Title: The Exiled
Author: William Meikle
Genre: Dark Fiction, Horror, Mystery
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
When several young girls are abducted from various locations in Edinburgh, Detective John Granger and his brother Alan, a reporter, investigate the cases from different directions. The abductor is cunning, always one step ahead, and the only clue he leaves behind at each scene are the brutalized corpses of black swans.
When the brothers’ investigations finally converge at a farmhouse in Central Scotland, they catch a glimpse of where the girls have been taken, a place both far away yet close enough to touch. A land known throughout Scottish history with many names: Faerie, Elfheim, and the Astral Plane. It is a place of legend and horror, a myth. But the brothers soon discover it’s real, and, to catch the abductor, they will have to cross over themselves.
To catch a killer, John and Alan Granger will have to battle the Cobbe, a strange and enigmatic creature that guards the realm, a creature of horrific power that demands a heavy price for entry into its world. The fate of both realms hangs in the balance…and time is running out…
In The Exiled, William Meikle starts out by introducing us to a seemingly-regular police investigation. Several young girls are abducted from various locations around Edinburg, and it’s up to detective John Granger and his brother, Alan, a reporter, to investigate the case. The abductor leaves behind corpses of black swans at each crime scene, and kidnaps the girl seemingly unnoticed. The brothers face a mystery of the likes they’ve never encountered before.
The investigation leads them to a farmhouse, where they catch a glimpse of the placethe girls have been taken. From this point, the novel transmorphs into a supernatural fantasy, when the brothers enter another realm to try find the missing girls. They end up in a land of myth and horror, a faerie realm known throughout Scottish history, a realm they never thougth could exist for real. There, they will have to battle the Cobbe, a mysterious creature guarding the realm.
William Meikle has a lot of imagination, and he expertly blends mythology, the supernatural, a murder mystery and horror. The plot was surprising to say the least, the characterization was excellent and the writing was solid as well. Another excellent horror novel from the Darkfuse line, recommended to anyone who enjoys the genre.
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