Muriel Gray

‘The Ancient’ falls squarely into one my favourite sub-genres: Monster in a confined space. This time the monster is an Ancient Incan deity and the confined space is a cargo ship. The story is populated with a great cast: a kickass heroine who wouldn’t be out of place in a James Cameron movie, a drunk in need of redemption and a cowardly, scheming human villain who causes almost as many problems as the monster. Along the way are some great scary scenes, a tonne of gore, enough action show more to keep things satisfying, a smattering of humour and just the right mount of technical detail about life on a cargo ship (enough that you feel like you’ve learned something but not so much it gets boring). All of the above makes me really keen to read Gray’s other two novels (I had a paperback copy of her first ‘The Trickster’ for years but never quite got to it) and disappointed that she has only published three. show less

“Only half…was visible from where she waited, but it was enough to skin her soul.” (p.286)

I have to admit, Muriel Gray’s book The Ancient made my skin crawl more than once. This work is a creature fiction and an unsettling example of why some cultural differences should not be explored, let alone accepted.
Ester Mulholland’s intent is not to attract the attention of an ancient evil, but she does.
What made The Ancient so unique, other than the story is, all but the first three show more chapters take place on a cargo ship in the middle of the water, far away land.
Gray’s pace speeds the story along without cheating the reader out of any creepy details but leaves room for the imagination. A balance not easily mastered.
I highly recommend The Ancient to anyone who enjoys atmospheric horror, evil creatures and strong, well-developed characters. I do want to thank Glasgow’s Waterstones bookstore employee for recommending Muriel Gray’s work. show less

Ms. Gray used to be (is?) a television and radio presenter for the BBC. I remember her in the good old '80s on The Tube trying to make the likes of The Jam and Sigue Sigue Sputnik behave for British telly viewers. Anyway the multi-talented Ms. Gray turned her hand to horror novels for a bit and Trickster, the first, is probably the best of the trio she wrote. Muriel is from Scotland but that didn't stop her from taking on a novel set in Alberta, Canada and largely based around native Indian show more folk mythology and trying to make it all believable and entertaining. I thought at 707 pages this was going to get dull somewhere with all the minutiae involved but it never did. The suspense was maintained throughout.

The characters were where the writing excelled. The author presented great depth and empathy in a large cast of characters. The novel had a lot of flashbacks and these really presented a novel within a novel, particularly the 1907 interludes, were almost as important and suspenseful as the "main" contemporary story line.

I'm not big on North American bogeymen like the Wendigo but the adversary here, the Trickster, is every bit as menacing as Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror. The menace is of the older than old type so it predates all mythologies and is sort of susceptible to all sorts of exorcisms but in our modern scientific times few remain who know how to trick the Trickster so to speak. Sam Hunt, who denies his Indian heritage, is going to have to step up big time if anyone is going to get this thing back in Pandora's box. But he has his young son, an old drunk, his wife, and a skeptical police officer to help so this should be no problem. Oh and there is the blizzard of the century to deal with as well.

Well at least he has a better chance of getting the jin back in the bottle than Scottish preacher James Henderson does in 1907. Someone keeps letting this guy out!

Be careful with editions here. The icy cover is a greatly edited version of the novel. The real deal is the big fat green covered paperback. show less

I remember Muriel Gray presenting pop stars on The Tube (or "Tewb" as she says it) or Bliss on British telly in the 80s. She frequently had to take the piss out of an uncooperative Paul Weller or Martin Degville; people with a third of her brains. Then, being brilliant, she set her sights on writing horror novels.

Alright, it's just M.R. James Casting of the Runes with Muriel turning up the thermostat! All the fun is how Josh is going to his ass out of the shithole and guessing who passed him show more the runes. Along the way we get a fair amount of grue and creeps, a little sex, and a protagonist with a bunch of psychological and psychic turmoil. Oh, and whole lot of big trucks, red necks, and lotsa CB talk too.

A good fun read then into the bin. show less