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William Meikle
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Ramskull Kindle Edition

by William Meikle (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
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A Scottish tale of terror.

When Sergeant Dave Wilkes and his constable, John Campbell, are called out to a remote island, it is to investigate a simple case of sheep worrying, what they think is a routine job. But upon arrival at Leita, they find the community to be empty, the shops and houses lying quiet. Before too long, they find disturbing evidence of violence and mayhem.

They get some of the story when they find three survivors holed up in a farmhouse, but the tale they tell is almost unbelievable--a grisly story of ritual cannibalism, blood sacrifice, and a ram's skull that makes its wearer both invincible and irresistible.

Soon they are in a fight for their lives, as the ram takes control of the island.

Can they stop it and prevent it from spreading?

Or will the ancient magic of the ram prevail and take its bloody promises to the mainland, and to the town that is waiting to be shown its glory?
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  1. Print length
    177 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    22 Dec. 2017
  4. File size
    4728 KB
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
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  8. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B078KXNJ4G
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crossroad Press; 1st edition (22 Dec. 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4728 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 177 pages
  • Customer reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 37 ratings

About the author

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William Meikle

William Meikle

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I am a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with over thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries. I have had books published with a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, DarkFuse and Severed Press, and my work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.

I live in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company and when I'm not writing I drink beer, play guitar and dream of fortune and glory.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
37 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Bernard A
    5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely one of his best
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Dark physical and spiritual horror. Much stronger than the author's usual joyfully cinematic pulpy horror stories, highly recommended for all lovers of both action and horror books.
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  • K. A. Y.
    4.0 out of 5 stars A great supernatural tale from Meikle!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 January 2018
    RAMSKULL, by William Meikle, is an intensely atmospheric story of an ancient evil, alternate "places", cannibalism, and ritualistic rites.

    When Sergeant Dave Wilkes gets a call from the small island of Leita about a sheep being found slaughtered in the field, he figures it will be an easy day away from his desk work. Taking with him a young Constable, John Campbell, the scene that greets them once they reach Leita is nothing like they were expecting. From missing townsfolk, to scenes of bloody remains that disappear when they turn their backs, Dave soon realizes that he was dead wrong about that "easy day".

    Meikle shows us once again why he is known as a master storyteller in this fantastically detailed tale of an evil, centuries old, that manages to break through once more. The more time he spends on the island with a cantankerous farmer and his wife--almost the only other people he finds there--the more he begins to realize that this isn't just some teenaged prank. The entity that has returned demands ultimate loyalty, and those that do not acquiesce to his demands face a much worse fate . . .

    Although Wilkes denies as long as possible the tale that the farmer and his wife tell him, eventually the truth becomes impossible to ignore.

    ". . . men are capable of much, much worse all on their own without needing anything supernatural to egg them on . . ."

    The slow pull of this novel is impossible to avoid as you read on. Everything from the remote, sparsely inhabited island, to the focus of the manifesting evil breaking through, furthers the story along at the perfect pace. There are some truths that you simply can not deny.

    ". . . Chris went down into that cave . . . . and what came out wasn't the same as what went in . . . "

    Another great tale of the supernatural from William Meikle!

    Highly recommended!
    One person found this helpful
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  • nollaig
    5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 August 2021
    Something creepy is going on a small island and when two coppers from the mainland go over to investigate they find the island
    What happened at the old abbey and could the old legends be true?
    Great story grabs you from the start
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  • Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best horror stories I've read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2018
    Ramskull is actually a perfect introduction to the works of Mr Meikle, as not only is it some of his best writing so far, it also brings together many of the different themes, locations and character archetypes that he uses in his titles. Many of the author’s tales are set in and around Scotland and the Scottish Isles, and Ramskull is no exception, taking place on and around Leita, a tiny island a few miles offshore of Oban, a town nestled on the very edge of the Western coast of Scotland. The permanent residents of Leita can probably be counted on the fingers of two hands, their numbers only bolstered by occasional parties of tourists who visit the island for bird-watching and to see the ruins of the infamous Arbroath Abbey; and humans are by far outnumbered by the sheep being farmed on the island. It’s a peaceful, isolated existence, one suddenly interrupted by the gruesome dismemberment of several sheep. Two officers from the Oban police force, Sergeant Dave Wiles and Constable John Campbell, decide to take a break from mind-numbing piles of paperwork to visit the island. They expect to find nothing more than a couple of sheep attacked by a natural predator – an eagle perhaps – and then spend a few hours in the local bar before heading back to the mainland. What they find instead, however, is a seemingly-deserted island; the door to the general store has been broken down, but apart from that nothing seems out of the ordinary – kettles are still warm from being boiled recently, beds are made, everything neat and tidy. There’s just not a soul in sight. Before long however, the two police officers will be up to their elbows in blood, guts, mystical forces beyond their comprehension, and the eponymous Ramskull.

    In my opinion, one of the greatest skills Mr Meikle possesses as an author is his ability to effortlessly create the atmosphere of wherever his story is set, only needing to use a few sentences where other writers often have to use paragraphs, or even entire pages. He seems to particular excel at this when his stories are set in his native Scotland, his obvious passion coming to the fore, and Ramskull greatly benefits from it. Although fictional, the island of Leita is well-realised, Meikle deftly creating an island that is both starkly beautiful but also quietly menacing, using fantastic prose such as “…a huge gray wedge, thick at the north end, a vertical cliff that plunged a hundred yards and more into seas…” This menacing atmosphere is present from the very beginning of the novella, particularly in the chapters that are set in the past, and the island itself rapidly becomes a character in of itself, at times almost alive with malevolence and low cunning. The other, human (and inhuman) characters are just as well realised, particularly Sergeant Wiles and the titular Ramskull. The former is a character archetype that the author often uses in his titles – that of the professional thrown into a situation that goes well beyond their previous experience, and forces them to question the very reality that they exist in; and the latter is a wonderfully grim and visceral character that dominates every scene, even when it does not appear, and is one of the best parts of the entire novella.

    The atmosphere, characterisation and writing are of Mr Meikle’s usual high standards, and the same can easily be said of the plot, which is constantly moving forward slickly and efficiently, with never a wasted sentence or scene; the chapters set in the 13th and 14th Century are particularly enjoyable, with Alexander Seton (one of the author’s recurring characters) struggling to fight and contain an earlier manifestation of the Ramskull, and the terrifying effects it has on the island of Leita and the men working to build Arbroath Abbey. There were times when I was genuinely chilled by Ramskull and had to put my Kindle down; and others when I went back several times to re-read the same passage as it was so well written. Many of the latter were those passages where Mr Meikle makes use of another concept common within many of his works, and which is commonly referred to as ‘The Call of the Dance’. When a protagonist comes into close proximity with a Lovecraftian creature or artefact, they are often overwhelmed by ‘The Dance’, where their senses are overwhelmed and replaced by a sensation of floating in utter darkness, or sometimes with galaxies and stars whirling around them, with an urgent need to let themselves be subsumed by the urge to dance forever in the stars. It’s a fantastic device, and not only because it instantly creates a kind of shared universe between many of Mr Meikle’s works, but also because it is so radically different to how the realities of the cold, uncaring and horrifying universe are usually portrayed in Mythos fiction. Rather than the stereotypical depiction of hellish, demonic imagery that flays the mind of some unfortunate soul, here Mr Meikle is able to depict the simultaneously alien yet attractive nature of the ‘true’ Lovecraftian universe without falling into cliché, and demonstrate why so many cultists and innocents might so easily be lured into its clutches.

    Ramskull is perhaps one of the finest pieces of fiction that Mr Meikle has ever written, with a strong cast of well-realised and fleshed out characters, a deeply horrifying yet intriguing antagonist, some beautifully-described scenery and atmosphere in the form of the island of Leita, and a plot that left me wanting a sequel as soon as possible. It is a novella that does the author credit, and which should be picked up anyone interested in Mythos fiction, Horror fiction, or just fine writing in general.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Arno Gündisch
    5.0 out of 5 stars Zombie-Horror trifft Dämonenkult
    Reviewed in Germany on 8 January 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Die Insel Leita ist ein verschlafenes Nest vor der schottischen Küste, in dem jeder jeden kennt. Bis Sergeant Wilkes einen Hilferuf erhält. Jemand oder etwas schlachtet die Schafe des Farmers Grainger ab. Als Wilkes und sein junger Gehilfe Campbell auf Leita eintreffen, ist die Insel menschenleer. Die Einwohner scheinen spurlos verschwunden zu sein-oder doch nicht? Auf Wilkes und seinen Gehilfen wartet buchstäblich die Hölle auf Erden...
    Elemente des Zombie-Horrors werden hier gekonnt mit einem uralten Dämonenkult verbunden, der weit in die Geschichte der Insel zurückreicht. Die Story baut sich nach und nach auf, bis kein Entkommen aus dem finsteren Strudel möglich scheint.
    Dafür fünf tanzende Punkte!
    Report
  • Randy Stafford
    4.0 out of 5 stars Heroic Horror
    Reviewed in the United States on 1 January 2019
    Verified Purchase
    William Meikle writes heroic horror. That’s not to say good people always win in his stories or even survive to their end. When facing monsters and demons and other “bogles” beyond our ken, his heroes and heroines have their own magic. It’s often not grimoires or special weapons or superscience or sorcery that defeat the horror. It’s the magic of duty, love, and loyalty.

    Ramskull is such a story.

    The opening is that of a classic police thriller. Here it’s veteran David Wilkes and rookie John Campbell. Wilkes spent his early cop days on the mean streets of Glasgow, but now he’s on the force in Oban, Scotland where the two are sent to investigate a mutilated sheep on the nearby island of Leita.

    Actually, that’s not the real beginning of the story. It’s set in 1494 and also on Leita where Alexander Seton – member of a clan that shows up in many Meikle stories – is sent by the king to make sure work resumes on constructing the Abbey of St. Brennan there. What he finds beneath the Abbey will, of course, tie in with what Wilkes and Campbell find more than 500 years later.

    And what Wilkes and Campbell will find is an island ominously quiet, a pool of disappearing blood, and that some of the inhabitants and a group of visiting tourists have been possessed by something that’s turned them into cannibals. But, despite the danger they pose, Wilkes is a decent man who, unlike many a zombie story (which this isn’t), isn’t going to willynilly kill his old friends and acquaintances. Not that he has a lot in the way of weapons. And the cavalry isn’t going to be coming anytime soon given that communication with Oban has been cut off.

    The novel pulled me through the story relentlessly even when I did notice bits of other Meikle stories turning up, and the third act took me completely by surprise. Besides a bit of Lovecraft, Meikle works in his Just One mythology in explaining just what force has been awakened on Leita.
    Report
  • K. A. Y.
    4.0 out of 5 stars Another great supernatural tale from Meikle!
    Reviewed in the United States on 28 January 2018
    Verified Purchase
    RAMSKULL, by William Meikle, is an intensely atmospheric story of an ancient evil, alternate "places", cannibalism, and ritualistic rites.

    When Sergeant Dave Wilkes gets a call from the small island of Leita about a sheep being found slaughtered in the field, he figures it will be an easy day away from his desk work. Taking with him a young Constable, John Campbell, the scene that greets them once they reach Leita is nothing like they were expecting. From missing townsfolk, to scenes of bloody remains that disappear when they turn their backs, Dave soon realizes that he was dead wrong about that "easy day".

    Meikle shows us once again why he is known as a master storyteller in this fantastically detailed tale of an evil, centuries old, that manages to break through once more. The more time he spends on the island with a cantankerous farmer and his wife--almost the only other people he finds there--the more he begins to realize that this isn't just some teenaged prank. The entity that has returned demands ultimate loyalty, and those that do not acquiesce to his demands face a much worse fate . . .

    Although Wilkes denies as long as possible the tale that the farmer and his wife tell him, eventually the truth becomes impossible to ignore.

    ". . . men are capable of much, much worse all on their own without needing anything supernatural to egg them on . . ."

    The slow pull of this novel is impossible to avoid as you read on. Everything from the remote, sparsely inhabited island, to the focus of the manifesting evil breaking through, furthers the story along at the perfect pace. There are some truths that you simply can not deny.

    ". . . Chris went down into that cave . . . . and what came out wasn't the same as what went in . . . "

    Another great tale of the supernatural from William Meikle!

    Highly recommended!
    Report
  • recluse
    4.0 out of 5 stars Island of the Damned
    Reviewed in the United States on 22 January 2018
    Verified Purchase
    It started out as a simple nuisance call...a bit of sheep worrying according to a cantankerous old farmer on the remote island of Leita. For Sergeant Dave Wilkes, it was a chance to get out from under some excess paperwork, nothing more. Along with an over eager young constable, he heads out to the island, expecting no more than a day out of the office.

    He's going to wish he never left the mainland.

    What they find is a community abandoned....signs of horrific violence, some of which disappears in the blink of an eye. When they discover they have been cut off from any and all assistance, or even leaving the island, Sergeant Wilkes sets out to solve the mystery....only to discover that an ancient evil, long forgotten....a force twice thought laid to rest centuries before by one familiar with the powers of darkness, has broken loose once more. An entity that calls out to the unwary, with a power that can't be denied or stopped by bell, book, candle or firearm....a bloodthirsty horror that only Sergeant Wilkes stands against in it's bid to leave Leita and contaminate the entire world.

    Grand atmospheric horror with a fine sense of place from Scotland's greatest horror author.

    Highly recommended.
    Report
  • JRD02
    3.0 out of 5 stars THE POWER OF RAM IT IS....
    Reviewed in the United States on 13 January 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Hello, this story started really good and continued like this for about 70% of the story. Then, it's like the author was late for a hot date or something similar and was trying like hell to get finished with the story. Information was put into the story on several occasions and never used again. I never could figure that out. Thanks.
    Report

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