The Midnight Eye Files: The Sirens [Paperback]

William Meikle (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Midnight Eye Files | Publication Date: April 1, 2007

The Midnight Eye returns.at first it's a simple lost son case, but for PI Derek Adams things turn quickly to the twilight zone. Soon he's on a remote island and up to his hips in mer-women, shape-changers and ancient fisher cults. Running back to the city doesn't help; there's magic and mayhem loose on the streets. An ancient god is waking up, and only blood will stop him!

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

I grew up with the sixties explosion of popular culture embracing the supernatural and the weird. Hammer horror movies got me young, and led me back to the Universal originals. My early reading somehow all tended to gravitate in similar directions, with DC comics leading me into pulp and to finding Tarzan.

Tarzan is the second novel I remember reading. (The first was Treasure Island, so I was already well on the way to the land of adventure even then.) I quickly read everything of Burroughs I could find. Then I devoured Wells, Verne and Haggard. I moved on to Conan Doyle before I was twelve, and Professor Challenger's adventures in spiritualism led me, almost directly, to Dennis Wheatley, Algernon Blackwood, and then on to Lovecraft. Then Stephen King came along.

There's a separate but related thread of a deep love of detective novels running parallel to this, as Conan Doyle also gave me Holmes, then I moved on to Christie, Chandler, Hammett, Ross MacDonald and Ed McBain, reading everything by them I could find. 

Mix all that lot together, add a dash of ZULU, a hefty slug of heroic fantasy from Howard, Leiber and Moorcock, a sprinkle of fast moving Scottish thrillers from John Buchan and Alistair MacLean, and a final pinch of piratical swashbuckling. Leave to marinate for fifty years and what do you get? 

A psyche with a deep love of the weird and pulp in its most basic forms, and the urge to beat the heck out of monsters and bad guys.

Scottish PI Derek Adams lets me do that without anyone getting hurt.

About the Author

William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: KHP Publishers (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979988128
• ISBN-13: 978-0979988127
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,176,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm Willie, a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries, the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others. My work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies.

My current best seller is THE INVASION, a sci-fi alien invasion tale with mass carnage, plucky survivors, and last minute rescues. It has been as high as #2 in the Kindle > science fiction charts. (and #4 in Kindle > horror ). Please check it out.

I've been asked many times why I write what I do. I choose to write mainly at the pulpy end of the market, populating my stories with monsters, myths, men who like a drink and a smoke, and more monsters. People who like this sort of thing like it.

I've also been criticised for it by people who don't get it. Willie Meikle is..."the author of the most cliched, derivative drivel imaginable...the critical acclaim he receives from his peers is virtually non-existent." is only one of the responses I've had.

Now, I don't write for the critical acclaim of my peers. I couldn't give a toss what other writers think of me. I'm writing for two reasons... myself and a readership. Posterity, if there is one, can decide on whether it's any good or not. Besides, the harder I work at it making my writing accessible, the more readers I get, so I'm doing something right.

But that's still not why I do it. My pat answer has always been the same. "I like monsters."

But it goes deeper than that.

I write to escape.

I grew up on a West of Scotland council estate in a town where you were either unemployed or working in the steelworks, and sometimes both. Many of the townspeople led hard, miserable lifes of quiet, and sometimes not so quiet desperation. I was relatively lucky in that both my parents worked, but I spent a lot of time alone or at my grandparent's house.

My Granddad was housebound, and a voracious reader. I got the habit from him, and through him I discovered the Pan Books of Horror and Lovecraft, but I also discovered westerns, science fiction, war novels and the likes of Mickey Spillane, Ed McBain, Alistair MacLean, Dennis Wheatley, Nigel Tranter, Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov. When you mix all that together with DC Comics, Tarzan, Gerry Anderson and Dr Who then, later on, Hammer and Universal movies on the BBC, you can see how the pulp became embedded in my psyche.

When I was at school these books and my guitar were all that kept me sane in a town that was going downhill fast. The steelworks shut and employment got worse. I -could- have started writing about that, but why bother? All I had to do was walk outside and I'd get it slapped in my face. That horror was all too real.

So I took up my pen and wrote. At first it was song lyrics, designed (mostly unsuccessfully) to get me closer to girls.

I tried my hand at a few short stories but had no confidence in them and hid them away. And that was that for many years.

I didn't get the urge again until I was past thirty and trapped in a very boring job. My home town had continued to stagnate and, unless I wanted to spend my whole life drinking (something I was actively considering at the time), returning there wasn't an option.

As I said before, I write to escape.

My brain needed something, and writing gave it what was required. That point, back nearly twenty years ago, was like switching on an engine, one that has been running steadily ever since.

And most of the time, the things that engine chooses to give me to write are very pulpy.

I think you have to have grown up with pulp to -get- it. A lot of writers have been told that pulp=bad plotting and that you have to have deep psychological insight in your work for it to be valid. They've also been told that pulp=bad writing, and they believe it. Whereas I remember the joy I got from early Moorcock, from Mickey Spillane and further back, A E Merritt and H Rider Haggard. I'd love to have a chance to write a Tarzan, John Carter, Allan Quartermain, Mike Hammer or Conan novel, whereas a lot of writers I know would sniff and turn their noses up at the very thought of it.

I write to escape.

I haven't managed it yet, but I'm working on it

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sirens on Skye Island, November 17, 2008

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Midnight Eye Files: The Sirens (Paperback)

Up until now, my dream book would be a mystery with a supernatural twist set in Scotland. I was delighted to discover William Meikle's series.

The protagonist is PI Derek Adams who normally works in Glasgow. The story opens with an unscheduled visit from elderly Widow Malcolm, who nearly drinks up all his Scotch and smokes all his cigs. The widow wants him to go to Skye to recover her son who's recently disappeared there. She's paying a pretty decent amount just to get the boy back for his father's funeral.

Of course, there's a catch. Quite a bizarre one, actually. The young man's gotten himself hooked up with a family of sirens.

If you love droll Scottish humor with a paranormal twist, you're going to like this series. You probably should start with "The Amulet" if you can, but I did fine beginning with the second book, you will just miss some subtle nuances.

Rebecca Kyle, November 2008

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another corking good read in the series by Willie Meikle, June 1, 2008

By 

Matthew T. Carpenter (Peoria, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Midnight Eye Files: The Sirens (Paperback)

I have been waiting for the sequel to The Amulet for what seems like a long time now. It was well worth the wait although I liked The Sirens so much I zipped through it in one day, and now I'm waiting for the next one again! The Sirens lists for $12.99 and is undiscounted on Amazon, although it is available for free shipping if you order > $25 worth of stuff (Easy enough to do! Just order The Amulet, which was a smashing good read). Publisher is Black Death Books; it is a high quality trade paperback with no editing flaws; no typos caught my eye. The excellent cover art is only credited to KHP Studios. Page count was 240 with text starting on page 5, pretty generous for the genre.

For those unlucky sods who missed the first novel, Derek Adams lives and works as a private investigator (and drinks and has the occasional punch up) in the seamy areas of Glasgow. He tried his hand as a newspaperman for a few weeks after the events in The Amulet, but is now back to doing what he does best. You don't need to read The Amulet to enjoy this book, although it helps, as events which are only alluded to are still having emotional repercussions for the characters weeks later. Derek has just hired his best mate, Doug, as a computer researcher and gets a new and potentially lucrative client. Jessoe Malcom is an elderly woman, just widowed, and is now using her maiden name again. She want Derek to go to Skye to track down her son, John Mason, who she wants to be at the funeral. Being a yank, I had to look all this up. Skye is in the Hebrides, and is the second largest island in all of Scotland, west and north of Glasgow (and not far from Norway, Iceland and Skalbard, important for reasons that become clear only later in the novel. Skye was under Norse rule for about 300 years, up to the mid 1200s, so many people there probably have Viking antecedents...or other antecendents...). Apparently John had a modestly successful professional career and chucked it all to move to Skye. On the way to Skye, Derek picks up an old acquaintence, reporter Jim Morton, who is investigating some weird happenings rumored about the locale. Derek tries to start nosing about an inn called the Auld Kelpie but is given a distinctly chilly reception. It turns out the three locals there are also Masons, John's cousins and the barmaide Irene is the wife of one of the cousins. Something distinctly odd is going on, and it seems that the pub was well named. Without giving too much away, John was called by a Kelpie to sire her children and is under her spell. He wants to go to the funeral in Glasgow, and Irene wants to help him, but the three cousins are keeping him close to the pub with force and booze. Derek manages to smuggle him out. Alas maybe he should have thought about the changeling from the sea and what strange power she holds over John. As the excitement really gets going we meet two Glasgow police officers, Jock McCall, who has the size and temper of an ape, and Betty Mulholland, his partner. When events spin out of control we also meet a nameless janitor who happens to have a glass eye and a trenchant sense of humor. It seems there is a curse on the Mason family that may date back to ancient Norse times...

I really enjoyed this book. I have had mixed feelings about some of Mr. Meikle's work. I did not like Island Life much at all, and The Havenhome from High Seas Chtulhu did nothing for me. On the other hand, The Amulet was a terrific success. The Sirens is a worthy successor and has me hooked on to the Midnight Eye Files for the duration. Compared to The Amulet I found the plot a bit more scattershot, mostly filler in Glasgow between the critically important parts in Skye. There was a lot of back story delivered in flashbacks, maybe too many times. And you know what? I didn't care a bit! It was so well written, the characters were so completely realized and the dialogue so good with so much snap, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. Again I was completely won over, and Mr. Meikle's familiarity with the nether reaches of Glasgow made it all come to life vividly. Action scenes were breathless, there was not a hint of sentimentality and the pain suffered by everyone was fully believable. Best of all was the Norse background, which gradually and compellingly unfolded through the course of the story. This matches the best uses of old Norse myths in any novel I'm familiar with. I have fondness for The Roaring Trumpet of Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague deCamp, and of course I really liked American Gods by Neil Gaimen; The Sirens stands proudly alongside these books. One obvious association is presented with delightful understatement by Mr. Meikle; I'll say no more for fear of spoiling the book for you. For mythos fans there is a very brief mention of the Necronomicon, at least making me hope Derek Adams will again wander back into my favorite genre at some point.

There is nothing not to like in The Sirens; it is well worth a read for fans of occult detectives and mythology influenced fiction everywhere, and for people who just want a good book to get lost in for a few hours. More please, Mr. Meikle. Maybe I'd better read The Watchers Trilogy.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining light read - more thriller than horror, February 17, 2009

By 

Ravenskya "Princess of Horror" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Midnight Eye Files: The Sirens (Paperback)

Poor cover art may turn many away from this book... a poor synopsis on the back will discourage many more. In fact, the synopsis on the back is completely irrelevant to the book - the phone call mentioned does occur... however it has no bearing on the actual story what so ever.

A true synopsis - After their previous case involving an amulet (which I assume is the first in the series) our PI, Derek Adams and his agoraphobic sidekick are hired for what should be a simple case. An old woman wants Derek to head north to a small town and retrieve her son so that he can attend his father's funeral. What follows delves deeply into the ancient Norse mythology including sirens, Odin, Loki, a shape shifter and some not-so-friendly locals.

Although this is classified as horror, and it does contain a monster... this book is more of an irreverent supernatural crime thriller. If it weren't for the heavy use of profanity, I would recommend this as a young adult novel. For adults, they may have a tough time buying into everything that occurs. However, even though it lacks gore and is really never frightening, it is a fun book. The characters do all have similar voices and there is very little physical description of the different characters. It would have been easier to keep them mentally separate if the author hadn't suffered from a penchant for names starting with the letter "D" or if they had each been given a distinctive voice. The character who stands out the most is the elderly chain-smoking widow, and even she is a dichotomy in that her personality shifts as the story needs it to.

The plot itself is quite wild though the author does manage to keep a handle on it, keeping it as restrained as anything containing this much magic in modern day times can be. It is enough to keep your attention from beginning to end, and to be honest I'm still not entirely sure where the ending came from, but I'll buy it.

If you are looking for a light read that never takes itself too seriously then this can be quite an enjoyable time. The gore is light, and there is sexual contact told in the past tense (and the men have the wounds to prove it). The book does contain heavy profanity from a specific character, adult subjects such as suicide, and gore. If this were a movie and they cut the profanity down this would be a heavy PG-13 rating.