Carnacki: Starry Wisdom & Other Stories

Carnacki #4

by William Meikle

CARNACKI operates in shadowy occult realms, on the fringes of science, in places out of sight and out of mind of normal everyday people. But sometimes the darkness touches the lives of others in ways they cannot understand, and they find they need help - the kind of help that only Carnacki can provide.

In STRANGERS ON THE SHORE and STARRY WISDOM Carnacki is called on to help a young Winston Churchill investigate an ancient artifact in a Kent sea cave, and in facing up to a sect of London gentlemen seeking illicit pleasures and a path to power.

In THE KEYS TO THE DOOR, Carnacki helps a Scotland Yard inspector in ridding him of a decades old nemesis from Whitechapel

In other tales you will meet a strange body in Carnacki's library, a thing in a lake that may be some kind of god, a very strange occurrence in a church belfry, an old Edinburgh townhouse that contains a vile secret, a place in Glasgow where strange sigils and totems take on a special power, weird haunts on an English canal and much more.

In these new stories Carnacki helps old friends and new acquaintances in the never ending battle to keep the Great Beyond at bay.

Genres: Horror, Occult Detective, Mystery

170 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2021

About the author

I'm a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

My work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and I have recent short story sales to NATURE Futures and Galaxy's Edge. When I'm not writing I play guitar, drink beer and dream of fortune and glory.

For an intro to me, my writing and my accent see my Youtube channel

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining paranormal listening 🎶🔰

Another thirteen will written British 🏰 Carnacki short stories by William Meikle. Each story is different with interesting well developed characters lots of action and misdirection leading to the unexpected conclusions. I would recommend this novella and author to 👍 readers of paranormal fantasy adventure mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 😀👒👻😡

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collection of stories featuring the sleuth of the supernatural and his electric pentagram. Some stories feature Churchill. A little more Lovecraftian than the last book I read, I think.

Still, most stories were pretty good, with only one I didn't like. YMMV.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original Carnacki stories are highly original and Carnacki himself, with his electric pentacle, is certainly one of a kind. But Carnacki himself, also, is not at all interesting in himself or as a storyteller. One point about him is that not every story he tells ends by being supernatural; like Holmes, he's after the truth, not specifically after ghosts.

These pastiches are not as good as the best of the original stories, but they ARE reasonably good. The storytelling voice is pretty accurate. Meikle did a good job with his continuation of a paranormal series that has an extremely consistent formula and style.

I like that he gave us a Hound of the Baskervilles and a Ripper tale - but they are the same story! What a careless thing to do in an athology.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been a sucker for William Hope Hodgson's character Carnacki and his stories. Several authors have continued to write stories about him and Meikle has done better than everyone else. These stories are entertaining and if not exactly in keeping with the originals, unusual.
Meikle seems to churn out books at a furious pace and I have grown tired of some of the output. In addition, some of the horror tropes have taken on a certain similarity that begins to tire. In contrast this set of stories may contain elements similar to earlier ones also moves in new and interesting directions.

[John R. Dailey Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A GREAT BUNCH OF SHORTY SHORTS IT IS..

Hello, these are some real good short stories. Very well written and entertaining to read. Most could be made into full length novels. Thanks.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read of 2023 and absolutely loved this. The author did a fantastic job of creating more stories of Carnacki while staying true to the original authors creation. Looking forward to reading more!

[The Smoog · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s some minor repetition across some of the stories here, but nothing unforgivable. Overall it’s an excellent collection of stories from Thomas Carnacki, and I look forward to reading more of these by William Meikle in the future.