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Blood Hunt
After Allan Innes kills the man who seduced his girlfriend, Liz Murison, he is pursued across Scotland by village policeman Nicol Menzies, brother of the slain man
- GenresScotland
250 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1987
1 person is currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Neil M. Gunn
63 books49 followersNeil Gunn, one of Scotland's most prolific and distinguished novelists, wrote over a period that spanned the Recession, the political crises of the 1920's and 1930's, and the Second World War and its aftermath. Although nearly all his 20 novels are set in the Highlands of Scotland, he is not a regional author in the narrow sense of that description; his novels reflect a search for meaning in troubled times, both past and present, a search that leads him into the realms of philosophy, archaeology, folk tradition and metaphysical speculation.
Born in the coastal village of Dunbeath, Caithness, the son of a successful fishing boat skipper, Gunn was educated at the local village primary school and privately in Galloway. In 1911 he entered the Civil Service and spent some time in both London and Edinburgh before returning to the North as a customs and excise officer based (after a short spell in Caithness) in Inverness. Before voluntary retirement from Government service in 1937 to become a full-time writer, he had embarked on a literary career with considerable success.
His first novel, The Grey Coast (1926), a novel in the realist tradition and set in Caithness in the 1920's, occupied an important position in the literary movement known as the Scottish Renaissance. His second novel, Morning Tide (1931), an idyll of a Highland childhood, won a Book Society award and the praise of the well known literary and public figure, John Buchan. The turning point in Gunn's career, however, came in 1937, when he won the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial prize for his deeply thought-provoking Highland River, a quasi autobiographical novel written in the third person, in which the main protagonist's life is made analogous to a Highland river and the search for its source.
In 1941 Gunn's epic novel about the fishing boom of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, The Silver Darlings, was widely acclaimed as a modern classic and considered the finest balance between concrete action and metaphysical speculation achieved by any British writer in the 20th century. It was also the final novel of a trilogy of the history of the Northlands, the other novels being Sun Circle (1933) on the Viking invasions of the 9th century and Butcher's Broom (1934) on the Clearances. In 1944 Gunn wrote his anti-Utopian novel, The Green Isle of the Great Deep, a book that preceded George Orwell's novel on the same theme, Nineteen Eighty-Four, by five years. The novel, using an old man and a young boy from a rural background as characters in a struggle against the pressures of totalitarian state, evoked an enthusiastic response from the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.
Some of Gunn's later books, whilst not ignoring the uglier aspects of the modern world, touch more on metaphysical speculation in a vein that is not without humour. The Well at the Worlds End (1951), in particular, lays emphasis on the more positive aspects of living and the value of that approach in finding meaning and purpose in life. Gunn's spiritual autobiography, The Atom of Delight (1956), which, although similar in many ways to Highland River, incorporates a vein of thought derived from Gunn's interest in Zen Buddhism. The autobiography was Gunn's last major work.
In 1948 Gunn's contribution to literature was recognised by Edinburgh University with an honorary doctorate to the author; in 1972 the Scottish Arts Council created the Neil Gunn Fellowship in his honour, a fellowship that was to include such famous writers as Henrich Boll, Saul Bellow, Ruth Prawar Jhabvala, Nadine Gordimer and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Born in the coastal village of Dunbeath, Caithness, the son of a successful fishing boat skipper, Gunn was educated at the local village primary school and privately in Galloway. In 1911 he entered the Civil Service and spent some time in both London and Edinburgh before returning to the North as a customs and excise officer based (after a short spell in Caithness) in Inverness. Before voluntary retirement from Government service in 1937 to become a full-time writer, he had embarked on a literary career with considerable success.
His first novel, The Grey Coast (1926), a novel in the realist tradition and set in Caithness in the 1920's, occupied an important position in the literary movement known as the Scottish Renaissance. His second novel, Morning Tide (1931), an idyll of a Highland childhood, won a Book Society award and the praise of the well known literary and public figure, John Buchan. The turning point in Gunn's career, however, came in 1937, when he won the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial prize for his deeply thought-provoking Highland River, a quasi autobiographical novel written in the third person, in which the main protagonist's life is made analogous to a Highland river and the search for its source.
In 1941 Gunn's epic novel about the fishing boom of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, The Silver Darlings, was widely acclaimed as a modern classic and considered the finest balance between concrete action and metaphysical speculation achieved by any British writer in the 20th century. It was also the final novel of a trilogy of the history of the Northlands, the other novels being Sun Circle (1933) on the Viking invasions of the 9th century and Butcher's Broom (1934) on the Clearances. In 1944 Gunn wrote his anti-Utopian novel, The Green Isle of the Great Deep, a book that preceded George Orwell's novel on the same theme, Nineteen Eighty-Four, by five years. The novel, using an old man and a young boy from a rural background as characters in a struggle against the pressures of totalitarian state, evoked an enthusiastic response from the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.
Some of Gunn's later books, whilst not ignoring the uglier aspects of the modern world, touch more on metaphysical speculation in a vein that is not without humour. The Well at the Worlds End (1951), in particular, lays emphasis on the more positive aspects of living and the value of that approach in finding meaning and purpose in life. Gunn's spiritual autobiography, The Atom of Delight (1956), which, although similar in many ways to Highland River, incorporates a vein of thought derived from Gunn's interest in Zen Buddhism. The autobiography was Gunn's last major work.
In 1948 Gunn's contribution to literature was recognised by Edinburgh University with an honorary doctorate to the author; in 1972 the Scottish Arts Council created the Neil Gunn Fellowship in his honour, a fellowship that was to include such famous writers as Henrich Boll, Saul Bellow, Ruth Prawar Jhabvala, Nadine Gordimer and Mario Vargas Llosa.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 25, 2020
This was brilliant. As a depiction of Scottish highland life. As a steady, unsettling crime story. And as a tale of human life. Just great. It's the second of Gunn's books I've read, and with both of them I feel they'd easily stand up to multiple readings.
Sandy's an old sea dog, in his 70s, who has quit the seas and taken a croft in the highlands where his people came from. This book was first published in 1952, so I'm guessing it's set in the 1940s, so croft living was a lot more back to basics then. And although this is isolated living in a great wilderness in some respects, Gunn depicts so well the life of the highlands. There's lots of gossip and community, even though people lived scattered about. Everyone knows everyone else's business, and people help out. A neighbouring (ie. closest to live to his croft, but certainly not in waving distance) widow comes over to help out Sandy when he's bedridden after an accident. And nothing happens out in the wilderness without someone seeing. There's shepherds and gamekeepers and the crofters themselves. And yet the landscape is emptying still. I know the highland clearances started off a long, long time before this book is set, but there are still references to it, and how those left behind are alone. Sandy's own brother went off to Argentina never to be heard of again. The widow's brother is in America and her daughter is in New Zealand. But despite the isolation you get that sense of connection again, this time with the rest of the world.
The tension starts off straight away in this book. Sandy's settling in for the night and the local copper, Nicol rocks up wanting to search his croft for there is a runaway murderer on the loose. At this point Sandy has no idea what has been going on (so fresh news from the gossips hasn't reached yet) but even then, there's no judgement. He knows the accused, and is worrying about how he is. At the same time there's no sense of hate or awkwardness towards the policeman. And he never tries to justify what the guilty did - let's call him by his name, Allan - or throw judgement over it. He's an old solitary git, but he's a softie at heart, and is trying to help young life and people all the time. Then of course, Allan, who used to be by the croft a lot as a lad, turns up, and Sandy helps him with food and the like. And the tension builds, for Sandy's mind is always running down the possibilities - what if someone saw, what is something happens - and Nicol keeps turning up at the croft. Although Nicol is doing his job, this descends into a type of maddness and like a gamekeeper stalking prey on the highlands for weeks, as Nicol is put on leave and is still out in the wilds hunting what he ends up convinced will be Allan's body. Allan killed Nicol's brother, also the favourite son, so this is a blood hunt, as the title suggestions. There's something very old about that, like eye for an eye, and old pre-judicary times retribution and Nicol hunts down Allan. The fight that ended in death is that age old story of squabbling over a woman, Liz, who is pregnant by the brother, but loves Allan. She ends up at the croft - Sandy does seem to collect the waifs and strays - heavily pregnant, and has her baby in the barn, with old Sandy playing midwife rather well. He really is the kind of old grandad you'd love to have.
There's a few wry comments and conversations in here, as well as references. I do believe I saw some of the lyrics to Loch Lomond in there at one point. And great little snippets. Here's one I liked:
"The salt of the earth. And the earth needs its salt. I'll tell you a queer thing the shepherd told me no later than last month. We came on one of his sheep all by itself and pining away. It looks a queer mysterious disease, almost human, you would say. But what was wrong was nothing in the sheep but the lack of a certain salt in the soil. When the right salt isn't there, life withers and dies. People can shout and spout and make all the fuss they like, but that's the simple truth at the heel of the day. The quiet decent people. The salt of the earth."
Sandy's an old sea dog, in his 70s, who has quit the seas and taken a croft in the highlands where his people came from. This book was first published in 1952, so I'm guessing it's set in the 1940s, so croft living was a lot more back to basics then. And although this is isolated living in a great wilderness in some respects, Gunn depicts so well the life of the highlands. There's lots of gossip and community, even though people lived scattered about. Everyone knows everyone else's business, and people help out. A neighbouring (ie. closest to live to his croft, but certainly not in waving distance) widow comes over to help out Sandy when he's bedridden after an accident. And nothing happens out in the wilderness without someone seeing. There's shepherds and gamekeepers and the crofters themselves. And yet the landscape is emptying still. I know the highland clearances started off a long, long time before this book is set, but there are still references to it, and how those left behind are alone. Sandy's own brother went off to Argentina never to be heard of again. The widow's brother is in America and her daughter is in New Zealand. But despite the isolation you get that sense of connection again, this time with the rest of the world.
The tension starts off straight away in this book. Sandy's settling in for the night and the local copper, Nicol rocks up wanting to search his croft for there is a runaway murderer on the loose. At this point Sandy has no idea what has been going on (so fresh news from the gossips hasn't reached yet) but even then, there's no judgement. He knows the accused, and is worrying about how he is. At the same time there's no sense of hate or awkwardness towards the policeman. And he never tries to justify what the guilty did - let's call him by his name, Allan - or throw judgement over it. He's an old solitary git, but he's a softie at heart, and is trying to help young life and people all the time. Then of course, Allan, who used to be by the croft a lot as a lad, turns up, and Sandy helps him with food and the like. And the tension builds, for Sandy's mind is always running down the possibilities - what if someone saw, what is something happens - and Nicol keeps turning up at the croft. Although Nicol is doing his job, this descends into a type of maddness and like a gamekeeper stalking prey on the highlands for weeks, as Nicol is put on leave and is still out in the wilds hunting what he ends up convinced will be Allan's body. Allan killed Nicol's brother, also the favourite son, so this is a blood hunt, as the title suggestions. There's something very old about that, like eye for an eye, and old pre-judicary times retribution and Nicol hunts down Allan. The fight that ended in death is that age old story of squabbling over a woman, Liz, who is pregnant by the brother, but loves Allan. She ends up at the croft - Sandy does seem to collect the waifs and strays - heavily pregnant, and has her baby in the barn, with old Sandy playing midwife rather well. He really is the kind of old grandad you'd love to have.
There's a few wry comments and conversations in here, as well as references. I do believe I saw some of the lyrics to Loch Lomond in there at one point. And great little snippets. Here's one I liked:
"The salt of the earth. And the earth needs its salt. I'll tell you a queer thing the shepherd told me no later than last month. We came on one of his sheep all by itself and pining away. It looks a queer mysterious disease, almost human, you would say. But what was wrong was nothing in the sheep but the lack of a certain salt in the soil. When the right salt isn't there, life withers and dies. People can shout and spout and make all the fuss they like, but that's the simple truth at the heel of the day. The quiet decent people. The salt of the earth."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2019
This is one of the best novels that I have read in decades, though it did not seem so at first.
Blood Hunt started slow and uncertain like a new-foaled colt first on its feet. It hesitated, and at any moment I thought it would trip and fall but it did not. As I progressed, it moved with more confidence, gained its footing, but never broke into a run; as if it kindly waited for me to follow it, keeping a pace ahead of me but always near.
And this was for the best, for any faster pace would have left me behind and I would have missed the poetry of the story. Not the kind of poetry with rhymes and rhythms, but poetry of the soul that needs no such artifice. It seemed beyond my reach, my run, but the music of that which I could not fathom rang me like a glass tapped by a spoon.
So drink this, if you will, like a dram of single-malt; follow each sip down to a place inside the centermost point, from which you may look out, watching as people do on the shore, looking always to the sea.
Blood Hunt started slow and uncertain like a new-foaled colt first on its feet. It hesitated, and at any moment I thought it would trip and fall but it did not. As I progressed, it moved with more confidence, gained its footing, but never broke into a run; as if it kindly waited for me to follow it, keeping a pace ahead of me but always near.
And this was for the best, for any faster pace would have left me behind and I would have missed the poetry of the story. Not the kind of poetry with rhymes and rhythms, but poetry of the soul that needs no such artifice. It seemed beyond my reach, my run, but the music of that which I could not fathom rang me like a glass tapped by a spoon.
So drink this, if you will, like a dram of single-malt; follow each sip down to a place inside the centermost point, from which you may look out, watching as people do on the shore, looking always to the sea.
January 12, 2014
If you want a picture of life in a rather isolated part of the Scottish highlands, this is no bad place to start. Sandy has retired here, returning to his roots after a life at sea. By choice, he lives alone with his dog Queenie, a temperamental cow, and a few chickens for company, going into the nearby town only when he needs to. When, shockingly, the town policeman's brother is murdered, Sandy finds himself, for reasons that aren't altogether clear to him, protecting and helping the young murderer,whom he knows and likes, and whose girlfriend was seduced by the victim. The effect of this decision on his life, and on his peace of mind, is the subject of this book. The rhythms of Highland life and the range of characters who rub along together there are well described, and with humour. A satisfying and engaging read.
July 19, 2020
Great writing, great story: evocative of highland crofting life, sometimes dour, sometimes dryly humorous, sometimes very sad. Raises lots of moral issues. No wonder Gunn's writing is so highly regarded .
July 24, 2011
A simply told tale, with warm, well-drawn characters about whose ultimate fate the reader will come to care deeply.
July 22, 2013
Really enjoyed this book. Shows highland life and characters very well and was very engaging throughout. Sometimes I wish it was more possible to maintain this lifestyle and community these days.
October 10, 2013
Beautiful Scottish novel exploring our morals and ability to empathise, and to challenge our perceptions of people. Read it!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews