‘Bedlam: Three Tales Of Terror’ contains historical pastiches featuring William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger and Sherlock Holmes. Here you will find a King in Yellow, a hairy man, and Sherlock Holmes on drugs, among other things.
‘Bedlam In Yellow’ is a Carnacki story that mixes elements from ‘The King In Yellow’, blending two famous classics. It certainly helps to be familiar with them to enjoy the story. The Carnacki stories use a framing device where Carnacki invites his friends to his home at Cheyne Walk, London and tells them about his latest adventure. Dodgson narrates the first part, then listens to Carnacki telling the tale. In this case, he recounts how a Doctor Donaldson at the famous Bethlem Asylum in Southwark sent a telegram asking for his help. The top floor is haunted and an ex-actor inmate seems to be causing it somehow. This scary tale might lead you to read other Carnacki yarns and ‘The King In Yellow’ by Robert W. Chambers.
‘The Ape Man’ has Edward Malone, the reporter from Conan Doyle’s ‘The Lost World’, sent by his editor to investigate rumours of an ape man in Chislehurst, Kent, of all places. He decides that Professor George Challenger might be interested and takes him along on the adventure. It’s okay but, for me, this was the weakest story in the book. That said, I enjoyed ‘Island Of Terror ’, another Meikle pastiche featuring Challenger.
Constance McGregor is a redoubtable Scot who has been collecting plant species all over the world. She turns up at 221B Baker Street to ask Sherlock Holmes for help because a mysterious intruder keeps appearing at the foot of her bed. Two pistol shots in the chest did not deter him. Watson is smitten with Constance, so this adventure presumably takes place before he marries. ‘The Case Of The Tibetan Rug’ is another capable pastiche and an excellent ripping yarn. Getting the logical Holmes involved in fantastical matters doesn’t quite feel right, even though his creator had leanings that way. It’s like Mister Spock investigating vampires. However, if it’s to be done, it had best be done well and here it is. Meikle has another collection out that mixes Holmes’ police chum, Inspector Lestrade, with the supernatural. I’ll get it one day.
Meikle is a fine pulp fiction and pastiche author, very at home in the 19th century and I enjoy his yarns as a break from more serious fiction. Not that they’re funny. This and other volumes in ‘The William Meikle Chapbook Collection’ are worth a look when you fancy some old-fashioned fun.
Eamonn Murphy
October 2026
(pub: William Meikle, 2022. 95 page ebook. Price: ebook: 79p. 3.7mB)
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