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Department 18 #1
Black Cathedral
At an old manor house on a remote Scottish island, six managers of a large corporation arrive for a week-long stay. Within days they will all suffer horrifying deaths and their bodies will never be found. The government assigns the case to Department 18, the special unit created to investigate the supernatural and the paranormal. However this is no mere haunted house. The evil on this island goes back centuries, but its unholy plots and schemes are hardly things of the past. In fact, while the members of Department 18 race to unravel the island’s secrets, the forces of darkness are gathering…and preparing to attack.
287 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 30, 2008
69 people are currently reading
1078 people want to read
About the author
Maynard Sims
65 books36 followersMAYNARD SIMS www.maynard-sims.com
The DCI Jack Callum series of crime novels - No Evil,Prime Evil and For Her Sins with The Detective Jack Callum Trilogy. The Bahamas series of thriller novels - Touching The Sun, Calling Down The Lightning, and Raging Against The Storm. The Department 18 series of supernatural crime novels - Black Cathedral, Night Souls, The Eighth Witch, A Plague Of Echoes, and Mother Of Demons. The crime novels Let Death Begin, Through The Sad Heart, and Falling Apart At The Edges. The supernatural novels, Shelter, Demon Eyes, Nightmare City, Stronghold, and Stillwater. The erotic romance novels, under a pseudonym, - The Love Project and The Romance Project.
One screenplay, based on the first two Department 18 books, won the 2013 British Horror Film Festival Award for Best New Screenplay.
Numerous stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Collections include, Shadows At Midnight, 1979 and 1999 (revised and enlarged), Echoes Of Darkness, 2000, Incantations, 2002, two retrospective collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, both 2002, Falling Into Heaven 2004, The Odd Ghosts, 2011, and Flame And Other Enigmatic Tales, and A Haunting Of Ghosts, both 2012. Their tenth collection of ghost stories and strange tales – Death’s Sweet Echo – which includes all their recent and new stories, many of them previously unpublished, is 2016.
Novellas, The Hidden Language Of Demons, The Seminar, His Other Son, and Convalescence have been published in 2002, 2003, 2013 and 2015 respectively. All their stories and novellas have been reprinted in eight uniform volumes through The Maynard Sims Library in 2014. An erotic romance novella, First Time Love, 2015 and First Time Arousal, 2016. Devil is a 2016 crime novella..
They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and the Capital Crimes anthology for the ITW. They do ghost writing commissions.
Email contact can be made at ms@micksims.f9.co.uk
Find Maynard Sims on most social media - links are on the website
The DCI Jack Callum series of crime novels - No Evil,Prime Evil and For Her Sins with The Detective Jack Callum Trilogy. The Bahamas series of thriller novels - Touching The Sun, Calling Down The Lightning, and Raging Against The Storm. The Department 18 series of supernatural crime novels - Black Cathedral, Night Souls, The Eighth Witch, A Plague Of Echoes, and Mother Of Demons. The crime novels Let Death Begin, Through The Sad Heart, and Falling Apart At The Edges. The supernatural novels, Shelter, Demon Eyes, Nightmare City, Stronghold, and Stillwater. The erotic romance novels, under a pseudonym, - The Love Project and The Romance Project.
One screenplay, based on the first two Department 18 books, won the 2013 British Horror Film Festival Award for Best New Screenplay.
Numerous stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Collections include, Shadows At Midnight, 1979 and 1999 (revised and enlarged), Echoes Of Darkness, 2000, Incantations, 2002, two retrospective collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, both 2002, Falling Into Heaven 2004, The Odd Ghosts, 2011, and Flame And Other Enigmatic Tales, and A Haunting Of Ghosts, both 2012. Their tenth collection of ghost stories and strange tales – Death’s Sweet Echo – which includes all their recent and new stories, many of them previously unpublished, is 2016.
Novellas, The Hidden Language Of Demons, The Seminar, His Other Son, and Convalescence have been published in 2002, 2003, 2013 and 2015 respectively. All their stories and novellas have been reprinted in eight uniform volumes through The Maynard Sims Library in 2014. An erotic romance novella, First Time Love, 2015 and First Time Arousal, 2016. Devil is a 2016 crime novella..
They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and the Capital Crimes anthology for the ITW. They do ghost writing commissions.
Email contact can be made at ms@micksims.f9.co.uk
Find Maynard Sims on most social media - links are on the website
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
July 10, 2024
It's not just a ghost story...it's a wickedly evil ghost story that seems to spread roots into every page. The story introduces us to Department 18, a special unit of the British government dealing with paranormal activities, and those that embrace it. We enter their doors as they are working to solve the strange disappearances that have taken place on Kulsay, an island off the Scottish coast. A group of employees from Waincraft Software have gone missing while on a weeklong team building course on the island and now the pilot and helicopter sent to rescue them has also mysteriously disappeared. No wreckage has been found. A private company with a secret interest in the outcome pays for the investigation. Of course it's no ordinary team. It's led by Jane Talbot, a woman whose marriage and personal life have come unglued, four sensitives with special skills... one of the members of that team is, the brilliant but troubled Robert Carver...a man Jane has had romantic ties with. Carver is a strange one and we find out that his assistant had also disappeared on his last investigation, and he believes that the two cases are linked. The team sets up their workspace in the ancient manse on the island, and it didn't take long for "strange psychic phenomenon" to begin. The morning found the situation deteriorated into violent manifestations that leaves one team member dead and Talbot missing. There is now no contact with the outside world and those remaining are left on their own to confront whatever the horror is that awaits them.
I loved this weird, scary, creepy, story. The "evil things" were so well done that their presences were almost tangible, although we recognized that it was a play on the eternal struggle between good and evil, and this was an ancient evil that has risen to unleash devastation upon anyone and anything that dared to stand in its way. Did you like Shirley Jackson's [The Haunting of Hill House]? How about Anne Rivers Siddon's [The House Next Door]? If your answer is "yes"...then you will devour [Black Cathedral] ...just watch out that it doesn't devour you first.
NOTE: I don't know if such a department as "Department 18" actually exists in the British Government...Perhaps some of our British friends can enlighten us. I just hope that it's not a situation that if they tell us they have to kill us:)
I loved this weird, scary, creepy, story. The "evil things" were so well done that their presences were almost tangible, although we recognized that it was a play on the eternal struggle between good and evil, and this was an ancient evil that has risen to unleash devastation upon anyone and anything that dared to stand in its way. Did you like Shirley Jackson's [The Haunting of Hill House]? How about Anne Rivers Siddon's [The House Next Door]? If your answer is "yes"...then you will devour [Black Cathedral] ...just watch out that it doesn't devour you first.
NOTE: I don't know if such a department as "Department 18" actually exists in the British Government...Perhaps some of our British friends can enlighten us. I just hope that it's not a situation that if they tell us they have to kill us:)
October 27, 2024
Maynard and Sims seem to like old horror tropes, but their attempt at breathing new life into this one fell rather flat. Department 18 exists as a covert agency in England, tracking down and investigating paranormal activity akin to Ghostbusters. This novel jumps around quite a bit, with different POVs and timelines, but eventually settles down into a more straightforward story line. Our main protagonist, Carter, works for Department 18 and possesses special physic gifts (which the authors never really develop entirely). Carter starts off investigating a haunting at some anomalous house when strange and bizarre things happen, including the disappearance of his partner (she just vanished).
The authors oscillate between Carter's POV and 6 people roughing it in some corporate bonding exercise on some remote Scottish island. Within a few days, all the corporate people vanish, as does the 9 person staff at the old mansion on the island. Obviously, these story lines will come together at some point. Some other, American corporation owns the island and they eventually contract Department 18 to find out what happened there. Carter, laying low since his partner vanished, conducted some research on Lay lines and determined something is radiating from the island in question, something big and bad. Yet, he agrees to go with the Department team to investigate it.
While this went in some unexpected directions, the authors meandered around getting there; to say the pacing is erratic would be an understatement. Do we really need another ghostbuster story? One with a reliance on Lay lines and physic main characters? If this had come out in the 70s it might be somewhat fresh, but 2004? Finally, the denouement? please. 2 tired old stars.
The authors oscillate between Carter's POV and 6 people roughing it in some corporate bonding exercise on some remote Scottish island. Within a few days, all the corporate people vanish, as does the 9 person staff at the old mansion on the island. Obviously, these story lines will come together at some point. Some other, American corporation owns the island and they eventually contract Department 18 to find out what happened there. Carter, laying low since his partner vanished, conducted some research on Lay lines and determined something is radiating from the island in question, something big and bad. Yet, he agrees to go with the Department team to investigate it.
While this went in some unexpected directions, the authors meandered around getting there; to say the pacing is erratic would be an understatement. Do we really need another ghostbuster story? One with a reliance on Lay lines and physic main characters? If this had come out in the 70s it might be somewhat fresh, but 2004? Finally, the denouement? please. 2 tired old stars.
June 18, 2013
This was a terrible book. I feel bad for giving it one star but it really was a chore to read because it was just so so horrible. I think that the authors just had a grand vision of what they wanted to do but lacked the talent or the forethought to actually make that vision happen.
Black Cathedral is a hodgepodge of haunted house, conspiracy, and action novels. It's like someone took Relic, mixed in some Hellboy B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground, The Da Vinci Code, and threw in some Hell House for good measure.
Don't get me wrong. I love all those 3 sources. Combined together you think they would make for one hell of a ride. But the writing and plot of Black Cathedral are so shoddy as to be painful.
There are some promising parts, sure. Love the scene when that was pretty cool.
I picked up the Black Cathedral because at first I thought it was a haunted house novel, or haunted island as the case may be. I *love* a good haunted house novel. The Haunting of Hill House for instance, and the aforementioned Hell House. Even more recently, FG Cottam released the very atmospheric The House Of Lost Souls that I also quite enjoyed.
Unfortunately, what Black Cathedral fails to take into consideration is that the real protagonist of a haunted house novel has to be THE HAUNTED HOUSE. And honestly we spend very little time on Kulsay island. In a 270 page novel it takes about 170 pages for them just to GET to the island.
The authors spend so much time trying to drop clues to some vast conspiracy that turns into such a lame duck at the end that I'm honestly embarassed for them. I'm going to spoil this for you, but it's just so ridiculous that when I found out what the evil entity was I actually laughed out loud and had to read it again 3 times because I was just flat out flabberghasted. If anything I'm thankful to the authors for actually giving me a reason to use the word flabberghasted - and after reading this book it's the only thing I can really thank them for.
So, are you ready to be spoiled?
Are you ready?
The big baddies of this novel are
That's right! I'm horrified because it's just so ridiculously Un-PC. Maybe they caught on to the secret of Madonna's ability to look so young and plastic. I always thought it was botox but in reality, it was a pact with the devil people. You heard it here first, not the National Enquirer.
The ending just comes out of left field and doesn't even effectively *end* anything.
I guess this is how the authors figured they would set things up to make sure the publisher buys their next novel.
Such a disappointment because it was promising for about maybe 5 pages. But when someone can say that Dan Brown actually wrote a better conspiracy novel then you know you should quit while you're ahead.
Black Cathedral is a hodgepodge of haunted house, conspiracy, and action novels. It's like someone took Relic, mixed in some Hellboy B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground, The Da Vinci Code, and threw in some Hell House for good measure.
Don't get me wrong. I love all those 3 sources. Combined together you think they would make for one hell of a ride. But the writing and plot of Black Cathedral are so shoddy as to be painful.
There are some promising parts, sure. Love the scene when that was pretty cool.
I picked up the Black Cathedral because at first I thought it was a haunted house novel, or haunted island as the case may be. I *love* a good haunted house novel. The Haunting of Hill House for instance, and the aforementioned Hell House. Even more recently, FG Cottam released the very atmospheric The House Of Lost Souls that I also quite enjoyed.
Unfortunately, what Black Cathedral fails to take into consideration is that the real protagonist of a haunted house novel has to be THE HAUNTED HOUSE. And honestly we spend very little time on Kulsay island. In a 270 page novel it takes about 170 pages for them just to GET to the island.
The authors spend so much time trying to drop clues to some vast conspiracy that turns into such a lame duck at the end that I'm honestly embarassed for them. I'm going to spoil this for you, but it's just so ridiculous that when I found out what the evil entity was I actually laughed out loud and had to read it again 3 times because I was just flat out flabberghasted. If anything I'm thankful to the authors for actually giving me a reason to use the word flabberghasted - and after reading this book it's the only thing I can really thank them for.
So, are you ready to be spoiled?
Are you ready?
The big baddies of this novel are
That's right! I'm horrified because it's just so ridiculously Un-PC. Maybe they caught on to the secret of Madonna's ability to look so young and plastic. I always thought it was botox but in reality, it was a pact with the devil people. You heard it here first, not the National Enquirer.
The ending just comes out of left field and doesn't even effectively *end* anything.
I guess this is how the authors figured they would set things up to make sure the publisher buys their next novel.
Such a disappointment because it was promising for about maybe 5 pages. But when someone can say that Dan Brown actually wrote a better conspiracy novel then you know you should quit while you're ahead.
March 7, 2015
I liked this book. it kinda reminded me of john Constantine investigates hell house but a little less awesome.
December 23, 2008
This is my first venture into the world of Maynard and Sims, so I don’t know if this is part of a series or not. The little blurb under the title of “A Department 18 Novel” implies to me that there are more novels (or intended novels) about the group from Department 18.
So who is Department 18? Why they are a government group of Psychics, telekinetics, and ghost busters… not that we get to see them bust any ghosts or anything. So what is Department 18 doing? Well when they aren’t bickering amongst themselves and puffing up their petty egos, they are investigating why a bunch of people have disappeared on a Scottish island with no traces left… not even the helicopter.
This book opens well; the first scene with Robert in the house is almost wonderful. The bugs, were a chilling touch… and the way it wrapped up… well it was disappointing but it was still a fun scene. Then we get into the real meat of the tale… disappearing people on an island! This book seemed like it was really going somewhere… then we have about half the book of them researching and monologue after monologue of back story, personal feelings, previous relationships, etc… it bogs down quickly. By the time we get to the island I was thrilled to see how these annoying folks were going to meet their end… and even that turned out to be a letdown.
This book suffers from what I like to think of as “Too much magic.” We have the psychics… and that has to be explained to us, as well as their powers, and how their powers affect them, etc. Then we have to learn about ley lines, and have that explained to us… then we have to look into the malevolent evil on the island and that takes pages and pages of exposition and explanation. By the time we are done everyone seems to have some sort of super power, the baddie is a superbaddie, and people disappearing isn’t all that scary to begin with… mainly because there is always the chance they could reappear.
I normally like this kind of tale, but the problem was that there was so much explaining going on, that I really didn’t care about what happened anymore. I was also a bit disappointed in the ending… rather over the top without the heart. The actual writing style was good enough… but they never managed to pull me into their story… rather it seemed like they kept pushing the reader out and reminding them “it’s just a story; don’t invest too much in to this.” I’m not quite sure why that wall was there, perhaps the characters, perhaps the exposition, or maybe the story just went too far for me to lock in on it. Still there are plenty of people out there who will like this novel… it just wasn’t for me.
So who is Department 18? Why they are a government group of Psychics, telekinetics, and ghost busters… not that we get to see them bust any ghosts or anything. So what is Department 18 doing? Well when they aren’t bickering amongst themselves and puffing up their petty egos, they are investigating why a bunch of people have disappeared on a Scottish island with no traces left… not even the helicopter.
This book opens well; the first scene with Robert in the house is almost wonderful. The bugs, were a chilling touch… and the way it wrapped up… well it was disappointing but it was still a fun scene. Then we get into the real meat of the tale… disappearing people on an island! This book seemed like it was really going somewhere… then we have about half the book of them researching and monologue after monologue of back story, personal feelings, previous relationships, etc… it bogs down quickly. By the time we get to the island I was thrilled to see how these annoying folks were going to meet their end… and even that turned out to be a letdown.
This book suffers from what I like to think of as “Too much magic.” We have the psychics… and that has to be explained to us, as well as their powers, and how their powers affect them, etc. Then we have to learn about ley lines, and have that explained to us… then we have to look into the malevolent evil on the island and that takes pages and pages of exposition and explanation. By the time we are done everyone seems to have some sort of super power, the baddie is a superbaddie, and people disappearing isn’t all that scary to begin with… mainly because there is always the chance they could reappear.
I normally like this kind of tale, but the problem was that there was so much explaining going on, that I really didn’t care about what happened anymore. I was also a bit disappointed in the ending… rather over the top without the heart. The actual writing style was good enough… but they never managed to pull me into their story… rather it seemed like they kept pushing the reader out and reminding them “it’s just a story; don’t invest too much in to this.” I’m not quite sure why that wall was there, perhaps the characters, perhaps the exposition, or maybe the story just went too far for me to lock in on it. Still there are plenty of people out there who will like this novel… it just wasn’t for me.
February 11, 2016
All I can say about this book is .... It was interesting & kept me wanting to read it, but the writing was not great. And the ending was horrible. The only reason I gave it 3 stars was because it kept my interest. I'm glad It's over.
January 3, 2009
Very strong read, beginning of a great new series. Maybe ended more abruptly than I would've liked, but still strong writing.
August 29, 2011
Would've been better as a straight-to-video movie, then it would've only taken 90 minutes to get through. This book is in dire need of some heavy duty editing.
The dialogue is clunky, the pacing is all off (big battle scene at the end is rushed, no build up at the beginning, action starts in so quickly I thought I had skipped some pages), important points get brought up and then never resolved, so many inconsistencies, and it just doesn't make sense.
At one point we find out Carter and Jane had an affair when Jane was apparently married and Carter broke it off. Later it seems that they had an affair before Jane got married, and that it was her husband that seduced her away from Carter, after Carter had started to take her for granted. The day after Jane's husband leaves her because she puts her job before her marriage, he reappears to take their children to church and now he's apparently in love with someone else. De Marco goes from being a Sephardic Jew escaping the Inquisition to studying the Kabbalah to becoming a Satanist to help his family get revenge against the Catholic Church? How does that work? He's managed to amass this army of the dead over the years, and yet he needs Carter's incredible psychic powers to open up a ley line to bring up Satan? I'm wondering if two people actually worked in concert on this, or if they just pass the manuscript back and forth, taking turns on writing chapters.
The dialogue is clunky, the pacing is all off (big battle scene at the end is rushed, no build up at the beginning, action starts in so quickly I thought I had skipped some pages), important points get brought up and then never resolved, so many inconsistencies, and it just doesn't make sense.
At one point we find out Carter and Jane had an affair when Jane was apparently married and Carter broke it off. Later it seems that they had an affair before Jane got married, and that it was her husband that seduced her away from Carter, after Carter had started to take her for granted. The day after Jane's husband leaves her because she puts her job before her marriage, he reappears to take their children to church and now he's apparently in love with someone else. De Marco goes from being a Sephardic Jew escaping the Inquisition to studying the Kabbalah to becoming a Satanist to help his family get revenge against the Catholic Church? How does that work? He's managed to amass this army of the dead over the years, and yet he needs Carter's incredible psychic powers to open up a ley line to bring up Satan? I'm wondering if two people actually worked in concert on this, or if they just pass the manuscript back and forth, taking turns on writing chapters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2009
I'm working on a ghost story right now and I picked this book up because it looked like the sort of thing that would get me in the right mind frame. I was wrong. I only got 40 pages in, but in that short frame, it was able to take all of the best parts of Hell House and twist them into a story that, while keeping the cringe factor, felt so completely cliched that I almost wanted to read it as a check list of what not to write.
When the characters were disappearing one at a time, yet still refusing to go down to the boat to get off the haunted island - I just gave up.
When the characters were disappearing one at a time, yet still refusing to go down to the boat to get off the haunted island - I just gave up.
February 16, 2014
This book is so bad. Once I embraced its awfulness, it became hilarious. Like reading a Syfy movie of the week. The term "Muscular Christianity" will now be a phrase I use when referring to religious zealots.
December 15, 2008
Great, scary read. I would love to see this book made into a movie. I was seeing it in my head as I read it. Very creepy.
January 4, 2015
liked this one
October 20, 2019
a truly terrifying book. I highly recommend.
March 20, 2022
This one just didn't do it for me. I tried, but it was like eating a cardboard cake. It looks pretty but doesn't taste like much. Sorry guys.
February 5, 2017
What a read! This is one novel I couldn't put down. Through the beginning I was a bit confused as the story was bisected between a group on a remote Scottish island and a paranormal investigation in England. I wasn't sure how the two would be tied together, but around a third of the way into the book everything becomes clear.
There was so much history in this story that I felt a bit of the major characters could have used more build out. I would have loved to read how Jane comes to term with her long-suppressed abilities and wanted to really see her powers at work before she is spirited away. The evil that lurks along the ley lines throughout the world could have so many storylines it's unfathomable.
When I learned the ending for Sian, a girl who disappears within the first few pages of the book, it was incredibly sad. I wish there was a happier ending for her. I think when the Department's group gets to the island their story feels rushed, I just wanted to know so much more; but before I knew it a massive battle was raging but even that lasted only a few pages.
I'm really excited to read the second book in this series - this one definitely has me hooked.
There was so much history in this story that I felt a bit of the major characters could have used more build out. I would have loved to read how Jane comes to term with her long-suppressed abilities and wanted to really see her powers at work before she is spirited away. The evil that lurks along the ley lines throughout the world could have so many storylines it's unfathomable.
When I learned the ending for Sian, a girl who disappears within the first few pages of the book, it was incredibly sad. I wish there was a happier ending for her. I think when the Department's group gets to the island their story feels rushed, I just wanted to know so much more; but before I knew it a massive battle was raging but even that lasted only a few pages.
I'm really excited to read the second book in this series - this one definitely has me hooked.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2017
Black Cathedral, although a great title, doesn't offer much in the way of substance. Some hastily dispatched characters open the book with a grand supernatural entity. That boded well. However, sloppy dialogue, lack of suspense, tension or character development ensure this short book never takes off. The finale is also lacklustre, taking up some ten pages, including a villain's monologue which you find under the dictionary definition of cliché. A lack of real closure is a poor substitute to ensure readers pick up the next volume. Substandard.
January 29, 2018
These guys are definitely no Stephen King, but at least the book was entertaining enough to read through quickly. Now, here's my criticism: the words didn't always flow, some parts were choppy and unpleasant to read. Other parts, especially the ending, seemed rushed and not nearly descriptive enough. It's hard to feel terror when there's no buildup. The ending was so abrupt, I honestly thought there were some pages missing. Not a bad book, I just feel like they could have spent more time on it.
July 10, 2023
Terrible book. The characters lack any real depth (they’re all just really bad charicatures). The other thing is the story is a mess. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t get a satisfactory explanation or understanding of why the house on the remote Scottish island is the way it is. The ending is a rush job, like the typewriter ink was running out. Extremely dissatisfying. Its so abrupt, I thought my kindle had failed to download the final chapter(s).
I suppose it did hold my curiosity to find out what was going on, but once finished I wondered why I’d bothered.
I suppose it did hold my curiosity to find out what was going on, but once finished I wondered why I’d bothered.
September 22, 2017
Wow
When i first started this book I contemplated how many stars 3 or 4. I also almost put it down several times. I did not like all the jumping around with the character's. But wow zap with the surprises. I got hooked.
With all the surprises i had to give it the 5 stars. Wow
When i first started this book I contemplated how many stars 3 or 4. I also almost put it down several times. I did not like all the jumping around with the character's. But wow zap with the surprises. I got hooked.
With all the surprises i had to give it the 5 stars. Wow
May 24, 2019
This book had a good start and I liked some of the ideas they were hinting at in the beginning. I started to not like the book when some comic book store guy showed up with all the exposition and the ending made me almost give it a one, it was seriously crazy hokey.
If you like supernatural stories with white and black magic, maybe you'll like it. I can't recommend it.
If you like supernatural stories with white and black magic, maybe you'll like it. I can't recommend it.
February 24, 2025
Batshit crazy, ultimately, but in an entertaining classic horror/Hammer horror way. Of course these concepts will look silly in full view, but it’s a nice alternative to the modern approach: where virtually nothing happens at all save lame attempts at character development and worse, “theme-unpacking.” Maynard and Sims do the quiet ghost story well but I like their gonzo stuff like this best.
September 17, 2019
Sadly this did not work for me. The writing style just felt a bit too forced. I got through the first section, then a little ways into the second and realized it just wasn't connecting with me in any way. Ah well.
May 9, 2017
Good read
March 24, 2019
Interesting premise, but the characters and storyline just didn't keep me as intrigued as I would have liked.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
August 26, 2021
Good reading.
Couldn't put it down. Easy to pick up and lose yourself in very fast. Looking forward to more of the same author.
Couldn't put it down. Easy to pick up and lose yourself in very fast. Looking forward to more of the same author.
June 13, 2013
L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims, The Black Cathedral (Leisure, 2009)
Maynard and Sims (who according to fantasticfiction have been at this as a partnership since 1979, though only one book exists under their names before 2000) kick off a new series with The Black Cathedral, a horror/mystery centered on Department 18, who seem to be a secret British government agency specializing in the investigation of paranormal phenomena. And honestly, my biggest problem with the book may not be a problem at all, though I feel a little vindicated since I dropped by FF and confirmed that this is indeed the first in the series. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Plot: Department 18 are on the government's black books since a handful of cases recently went south, and the director is scrambling for tasks that will keep proving the department's viability. A seemingly perfect—and easy—one comes along when six people on a team-building exercise, along with their helicopter pilot, go missing whilst spending a weekend at a long-abandoned mansion perched on a remote Scottish island. But the members of Dept. 18 themselves may be enough to hamstring the deal—everyone's dealing with emotional baggage, from the top-drawer psychic convinced to come out of retirement for one last job (he still blames himself for one of those jobs gone bad, which resulted in the disappearance and presumed death of his protegé) to the newest member of the team, all are bringing things to the island that any supernatural presences might be able to use against them...
It's nothing you haven't seen before (and I specifically mentioned the convincing-someone-to-come-out-of-retirement angle to let you know just how many times), but that in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, and The Black Cathedral is a good whack of fun when it's on its game, which is usually. But what bothered me—repeatedly--about the book is the feeling that I had (almost constantly in the first third, and sporadically thereafter) that I was jumping into the middle of a series; there were a lot of incidents alluded to, etc., that we never get a chance to see, and we're never given background on. If I really had jumped into the middle of a series, I wouldn't be taking any points off, but like I said, at least according to FF, this is the first book. So I found myself a bit confused a little more than I'd like, and usually for the wrong reasons—but if you can get past that, The Black Cathedral is a solid little horror novel, and I will be checking out book two when I get a moment. ** ½
Maynard and Sims (who according to fantasticfiction have been at this as a partnership since 1979, though only one book exists under their names before 2000) kick off a new series with The Black Cathedral, a horror/mystery centered on Department 18, who seem to be a secret British government agency specializing in the investigation of paranormal phenomena. And honestly, my biggest problem with the book may not be a problem at all, though I feel a little vindicated since I dropped by FF and confirmed that this is indeed the first in the series. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Plot: Department 18 are on the government's black books since a handful of cases recently went south, and the director is scrambling for tasks that will keep proving the department's viability. A seemingly perfect—and easy—one comes along when six people on a team-building exercise, along with their helicopter pilot, go missing whilst spending a weekend at a long-abandoned mansion perched on a remote Scottish island. But the members of Dept. 18 themselves may be enough to hamstring the deal—everyone's dealing with emotional baggage, from the top-drawer psychic convinced to come out of retirement for one last job (he still blames himself for one of those jobs gone bad, which resulted in the disappearance and presumed death of his protegé) to the newest member of the team, all are bringing things to the island that any supernatural presences might be able to use against them...
It's nothing you haven't seen before (and I specifically mentioned the convincing-someone-to-come-out-of-retirement angle to let you know just how many times), but that in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, and The Black Cathedral is a good whack of fun when it's on its game, which is usually. But what bothered me—repeatedly--about the book is the feeling that I had (almost constantly in the first third, and sporadically thereafter) that I was jumping into the middle of a series; there were a lot of incidents alluded to, etc., that we never get a chance to see, and we're never given background on. If I really had jumped into the middle of a series, I wouldn't be taking any points off, but like I said, at least according to FF, this is the first book. So I found myself a bit confused a little more than I'd like, and usually for the wrong reasons—but if you can get past that, The Black Cathedral is a solid little horror novel, and I will be checking out book two when I get a moment. ** ½
April 10, 2020
An interesting novel that reads like a British interpretation of Mike Mignola's B.P.R.D. Something odd is happening in an old manor house on a Scottish island, and through flashback, we see it. A team is dispatched to find out what happened and all kinds of hell break loose. I appreciated that the gore level was kept to a bare minimum, yet the scares were really good--something that much of Leisure's fiction doesn't have. Also a plus is that the title location doesn't appear until the last 17 pages, and the build getting there is quite good. Keeping it from being five stars is that there is a sudden appearance of a B-character reporter who delivers information unknown until his arrival in the last third of the book. Add to that there is no conclusion to the novel, and that the surviving protagonists will continue on in their mission until this "case" is finished. This ending left me VERY unsatisfied and left me feeling like a fish that had taken the bait and been played with for two hours. The book is a quick read, and very entertaining, though without conclusion. I would read more by both authors, L.H. Maynard & M.P.N. Sims, only if I knew that the novel I was looking to read had an ending and not another doorway for an obvious sequel.
November 25, 2012
There's something amateurish about this book, especially with regard to plot construction and to a lesser extent characterization. At the start, there are two separate timelines involving the same people running as well as the one that sets up Department 18. Later, during the Manse investigation, there are long swathes of history-telling. Finally, the reader is not really prepared for the who is who of the final battle, although all the characters were presented previously. Most of the characters are British, but sound like Americans; strange details get repeated (yes, I got that McKinley is black. At one point, it gets mentioned so often that Kirby puts cardamom pods in the pot when she makes coffee, that I had to try it myself -- can't say I noticed it, perhaps I needed to add more). That said, I like the fact that it was compact and moved along; the authors didn't get caught up in trying to explain and create a mythos for everything -- Carter has psychic powers; they just are. I also like the fact that not all the characters come to horrible ends; this is no *Cabin the Woods*, although it certainly could have been. The violence level and detail is surprisingly low. Added bonus are some genuinely creepy moments; Jane's vision while at church was the best for me.
May 1, 2021
When corporate employees on a “survival week” trip to remote Kulsay Island all go missing without a trace, the Ministry of Defense decides that it is time to call in Department 18. This group of paranormal investigators is trained to deal with the strangest occurrences out there, but in Kulsay Island, they may have met their match. The Ministry stipulates that Department 18’s Robert Carter must be involved. This is a bit of an issue considering Carter just recently lost his partner on a case; lost in the literal sense considering she vanished without a trace as well. Carter draws the connection to Kulsay Island, however, and agrees to go. When the team arrives, all seems normal except for the palpable air of menace that surrounds the place. As with the other group, the Department 18 folks find themselves cut off from the rest of the world and forced to defend themselves against an evil that has existed for hundreds of years. A fun sort of haunted house tale that brings to mind the old Poltergeist TV show.
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