gatekeeper (unless I missed that somehow it is an avatar of Yog Sothoth). A creature with starfish like tentacles on the top of its head seems like one of our old friends, and there may be an oblique reference to Azathoth what with all the piping going on. The climactic confrontation takes place in the depths of a forbidding place called Arkham House. How much more mythos can it be? Of course, however, it is not really a mythos story except maybe the last bit. It's really more a detective novel. Naaah, not a detective novel. A gumshoe novel.

So here, in stream of consciousness format, are things I liked and my one quibble. I really like the first half of the book. This isn't CJ Henderson type stuff, at least not a first. This is more like James Ambuehl's The Pisces Club with break neck action and humor intermingled. There is a real patina of gritty Glaswegian reality, lending richness and depth. I loved the stock PI novel characters. But I was distressed when so many of them ended up among the victims! I liked that Derek was not a superman, not even a real tough guy type. But he pursued this case like a bulldog. And non-existentialist mythos fans will be quite pleased by the way the good guys put up a fight with ultimate evil. I also liked the events at the end leading up to the confrontation if not quite so much as the first part of the book. I hope Derek rethinks his end of book decision to give up the PI business. I guess I'll just have to wait and see where Mr. Meikle takes us.

Now my one quibble, such a tiny thing but it always puts me off in a mythos book. HPL is mentioned as an author of fiction, and yet his mythos is the backdrop for the horror elements of this story. HPL writing reality passed off as fiction is a plot device I just don't like. This was one tiny part of a short sentence. It didn't detract in any way from my enjoyment of the novel. I just couldn't help noticing it.

I don't know if Derek Adams will cross paths with minions of the Great Old Ones again, or if his further adventures will be along other arcane avenues. Whatever he does, I'll be along for the ride and you should too. I also want to explore some of Mr. Meikle's other books too, particularly his Watchers series. The Amulet is recommended to mythos fans, gumshoe fans, Meikle fans and fans of a good yarn. ( )

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4314564 ( )