A couple of years back in BROKEN SIGIL I wrote about a very strange house in New York. Pentacle is about another of these houses, following the same rules, but with a different set of problems that the concierge needs to solve. It’s set in Edinburgh, and features the return in the present day of an Electric Pentacle that some of you might recognize if you’ve been paying attention.
It’s a story that features many of the things I love – it’s got deep Scottish history, a supernatural element, a link to Victorian occult detection, some guitar playing and singing, and Edinburgh, possibly my favorite place on the planet. What’s not to like?
Something has disturbed the quiet reflection in an old building. A creature has slipped through, sniffling and snuffling in all the dark places, disrupting the balance of time and space. And it's John’s job to fix it… by any means necessary.
There are houses like this all over the world. Most people only know of them from whispered stories over campfires; tall tales told to scare the unwary. But some, those who suffer…some know better. They are drawn to the places where what ails them can be eased.
If you have the will, the fortitude, you can peer into another life, where the dead are not gone, where you can see that they thrive and go on, in the dreams that stuff is made of.
The concierge in one such house in Edinburgh finds that something has been broken in his boarding rooms. An investigation leads him to the basement, and the finding of an Edwardian era electric valve kit-a pentacle, that seems to have power to heal what has been broken.
Using the pentacle in conjunction with his own music, the concierge discovers that the savage beasts that threaten the house can be fought.
But can they be defeated?
Pentacle is a perfect example of how a horror story can be fear inducing without having to resort to cheap literary equivalents of jump scares. - Ginger Nuts of Horror
William Meikle has hit on a pretty creepy mythos. - Dark Places
Despite the Hodgson trappings, this book represents William Meikle’s moving away from the pastiches he’s become known for, as he builds his own mythos in which Carnacki and his ilk certainly existed, but it’s his own characters that carry the story forward. I can’t wait to see where he takes us next. - FEAR magazine #37
This one is all suspense, glimpses at the horrors from beyond that threaten to break through into our world. It's all John can do to keep the house in order, much less fix whatever has caused things to come unraveled. As with a lot of great horror, Meikle provides enough hints for readers to fill in the blanks and supply a lot of the really horrible shit themselves. - Dangerous Dan's Book Blog
