Assaph Mehr's Blog

I’ve been following this series for a while (mainly the novels), and it’s pretty decent.

Another police-procedural case for Peter Grant, working for the “Special Assessment Unit” – London’s Met police unit for cases involving ‘strange bollocks’ (the occult). This time Grant is trying to vacation in Scotland, and we get many descriptions of Aberdeen. As is usual, the ‘procedural’ can fall by the way side as Grant and associates play a bit loose with regulations, though t...

As a devoted reader of my novels*, you know that as Felix or Jack get called to court on occasion, in their pursuit of dealing with offenders. I do love writing a bit of courtroom drama, Cicero long-winded speeches notwithstanding.

So, naturally, when I got the summons for jury duty my first thought was “bloody hell, not this.” But civic duty prevailed (also, I didn’t have any pre-existing interstate travel or medical conditions — being an author not applicable), and I went in on the day to b...

I’ve read The Survivors by Jane Harper and watched the Netflix TV series at the same time, so — rather than a plain review — I thought I’d do a post on comparative observations about screen adaptation.

Ditto with The Thursday Murder Club novel by Richard Osman and the movie. Aaand I’ve covered Jane Harper’s debut novel and its movie adaptation The Dry before (because I love Outback Noir). So I have a bit to draw upon, ahead of the imminent* adaptation of my own works into blockbuster movi...

A lesser known bronze-age character as a basis for mythical story – of course I jumped on the chance to read it.

An embellished telling of the life of the grandfather of Odysseus, told from his own point of view. The story starts with him as a child being dispossessed and growing up in the wilds. It follows his early adventures on the background of Greek gods and other mythical heroes.

I love the subject matter, taking a lesser known character and buil...

A few weeks ago, the wife and I went to a used-books fair. We came back with a haul of some interesting finds from the “Old Books” tables. While there were too many others we had to leave behind, I’d like to draw your attention to those below, as I’ve bought them with the explicit intention of incorporating into my own future writing.

I love old books. The smell, the feel, the thrill of opening a book you know has been lovingly held a hundred years ago, and sharing that won...

I came across this on The Rest Is History podcast, where the author featured as a guest and reviewed some of the history of ghosts in the UK.

An attempt to examine if England truly is the most haunted nation, whether it’s the isles’ weather or just the people. After setting the scene there’s an attempt to build (or at least define) a taxonomy of ghosts, and then survey how they changed over the years due to cultural influences.

From 17th century haunted battlefields, ...

Malik is one of those authors whose works I’ll read on principal, knowing that they’ll be outstanding (see my reviews for Dragon’s Tail and The New Magic). This novel uses the same world as his previous ones, albeit at a different location and characters so it’s independent from the others. I’ve had the pleasure of reading an early ARC, and it did not disappoint.

Expect a portal-fantasy story of military forces from our world finding and exploring an alien world. There’s...

A few weeks ago I posted the below image across socials, which made the comments explode… In a good way. So here is some more fun stuff about historical fashions.

This was accompanied by my caption/addition of:

Yes, you’re going commando. There is no effing way I’m teaching you how to put on a loincloth.

Many people continued the theme in the comments, mainly on Threads. On Facebook, Eric Klein pointed out that if you have time travel you can live outsid...

Readers of my reviews and blog know I love Lumsden’s noir modern alt-history fantasy world.

A new adventure for Shade the Collector and his buddy Dwayne. This time a river spirit entrusts him with a coprolite (petrified excrement) to hide and guard. Naturally, the shadowy intelligence agency that employs him on occasion immediately gets him to find a matching piece — or else.

When follows is a small-town adventure, where nothing is quite what is seems on the surface a...

Mole Creek is not far from where I live, and as I enjoy Tasmanian crime fiction I thought I’d give this a try.

Expect a fast-paced thriller, taking place in modern day Australia and during the Vietnam War. Most of the novel is from the point of view of the protagonist, Xander McAuslan, a crime journalist, while some chapters are told from his grandfather’s days in 1970. When Xander refuses to accept that his grandfather has taken his own life, affairs grow increasingly o...