The Midnight Eye Files: The Amulet [Paperback]

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  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.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 11 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars