Glaswegian Occult Detection
Derek Adams, THE MIDNIGHT EYE has been with me since the early 90s.
He’s an Occult Detective and works the streets of Glasgow. He fights darkness wherever he finds it, when he’s not drinking.
Old Glasgow still lies, slumbering, a dreaming god waiting for the stars to be right again. It can be found in the places where Derek walks, in bars untouched by time, in the closes of tenement buildings that carry the memories of past glories, and in the voices of older men and women who travel through the modernity unseen, impervious to its charms.
Derek Adams, The Midnight Eye, knows the ways of the old city. And, if truth be told, he prefers them to the new. His case count continues to grow.
CASE 1: THE AMULET
This was Derek Adams, The Midnight Eye’s first case and first novel, and among the first things I wrote when i started in the early 90s.
I was looking for a hook, a way into a novel, and found him in a bar in Glasgow’s West End, a lumbering big man who wanted to be a private eye. You’ll find him here, along with dodgy pawnbrokers, brutal cops, cultists and a variety of tentacles. i had a lot of fun with it.
CASE 2: THE SIRENS
Derek’s second novel grew from a trip I made to Skye, and another bar, The Portree Hotel, where I heard local tales about Selkies.
That, and an interest in Norse mythology, got this one going and in here you’ll find one-eyed janitors, old ladies in search of lost sons and husbands, a mermaid thing and some followers of an old, playful but definitely evil, god. Oh, and a lot of drinking. An awful lot of drinking.
CASE 3: THE SKIN GAME
Derek’s third novel starts with him, like me, in the West of Scotland, but when I moved to Newfoundland I took him with me for the climax of it all.
in this one a pack of very Scottish werewolves howl under Newfoundland skies, and Derek howls along with them. In here you’ll find wee hairy men, a strange skin belt, some Glasgow bars and their garrulous inhabitants, and an awful lot of smoking.
CASE 4: GREEN DOOR
GREEN DOOR is a Midnight Eye novella.
You’ll find more cultists here, old stories come back to haunt the present, weird tattoo parlours and a lot more drinking.
CASE 5: FARSIDE
FARSIDE is a Midnight Eye novelette.
Another Sigils and Totems crossover case for Derek, where a woman with a secret and an aversion to mirrors draws him into a hidden world beyond the bounds of normal existence.
CASE 6: RHYTHM AND BOOZE
RHYTHM AND BOOZE is a Midnight Eye novelette.
Derek gets an offer he can’t refuse from a Glasgow gangster and finds himself in the wilds, where the drums beat and to get lost in the dance is to get truly lost.
CASE 7: HELLFIRE
HELLFIRE is a Midnight Eye novella.
Derek crosses paths with a dangerous group of corrupt businessmen who are abducting young girls and sacrificing them to a dark god. They are playing with fire, and Derek needs to be careful not to get burned
CASE 8: DEAL OR NO DEAL
DEAL OR NO DEAL is a Midnight Eye novelette.
Derek is called on to save the souls of a group of men who made a deal in their youth, only to realise too late the consequences of that reckless act.
There are also a scattering of short stories. Some of these are collected in the two Midnight Eye Omnibus editions which also contain the three novels and the novellas listed above ( apart from Hellfire, the most recent of Derek’s cases)
Like me, Derek is getting older now, but he’s still game…
WILLIAM MEIKLE 