Customer Reviews

The Midnight Eye Files: The Amulet

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4 star:		(3)
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Mixing the hard boiled/crime noir of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler with Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos may seem out of place, but afterall, all of these men did write for the pulps at one time. While it's set in present day Scotland, author William Meikle infuses it so many 30's and 40's elements that one can wonder why he didn't just set his story during that time period to begin with. Derek Adams is a Glasgow private investigator and he fits the image we all have of noir detectives: smart-alecky, drinks too much, smokes too much, and has a dingy apartment that doubles as his office. You can practically picture a ceiling fan that rotates far too slowly to provide even the slightest breeze. And of course into his office walks a mysterious, dark-haired dame, wanting to hire Adams. Sure, it hits on every cliché in the genre but Meikle is so earnest about it you hardly care. It's obvious that Meikle reveres guys like Chandler and Hammett so who can fault him for that.

Fiona Dunlop wants Adams to find a rather strange looking amulet that was stolen from her home. She gives Adams very little information other than a picture. When Adams takes the picture to a professor friend of his he finds that this is no mere trinket. The Johnson Amulet is thousands of years old and is virtually priceless. Borrowing elements of Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's tomb, we learn the history of the amulet discovered in the early part of the 20th century. The amulet is traced back to the ancient priest kings of UR and its discovery was aided by an old, wizened Arab who appears mysteriously. Derek now knows there is much more to this case than meets the eye. He begins to investigate local antique dealers and fencers, piecing together more and more about the amulet, but everyone he comes in contact with seems to quickly die a horrible death putting Adams in the spotlight of the local police.

When Adams tails one prominent antique dealer to an out of the way country estate, he is witness to ceremony of black magic that calls forth a horrific creature from some damnable plane of existence who is intent on getting the amulet back. But for what purpose? Derek's friend soon finds evidence that the amulet may go all the way back to the Great Old Ones who ruled the world long before man and specifically mentions Cthulhu who lies dreaming in his ocean tomb waiting to walk the earth once more. In edition to Cthulhu, Meikle makes mention of Abdul Alhazred, writer of the Necronomicon and later describes a swirling black mass and the playing of a crazed flute which is reference to the idiot God Azathoth.

Now Aided by Fiona Dunlop and her husband, both practiced in the arts of magic, they have to stop this group from using the Amulet to open the way to the Old Ones and reverting the earth back to its primeval origins.

Despite all the Mythos elements, and they do come hot and heavy in the last ¼ of the book (the final showdown takes place at Arkham House!) at its core this is really a detective story and could largely have stood alone on those merits. Hardcore Lovecraft fans may find that Meikle dealt with the Mythos elements a little too loosely but then they are a hard group to please anyway. Meikle was writing a detective story with horrific and Mythos elements, not a Mythos story per se. As such I think it worked very well. It moves fast and at 197 pages it's a quick read. The characters may not be the most original but don't worry about it. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

In short, I really enjoyed this book. It started off like a typical private detective story: down-on-his-luck P.I. gets a visit from a beautiful and mysterious woman...the case seems straightforward enough, just find a missing family heirloom. The story quickly spirals into a crazy, weird story with occultists and scary gangsters, horrific murders and terrible things materializing out of noxious mist. Awesome Lovecraft tones and tie-ins...I loved it all. I liked the main character even, because Meikle really made this guy real. I'll definitely be buying the next one.

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 1 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.

The first book of the Midnight Eye Files, The Amulet, blew me away. Seriously. This book and author is the perfect example of why indie authors can be just as competitive and awesome as authors from the Big 6 Publishers. Blending elements of the classic hardboiled detective story (think Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, and Sam Spade) and nightmarish legends and monsters straight from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft (C'thulu anyone?) and you'll have a pretty good idea of what you're in store for.

As most people know, I'm a huge Jim Butcher fan...Harry Dresden, the wizard P.I. from Chicago, is one of my favorite fictional characters. Meikle's detective really isn't anything like Dresden at all. He's no wizard. Heck, the only magic trick he knows is seeing his cigarettes and booze disappear. No, he's just an ordinary guy who's been hired to find a most extraordinary object...an amulet that opens a portal to another dimension. A dimension where the creatures inside want to come through. And Derek Adams has to figure out a way to stop an evil cult from doing just that.

With a mixture of intense action scenes, smart and witty dialogue, good looking femme fatales, and horrendous monsters with one too many tentacles growing out of their head...this book is a rip-roaring good time. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

the result is usually a literary trainwreck. Noir has become a pale shadow of it's former glory. And no subgenre has suffered more than Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
Until William Meikle.
Here is an author who obviously respects both genres and has produced one of the finest cross genre novels I have read in years.
I think H.P. himself would agree.
5 stars out of 5.

William Meikle is one of the most versatile writers working in speculative fiction today, mostly because he isn't afraid to embrace the pulp sensibility that made the genres great. Here he combines the skill of his mystery/PI work as evidenced in The Road Hole Bunker Mystery and combines it with Lovecraftian myth and magic. The damaged PI may seem a little familiar but Meikle's Scottish spin brings it to fresh life and yields a heady mix of reality and fantasy. If you haven't tried Meikle yet, this is a great place to start.

It's Phillip Marlow with a supernatural Cthulhu twist. I enjoyed it and my husband loved it. He insisted I order the next book in the series.

Tight, sharp, and cynical, Meikle's characters are brilliantly portrayed. Sure the main character has a fascination with Humphrey Bogart that borders on obsessive, but it's okay, it works here. Why? Because he is the quintessential detective you imagine every P.I. to be. His wit is quick, his obvious blindness to his client's motives is at the end - legendary, and his heartache and empathy is palpable. Perfect. What wasn't perfect was the secondary characters' dialect.

Now, I understand Mr. Meikle is British, but some of the casts' dialogue became more of a mystery than the case itself. In fact, in order to save my sanity and my need for all things orderly and clear, I had to skip over a few of the interactions between Derek and the locals. Other than dousing us in the local slang, Meikle's style of writing is nostalgic, baroque, and spellbinding. Never has an author had me so caught up in his mystery that I forgot to smoke. Mr. Meikle, you may just be literary Nicorette.

While the outline to the story is not wholly original, the fleshed out plot is. Formative and intelligent, this story has it all: Mystery, horror, lost-love, and friendship. In other words, it could become a classic. Now, don't go getting the idea that this is some creampuff book; it's not. But I do have to admit the horror is sparse. In fact, the blood count is shamelessly low, but that's okay, the supernatural elements carry this book into the genre nicely.

Sultry and casual, the story moves at a languid pace. Starting at a near crawl, the pace increases with a progressive speed that leaves you breathless before it's over and done with. Pure Lovecraft, the atmosphere is dark and disturbing with just a hint of decay. You can smell the cheap gin and cigarettes, but there's an underlying aftertaste of mold.

Derek Adams is such a stereotypical Private Investigator - he's got a colourful history, drinks too much and smokes. He's always getting on the wrong side of the local police, and he's actually a mess.

So, when Fiona steps into his office, looking for someone to find a missing piece of jewellery you wonder why, on earth, she chose him. It's like watching a crash in slow motion, you can see things coming, watch the body count mount up and still there are those slaps round the back of the head that shock.

If it were just a detective ramble this would still sort of work, but the added element of demonic Cthulu adds a dimension that will either have you riveted until the very last word, or it'll give you nightmares.

Take a sharp, wry Private Investigator story that adds in the colour of some of Glasgow's seedier locales, some well crafted historical backdrops that set up the current events and add a final wollop of sanity-snapping Chthonic fiction. With me so far? Good, just don't give in to the chanting, it's your only hope.

When PI Derek Adams, a smart opportunist kept upright on a diet of Nicotine, Caffeine and Single Malts, gets a visit from the seductive Fiona Dunlop, what starts as a simple Treasure Hunt for an ugly but seemingly priceless Amulet gradually descends into a torturous nightmare that drags Adams to the Void beyond the World, where unspeakable horror awaits.

At no little cost to Adams and his friends, as well as Fiona and her husband Andrew - both adepts of the Arts themselves , Adams fights to overcome first his disbelief, and then his common sense (Flee!) in overcoming the mysterious group of hooded practitioners of the Dark Arts who are bent on using the Amulet to break the barrier between the World and the Outer Dimensions to free their Master. There's plenty of horridly hypnotic chanting whenever a summoning takes place - but you know to ignore that.

Featuring the summoned creature of the Amulet, a hideous implacable demon from beyond, whose full horror would take half a page to describe, the richer of Glasgow's Antique Dealers, a few criminal contacts, two thuggish police detectives who finish each other's sentences and have a particular dislike of Adams' methods of Investigating, a standing order of Nicotine from Jo the newspaper man downstairs, and plenty of cursing his useless choice of car, Adams rolls from one lead to the next, pulling himself inexorably towards the final precipice of sanity, all the while wishing himself away and safe again before the madness ever started.

Unputdownable (I do like that pretend word) - The Midnight Eye Files is a fantastic Lovecraftian journey that mixes terror (oh, yes, the Terror), with a witty and clever PI story. I can't wait to get stuck into the other Files to see what else Adams (un)wittingly gets himself into.

So enjoy, spread the word and remember: don't give in to the chanting!!