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Lewis Trilogy #1
The Blackhouse
The Isle of Lewis is the most remote, harshly beautiful place in Scotland, where the difficulty of existence seems outweighed only by people's fear of God. But older, pagan values lurk beneath the veneer of faith, the primal yearning for blood and revenge.
When a brutal murder on the island bears the hallmarks of a similar slaying in Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod is dispatched north to investigate. But since he himself was raised on Lewis, the investigation also represents a journey home and into his past.
Each year the island's men perform the hunting of the gugas, a savage custom no longer necessary for survival, but which they cling to even more fiercely in the face of the demands of modern morality. For Fin the hunt recalls a horrific tragedy, which after all this time may have begun to demand another sacrifice.
The Blackhouse is a crime novel of rare power and vision. Peter May has crafted a page-turning murder mystery that explores the darkness in our souls, and just how difficult it is to escape the past.
When a brutal murder on the island bears the hallmarks of a similar slaying in Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod is dispatched north to investigate. But since he himself was raised on Lewis, the investigation also represents a journey home and into his past.
Each year the island's men perform the hunting of the gugas, a savage custom no longer necessary for survival, but which they cling to even more fiercely in the face of the demands of modern morality. For Fin the hunt recalls a horrific tragedy, which after all this time may have begun to demand another sacrifice.
The Blackhouse is a crime novel of rare power and vision. Peter May has crafted a page-turning murder mystery that explores the darkness in our souls, and just how difficult it is to escape the past.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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April 29, 2018
“Knew, too, that it wasn’t just Mona he wanted to run away from. It was everything. Back to a place where life had once seemed simple. A return to childhood, back to the womb. How easy it was now to ignore the fact that he had spent most of his adult life avoiding just that. Easy to forget that as a teenager nothing had seemed more important to him than leaving.”
Detective Fin Macleod is sent back to the place where he was bred, born, burnished, and raised as an orphan. A murder has happened on the Isle of Lewis in The Outer Hebrides of Scotland in the very town Fin was from, Crobost. The murder has similar characteristics of brutality to a murder he has been working on in Edinburgh. He had only come back to the island for the funeral of his aunt since he left to go to school in Glasgow, so everything there is tinged in the sepia tones of the past. The tender threads that held his marriage together with Mona snapped with the tragic death of his son. The sorrows and desperations of his current life outweigh the dread of dredging up memories of his unhappy childhood. When you grow up in a small community, they remember everything you’ve ever done: the good, the bad, and the ugly. In some ways, you never escape the fallacies of your youth, when everyone’s memory is so long.
The irony is that he is going back to investigate the murder of Angel Macritchie, who despite his name was certainly no Angel. There is no one from Fin’s past who inspires more terror wrapped nightmares than Angel Macritchie. With a long list of grievances perpetrated against nearly every male member of the community and more than a few females, most everyone's a viable suspect, but then a brutish murder like this comes from more than just someone harboring a grievance.
This murderer is twisted and depraved.
As Fin investigates the murder, trying to find a motive that would fit such a crime, he also finds himself sifting through the debris of his own memories, his own failings, and those he hurt the worst as he flailed to adulthood. There is no one he hurt worst than the lovely girl from the farm who loved him from the first moment she laid those cornflower eyes on him...Marsaili. She is still on the island, now married to his best friend from school, Atair MacInnes.
”A blink of moonlight splashed a pool of broken silver on the ocean beyond. There was a light on in the kitchen, and through the window Fin could see a figure at the sink. He realized, with a start, that it was Marsaili, long fair hair, darker now, drawn back severely from her face and tied in a ponytail at the nape of her neck. She wore no makeup and looked weary somehow, pale, with shadows beneath blue eyes that had lost their lustre. She looked up as she heard the car, and Fin killed the headlights so that all she could see would be a reflection of herself in the window. She looked away quickly, as if disappointed by what she’d seen, and in that moment he glimpsed again the little girl who had so bewitched him from the first moment he set eyes on her.”
Fin treated her terribly. That’s what we seem to do to those who love us the most. Peter May gives us this relationship from the first flowering of love, through the lust, and onward to where we see the tearing apart of their entwined lives. Fin tries to explain the unexplainable.
”’Please,’ she said, almost as if she knew that he was going to tell her he had always loved her, too. ‘I don’t want to hear it. Not now, Fin, not after all these wasted years.’ And she turned to meet his eye. Their faces were inches apart. ‘I couldn’t bear it.’”
This reader couldn’t bear it either. Don’t you dare say it, Fin.
Because we know so much about Fin and the numerous times when he experienced crushing setbacks in his life, we can’t even condemn him. (Ok that isn’t completely true. I’m still pissed at him.) The one person who could have sustained him is still connected to the very island he was trying to escape. Marsaili washes back upon the shore of the Isle of Lewis as part of the debris that is the shipwreck of his life.
The Churches of Scotland dominate island life, each vying to be more severe than the next as proof that their sect is more religious than the others. Swings are tied up on Sunday so no child will be tempted to be lifted from the earth on the Sabbath. Belief in a higher being drowned by madness. This overbearing influence warps minds and deforms bodies under the crippling weight of guilt that can never really be forgiven, but must be carried on the soul like piles of jagged black stones. We must be reminded of our sins so we stay afraid of our creator.
There is a rock off shore called Sulasgeir, where ten selected men go each year to harvest the guga’s offspring. It is a bloody massacre, and fortunately, the government only allows them to take 2000 birds a year. The fledglings have to be the right age to taste the best. If they are too large or too small, they are allowed to live. Fin was a part of that group one year before he left for college. It is a dangerous experience for the men, among the craggy rocks that prove to be tinged with tragedy. Why do these men do it every year? Tradition? ”But Gigs shook his head. ‘No. It’s not the tradition. That might be a part of it, aye. But I’ll tell you why I do it, boy. Because nobody else does it anywhere in the world. Just us.’”
This book is so much more than just a murder mystery. I felt completely immersed in these people’s lives. I wasn’t always happy about it. There were times when it made me feel uncomfortable. I read this on the plane to San Francisco for a visit to Goodreads Headquarters, and I’m sure many of my fellow passengers wondered what I was reading that was making me grimace and squirm in my seat. Once on the island, Fin remembers things that were tamped down so deep they were nearly forgotten. He burns with shame at his own failings, laid so bare, and tries as best he can to fix the wounds he left in others as he tries to live with the lacerations that life has inflicted on him. There are twists and turns and revelations. By the end, I could not deny that Peter May has written a novel that I will never forget. Hebrides Noir.
”And then he felt it. The cold bite of iron, the movement of the ring as his fingers closed desperately around it, and held. And held. Almost dislocating his shoulder as the sea pulled and jerked, before finally, reluctantly letting go. For a moment he lay still, clutching the mooring ring, washing up on the rock like a beached sea creature. And then he scrambled for a foothold, and then a handhold, and the strength to propel himself upward before the sea returned to reclaim him. He could sense it snapping at his heels as he found the ledge of the rock…. He’d made it. He was on the rock, safe from the sea. And all that it could do now was spit its anger in his face.”
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Detective Fin Macleod is sent back to the place where he was bred, born, burnished, and raised as an orphan. A murder has happened on the Isle of Lewis in The Outer Hebrides of Scotland in the very town Fin was from, Crobost. The murder has similar characteristics of brutality to a murder he has been working on in Edinburgh. He had only come back to the island for the funeral of his aunt since he left to go to school in Glasgow, so everything there is tinged in the sepia tones of the past. The tender threads that held his marriage together with Mona snapped with the tragic death of his son. The sorrows and desperations of his current life outweigh the dread of dredging up memories of his unhappy childhood. When you grow up in a small community, they remember everything you’ve ever done: the good, the bad, and the ugly. In some ways, you never escape the fallacies of your youth, when everyone’s memory is so long.
The irony is that he is going back to investigate the murder of Angel Macritchie, who despite his name was certainly no Angel. There is no one from Fin’s past who inspires more terror wrapped nightmares than Angel Macritchie. With a long list of grievances perpetrated against nearly every male member of the community and more than a few females, most everyone's a viable suspect, but then a brutish murder like this comes from more than just someone harboring a grievance.
This murderer is twisted and depraved.
As Fin investigates the murder, trying to find a motive that would fit such a crime, he also finds himself sifting through the debris of his own memories, his own failings, and those he hurt the worst as he flailed to adulthood. There is no one he hurt worst than the lovely girl from the farm who loved him from the first moment she laid those cornflower eyes on him...Marsaili. She is still on the island, now married to his best friend from school, Atair MacInnes.
”A blink of moonlight splashed a pool of broken silver on the ocean beyond. There was a light on in the kitchen, and through the window Fin could see a figure at the sink. He realized, with a start, that it was Marsaili, long fair hair, darker now, drawn back severely from her face and tied in a ponytail at the nape of her neck. She wore no makeup and looked weary somehow, pale, with shadows beneath blue eyes that had lost their lustre. She looked up as she heard the car, and Fin killed the headlights so that all she could see would be a reflection of herself in the window. She looked away quickly, as if disappointed by what she’d seen, and in that moment he glimpsed again the little girl who had so bewitched him from the first moment he set eyes on her.”
Fin treated her terribly. That’s what we seem to do to those who love us the most. Peter May gives us this relationship from the first flowering of love, through the lust, and onward to where we see the tearing apart of their entwined lives. Fin tries to explain the unexplainable.
”’Please,’ she said, almost as if she knew that he was going to tell her he had always loved her, too. ‘I don’t want to hear it. Not now, Fin, not after all these wasted years.’ And she turned to meet his eye. Their faces were inches apart. ‘I couldn’t bear it.’”
This reader couldn’t bear it either. Don’t you dare say it, Fin.
Because we know so much about Fin and the numerous times when he experienced crushing setbacks in his life, we can’t even condemn him. (Ok that isn’t completely true. I’m still pissed at him.) The one person who could have sustained him is still connected to the very island he was trying to escape. Marsaili washes back upon the shore of the Isle of Lewis as part of the debris that is the shipwreck of his life.
The Churches of Scotland dominate island life, each vying to be more severe than the next as proof that their sect is more religious than the others. Swings are tied up on Sunday so no child will be tempted to be lifted from the earth on the Sabbath. Belief in a higher being drowned by madness. This overbearing influence warps minds and deforms bodies under the crippling weight of guilt that can never really be forgiven, but must be carried on the soul like piles of jagged black stones. We must be reminded of our sins so we stay afraid of our creator.
There is a rock off shore called Sulasgeir, where ten selected men go each year to harvest the guga’s offspring. It is a bloody massacre, and fortunately, the government only allows them to take 2000 birds a year. The fledglings have to be the right age to taste the best. If they are too large or too small, they are allowed to live. Fin was a part of that group one year before he left for college. It is a dangerous experience for the men, among the craggy rocks that prove to be tinged with tragedy. Why do these men do it every year? Tradition? ”But Gigs shook his head. ‘No. It’s not the tradition. That might be a part of it, aye. But I’ll tell you why I do it, boy. Because nobody else does it anywhere in the world. Just us.’”
This book is so much more than just a murder mystery. I felt completely immersed in these people’s lives. I wasn’t always happy about it. There were times when it made me feel uncomfortable. I read this on the plane to San Francisco for a visit to Goodreads Headquarters, and I’m sure many of my fellow passengers wondered what I was reading that was making me grimace and squirm in my seat. Once on the island, Fin remembers things that were tamped down so deep they were nearly forgotten. He burns with shame at his own failings, laid so bare, and tries as best he can to fix the wounds he left in others as he tries to live with the lacerations that life has inflicted on him. There are twists and turns and revelations. By the end, I could not deny that Peter May has written a novel that I will never forget. Hebrides Noir.
”And then he felt it. The cold bite of iron, the movement of the ring as his fingers closed desperately around it, and held. And held. Almost dislocating his shoulder as the sea pulled and jerked, before finally, reluctantly letting go. For a moment he lay still, clutching the mooring ring, washing up on the rock like a beached sea creature. And then he scrambled for a foothold, and then a handhold, and the strength to propel himself upward before the sea returned to reclaim him. He could sense it snapping at his heels as he found the ledge of the rock…. He’d made it. He was on the rock, safe from the sea. And all that it could do now was spit its anger in his face.”
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
October 11, 2022
Having recently read and enjoyed Peter May’s stand-alone book Entry Island, I was urged by several of my Goodreads friends to seek out his Lewis Trilogy. I also recalled that a former colleague of mine – someone who hardly ever picked up a book of any description – had read this mini-series and pronounced it the ‘best thing I’ve ever read’. Ok, it might have been the only thing he ever read, but all signs seemed to be pointing in the same direction.
So I launched myself into this book with high hopes. The early sections scoped out the fact that two similar murders had occurred – one in Edinburgh and the other on the remote Isle of Lewis – and that a young(ish) copper, Fin McLeod, had been sent to Lewis to see if he could establish whether the two incidents were in any way linked. Fin, we learn, was born and brought up on Lewis and left the Hebridean Island after completing his schooling. As he meets up with the locals – many of whom remember him (it’s a small island with a population on the scale of a medium sized English town) – we start to understand more of what it must have been like for him to have lived his early years in this place, three hours north of the Scottish mainland. It has strong Calvinist traditions and the way things are done are more often than not the way things have always been done. It must have felt like a prison to a feisty, ambitious youngster such as he.
One custom that features large in the story is that of the annual trip to a forbidding rock called An Sgeir to cull two thousand young gannets, known in Gaelic as guga (a real event, I’ve subsequently learnt). The meat is considered a delicacy and each year twelve men from Lewis are chosen to complete this dangerous but revered task. They set off in a trawler to navigate some of the Atlantic’s most treacherous waters to reach this place; it’s a fifty-mile trip and it takes about eight hours. Once there, they scramble onto the rock where they will stay for up to two weeks. Actually, they’ll stay for as long as it takes to complete the job. Conditions are appalling and the task is grim beyond belief. It’s all superbly described and I really felt I was on that rock amongst the noise and smell and with the sense of death that pervades the whole thing.
So it’s a crime story but it also becomes the history of Fin’s early life as we are switched back and forth between past and present. In a strange way, the pace of life on the Island feels slow and plodding but at the same time the story races along with plenty of twists and action – a neat trick that. I quickly became totally absorbed. The characterisations are terrific and the descriptions of the island really brings it to life. The story is tied up effectively at the end and like most readers, I’d guess, I felt I’d not yet had enough of Fin or his fellow islanders. In fact, I’ve already started Lewis Man, the follow-up book, such was the power of this one. Great stuff and highly recommended.
So I launched myself into this book with high hopes. The early sections scoped out the fact that two similar murders had occurred – one in Edinburgh and the other on the remote Isle of Lewis – and that a young(ish) copper, Fin McLeod, had been sent to Lewis to see if he could establish whether the two incidents were in any way linked. Fin, we learn, was born and brought up on Lewis and left the Hebridean Island after completing his schooling. As he meets up with the locals – many of whom remember him (it’s a small island with a population on the scale of a medium sized English town) – we start to understand more of what it must have been like for him to have lived his early years in this place, three hours north of the Scottish mainland. It has strong Calvinist traditions and the way things are done are more often than not the way things have always been done. It must have felt like a prison to a feisty, ambitious youngster such as he.
One custom that features large in the story is that of the annual trip to a forbidding rock called An Sgeir to cull two thousand young gannets, known in Gaelic as guga (a real event, I’ve subsequently learnt). The meat is considered a delicacy and each year twelve men from Lewis are chosen to complete this dangerous but revered task. They set off in a trawler to navigate some of the Atlantic’s most treacherous waters to reach this place; it’s a fifty-mile trip and it takes about eight hours. Once there, they scramble onto the rock where they will stay for up to two weeks. Actually, they’ll stay for as long as it takes to complete the job. Conditions are appalling and the task is grim beyond belief. It’s all superbly described and I really felt I was on that rock amongst the noise and smell and with the sense of death that pervades the whole thing.
So it’s a crime story but it also becomes the history of Fin’s early life as we are switched back and forth between past and present. In a strange way, the pace of life on the Island feels slow and plodding but at the same time the story races along with plenty of twists and action – a neat trick that. I quickly became totally absorbed. The characterisations are terrific and the descriptions of the island really brings it to life. The story is tied up effectively at the end and like most readers, I’d guess, I felt I’d not yet had enough of Fin or his fellow islanders. In fact, I’ve already started Lewis Man, the follow-up book, such was the power of this one. Great stuff and highly recommended.
October 13, 2017
We left on the midnight tide, diesel engines thudding as we slipped out into the bay from the relative shelter of the harbour, facing into the huge swell, waves breaking over the bow to pour in foaming rivers across the deck. It seemed no time at all until the lights of Ness were swallowed by the night as we yawed and pitched into open seas beyond the Butt of Lewis. The last thing to vanish was the comforting flash of the lighthouse on the clifftop at the Butt, and when that was gone there was only the ocean. Untold stormy miles of it. If we missed the rock the next stop would be the Artic.
The rock is An Sgeir, barely a half mile long and no more than a hundred yards across, there is no soil or level land, just shit covered rock rising straight out of the sea. The men on the trawler have come for the Guga, a Gaelic name, otherwise known as Gannet. They are carrying on a tradition that can be traced back hundreds of years; once hunted for sustenance they hunt now to maintain a centuries old tradition and of course, get a taste of the Guga. They face brutal, dangerous, often lethal conditions on a narrow, shit covered rock, surrounded by the raging, roaring, north Atlantic Ocean, in order to do so.
May’s prose is fluid, seamlessly moving from past to present, as the story unfolds, so insanely rich in atmosphere, I felt a part of the group on An Sgeir, could smell the guano, feel the ocean’s fury pounding against the rock, my hands and feet numb as I clung on for dear life, amid the feathers and brouhaha of the teeming, threatened Gannet. This is a real tradition honoured by the men of the northern tip of the largest of the Western Islands of the Outer Hebrides archipelagos, to this very day. .
Fin Macleod grew up on Lewis and eighteen years ago made his first voyage to An Sgeir. In the wake of tragic circumstances surrounding that trip Fin has escaped to Edinburgh where he makes a living as a copper investigating homicides. But now he is being dispatched back to his boyhood home to investigate the potential connection in a murder disturbingly similar to an Edinburgh homicide.
So yes, this is a crime story but the real cream of this tale lay in Fin’s reflections of growing up on the Isle of Lewis and the history he left behind. History that has been buried lo these many years but still fuels Fin’s nightmares. A history from which he will no longer be able to hide.
You would be well advised to take this trip back home and in time, with Fin. I promise, you will be well rewarded with a gripping, chilling, atmospheric tale, rich in ancient Gaelic culture and history.
My sincere thanks to Andrew Smith for putting this on my radar. Woot!
4.5 crazy atmospheric stars cause, yeah it is just that good!
The rock is An Sgeir, barely a half mile long and no more than a hundred yards across, there is no soil or level land, just shit covered rock rising straight out of the sea. The men on the trawler have come for the Guga, a Gaelic name, otherwise known as Gannet. They are carrying on a tradition that can be traced back hundreds of years; once hunted for sustenance they hunt now to maintain a centuries old tradition and of course, get a taste of the Guga. They face brutal, dangerous, often lethal conditions on a narrow, shit covered rock, surrounded by the raging, roaring, north Atlantic Ocean, in order to do so.
May’s prose is fluid, seamlessly moving from past to present, as the story unfolds, so insanely rich in atmosphere, I felt a part of the group on An Sgeir, could smell the guano, feel the ocean’s fury pounding against the rock, my hands and feet numb as I clung on for dear life, amid the feathers and brouhaha of the teeming, threatened Gannet. This is a real tradition honoured by the men of the northern tip of the largest of the Western Islands of the Outer Hebrides archipelagos, to this very day. .
Fin Macleod grew up on Lewis and eighteen years ago made his first voyage to An Sgeir. In the wake of tragic circumstances surrounding that trip Fin has escaped to Edinburgh where he makes a living as a copper investigating homicides. But now he is being dispatched back to his boyhood home to investigate the potential connection in a murder disturbingly similar to an Edinburgh homicide.
So yes, this is a crime story but the real cream of this tale lay in Fin’s reflections of growing up on the Isle of Lewis and the history he left behind. History that has been buried lo these many years but still fuels Fin’s nightmares. A history from which he will no longer be able to hide.
You would be well advised to take this trip back home and in time, with Fin. I promise, you will be well rewarded with a gripping, chilling, atmospheric tale, rich in ancient Gaelic culture and history.
My sincere thanks to Andrew Smith for putting this on my radar. Woot!
4.5 crazy atmospheric stars cause, yeah it is just that good!
September 6, 2021
¿Por qué he tardado tanto en descubrir a Peter May? Conocía al autor, conocía su obra, y aún así he tardado demasíado en adentrarme en su literatura.
Para el que busque la típica novela de investigación policial, “The black house” quizás no termine de convencerlo. Porque aquí la investigación en sí misma es la parte menos interesante de la trama. Lo que realmente destaca es la narración de todo lo que acontece en la isla de Lewis, su gente, sus costumbres, su idioma gaélico, su religiosidad, y por encima de todo, sus paisajes y su clima. Nos sumergimos en ello con ayuda de una prosa extraordinaria, unas descripciones que te hacen sentir un habitante más de este inhóspito rincón de Escocia. El vaivén entre presente y pasado no sólo no es incómodo, sino que es esencial para el desarrollo de la trama.
La historia se desarrolla entre el asesinato que se acaba de cometer, y un incidente ocurrido en An Sgeir, (la isla de los cazadores mencionada en el título en español), 18 años atrás, en el que nuestro protagonista, Fin Macleod, tuvo un papel determinante. Todos los capítulos concernientes a las vivencias del futuro policia en la isla durante su niñez y adolescencia son para mí lo mejor del libro. Una auténtica maravilla.
No es una novela perfecta al 100%. Puestos a criticar, hay algunas consideraciones que quizás el autor debería haber terminado de pulir, no siendo la menor de ellas el hecho de que, acabando de sufrir una tremenda tragedia familiar, hay momentos en la novela en los que parece que el protagonista se olvida por completo de su situación. Y en cuanto a su bloqueo mental, me imagino que más de un lector habrá enarcado las cejas. Aún así, Peter May completa una primera parte de la presente trilogía que te deja con ansias de más. Como escritor de viajes tendría el éxito garantizado, pero en su calidad de escritor de novelas de misterio combina ambas con una maestría envidiable. No tardaré en leerme la segunda parte. Es más, ¡estoy deseándolo!
PD: Finalizada la trilogía. Me quito el sombrero. Me lo he pasado muy bien. Lástima que el resto de su obra no esté a la misma altura.
Para el que busque la típica novela de investigación policial, “The black house” quizás no termine de convencerlo. Porque aquí la investigación en sí misma es la parte menos interesante de la trama. Lo que realmente destaca es la narración de todo lo que acontece en la isla de Lewis, su gente, sus costumbres, su idioma gaélico, su religiosidad, y por encima de todo, sus paisajes y su clima. Nos sumergimos en ello con ayuda de una prosa extraordinaria, unas descripciones que te hacen sentir un habitante más de este inhóspito rincón de Escocia. El vaivén entre presente y pasado no sólo no es incómodo, sino que es esencial para el desarrollo de la trama.
La historia se desarrolla entre el asesinato que se acaba de cometer, y un incidente ocurrido en An Sgeir, (la isla de los cazadores mencionada en el título en español), 18 años atrás, en el que nuestro protagonista, Fin Macleod, tuvo un papel determinante. Todos los capítulos concernientes a las vivencias del futuro policia en la isla durante su niñez y adolescencia son para mí lo mejor del libro. Una auténtica maravilla.
No es una novela perfecta al 100%. Puestos a criticar, hay algunas consideraciones que quizás el autor debería haber terminado de pulir, no siendo la menor de ellas el hecho de que, acabando de sufrir una tremenda tragedia familiar, hay momentos en la novela en los que parece que el protagonista se olvida por completo de su situación. Y en cuanto a su bloqueo mental, me imagino que más de un lector habrá enarcado las cejas. Aún así, Peter May completa una primera parte de la presente trilogía que te deja con ansias de más. Como escritor de viajes tendría el éxito garantizado, pero en su calidad de escritor de novelas de misterio combina ambas con una maestría envidiable. No tardaré en leerme la segunda parte. Es más, ¡estoy deseándolo!
PD: Finalizada la trilogía. Me quito el sombrero. Me lo he pasado muy bien. Lástima que el resto de su obra no esté a la misma altura.
January 3, 2019
I thought I would really love this, an atmospheric, dour novel/murder mystery set in an island off the northern coast of Scotland, but I didn't. It has immensely engaging moments and May is a colorful writer who knows how to be inventive, but for me there was too much going on to make a cohesive story. The shift from Fin's childhood to his modern life was jarring every other chapter and there was too much suffering for one lifetime for poor Fin.
His parents died when he was 8 and he then lived with a cold, unfeeling aunt. His little boy was killed in a traffic accident. One of his childhood friends was crippled for life, because of a stupid prank by other boys. His next door neighbor was a pedophile who sexually abused Fin and his own son for years. That pedophile committed suicide in front of the boys. Fin fell off a rock and cracked his skull as a boy. The list goes on and on. Fin dumped the only girl he ever loved over and over in increasingly cruel ways. Life is too short to wallow in the misery that is this book.
His parents died when he was 8 and he then lived with a cold, unfeeling aunt. His little boy was killed in a traffic accident. One of his childhood friends was crippled for life, because of a stupid prank by other boys. His next door neighbor was a pedophile who sexually abused Fin and his own son for years. That pedophile committed suicide in front of the boys. Fin fell off a rock and cracked his skull as a boy. The list goes on and on. Fin dumped the only girl he ever loved over and over in increasingly cruel ways. Life is too short to wallow in the misery that is this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 14, 2017
This book practically read itself it was so good. We nearly had no lunch today because I could not find a place in the text where I wanted to stop!
I loved all the descriptions of the Hebrides, somewhere I have not been but would love to see one day. The author manages to create the scene so well and it is a very fitting place to set this tale of mystery and murder.
The main character, Fin, has returned to the village where he spent his childhood and periodically through the story we revisit those times and come to understand better the events of today. Fin reminded me a little of another of May's characters, Enzo. Neither of them will ever win father of the year awards. Or husband come to that! However they are both very good MCs.
Altogether an excellent book, number one of a trilogy and I am looking forward to the rest very much.
I loved all the descriptions of the Hebrides, somewhere I have not been but would love to see one day. The author manages to create the scene so well and it is a very fitting place to set this tale of mystery and murder.
The main character, Fin, has returned to the village where he spent his childhood and periodically through the story we revisit those times and come to understand better the events of today. Fin reminded me a little of another of May's characters, Enzo. Neither of them will ever win father of the year awards. Or husband come to that! However they are both very good MCs.
Altogether an excellent book, number one of a trilogy and I am looking forward to the rest very much.
September 11, 2017
This novel is the first of a trilogy – the Lewis Trilogy. The Isle of Lewis is the largest island in the outer Hebrides. It is 683 square miles (1,770 square kilometres), has a population of less than 20,000, and was once part of The Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles.
The story within this novel is simply amazing, and beautifully written. Heart-pounding moments of man against the elements and man against man. There is a murder involved which draws our main character, CID Fin Macleod back to the island. Yet there is so much more in this book than a murder mystery – it is a family saga, and even more, it is the saga of the inhabitants of a small village on the island.
This book completely swept me up in its spell. I have had this trilogy on my eReader for some time and I wonder how it is possible that it took me so long to read it. (Thank you again to a nudge from GR friend Andrew).
I simply cannot wait to dive into the second part!
The story within this novel is simply amazing, and beautifully written. Heart-pounding moments of man against the elements and man against man. There is a murder involved which draws our main character, CID Fin Macleod back to the island. Yet there is so much more in this book than a murder mystery – it is a family saga, and even more, it is the saga of the inhabitants of a small village on the island.
This book completely swept me up in its spell. I have had this trilogy on my eReader for some time and I wonder how it is possible that it took me so long to read it. (Thank you again to a nudge from GR friend Andrew).
I simply cannot wait to dive into the second part!
April 14, 2018
I loved seeing the island through May's eyes and Fin's memories of growing up there. The writing is excellent. The murder mystery read like an overlay of an additional story and the explanation at the end was a bit of a letdown. That being said, I ordered the sequel as soon as finished this one. Rounding up 4 stars.
July 1, 2017
Rating: 3* of five, but just barely
The Publisher Says: From acclaimed author and television dramatist Peter May comes the first book in the Lewis Trilogy--a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a formidable and forbidding world where tradition rules and people adhere to ancient ways of life. When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that has the hallmarks of a killing he's investigating on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to see if the two deaths are connected. His return after nearly two decades not only represents a police investigation, but a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the places and people of his tortured childhood, he feels the island once again asserting its grip on his psyche. And every step forward in solving the murder takes him closer to a dangerous confrontation with the tragic events of the past that shaped--and nearly destroyed--Fin's life.
The Blackhouse is a thriller of rare power and vision that explores the darkest recesses of the soul.
My Review: This was a huge, long slog of a story, alternating between Fin (the main character) as narrator of his life of unremitting grimness and misery, and third person limited, basically the camera-eye PoV that one would expect to find in a novel by a screenwriter. This made the pace slow for me as each time we shift, I have to hit the brakes or push in the clutch to shift up.
This isn't to say that the author is a bad writer, his prose is limpidly clear. But keep Google open while you're reading, since there are unexplained, untranslated Gaelic words all over the place. There are exciting sea scenes and tense moments of nailbiting stress during the islanders' unique rite of passage for males.
There are also characters who are unnecessary, flashbacks of unconscionable length and questionable necessity, and an ending that will break a decent person's heart...that has holes the size of a gannet in it. (You'll get the joke later.) If the ending is true, and I think it is true to the character and the build-up, the obliviousness of the responsible adults of the island is unconscionable and unpleasant.
Trigger warning for animal rights activists and the tenderhearted towards all gawd's creation, and for child abuse.
The Publisher Says: From acclaimed author and television dramatist Peter May comes the first book in the Lewis Trilogy--a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a formidable and forbidding world where tradition rules and people adhere to ancient ways of life. When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that has the hallmarks of a killing he's investigating on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to see if the two deaths are connected. His return after nearly two decades not only represents a police investigation, but a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the places and people of his tortured childhood, he feels the island once again asserting its grip on his psyche. And every step forward in solving the murder takes him closer to a dangerous confrontation with the tragic events of the past that shaped--and nearly destroyed--Fin's life.
The Blackhouse is a thriller of rare power and vision that explores the darkest recesses of the soul.
My Review: This was a huge, long slog of a story, alternating between Fin (the main character) as narrator of his life of unremitting grimness and misery, and third person limited, basically the camera-eye PoV that one would expect to find in a novel by a screenwriter. This made the pace slow for me as each time we shift, I have to hit the brakes or push in the clutch to shift up.
This isn't to say that the author is a bad writer, his prose is limpidly clear. But keep Google open while you're reading, since there are unexplained, untranslated Gaelic words all over the place. There are exciting sea scenes and tense moments of nailbiting stress during the islanders' unique rite of passage for males.
There are also characters who are unnecessary, flashbacks of unconscionable length and questionable necessity, and an ending that will break a decent person's heart...that has holes the size of a gannet in it. (You'll get the joke later.) If the ending is true, and I think it is true to the character and the build-up, the obliviousness of the responsible adults of the island is unconscionable and unpleasant.
Trigger warning for animal rights activists and the tenderhearted towards all gawd's creation, and for child abuse.
July 2, 2022
The Blackhouse is the first of a trilogy written by Peter May which won The Barry Award in 2013. Set in the harsh northern region of the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, the author masterfully describes the Gaelic culture and terrain so well that you feel you are there.
Detective Inspector Fin Macleod returns to his childhood home to investigate a murder very similar to one he is working on in Edinburgh. The victim is a bully from his past that brings back many unpleasant memories some remembered and some hidden in the recess of his mind. Fin who recently lost his son was orphaned on the Isle of Lewis.
Fin’s return is difficult. He must face people he grew up with that he hasn’t seen in eighteen years. His former girlfriend married his best friend and neither are happy about the way he disappeared long ago. Memories of the tragedy that happened on the small rocky island, Au Sgeir, are uncovered with a mix of past and present that are brilliantly written by Peter May. Many surprises unfold throughout the book with a continuing sense of suspense.
The Blackhouse is a literary coming of age mystery that is exceptional. I am so looking forward to reading the next two in the trilogy.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars
Detective Inspector Fin Macleod returns to his childhood home to investigate a murder very similar to one he is working on in Edinburgh. The victim is a bully from his past that brings back many unpleasant memories some remembered and some hidden in the recess of his mind. Fin who recently lost his son was orphaned on the Isle of Lewis.
Fin’s return is difficult. He must face people he grew up with that he hasn’t seen in eighteen years. His former girlfriend married his best friend and neither are happy about the way he disappeared long ago. Memories of the tragedy that happened on the small rocky island, Au Sgeir, are uncovered with a mix of past and present that are brilliantly written by Peter May. Many surprises unfold throughout the book with a continuing sense of suspense.
The Blackhouse is a literary coming of age mystery that is exceptional. I am so looking forward to reading the next two in the trilogy.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars
October 18, 2024
5★
“At just about the halfway point, the road took a dip before rising again to a peak from which the Atlantic was distantly visible, venting its relentless anger on a crumbling coastline.”
Relentless anger, crumbling coastline, there seems little to recommend living at Ness, which is on the tip of the Isle of Lewis, the most northern island of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. The tip of the tip of the north – cold, windswept, blustery.
DI Fin Macleod grew up in Ness in the 1960s and 1970s in a house that was neither black nor white but purple. His father was a resourceful scavenger who collected timber, netting, ropes and whatever the sea washed up. When he found a 45 gallon drum of purple paint, he painted every bit of the house purple. Other people live in white houses, while the ancient blackhouses still dot the landscape with stone walls, and collapsed or missing thatched roofs.
Fin left the island when he was 18 and is a detective in Edinburgh. Eighteen years later, he has been called to Ness to investigate a murder that seems identical to one he investigated earlier in Edinburgh. Same killer? Copycat? He’s the obvious choice to at least go have a look.
The investigation and current day are told in the third person, but intervening chapters are told in his childhood or teen-aged first person voice. He is not pleased to be home. He had been orphaned young, raised by an eccentric aunt, tutored by his best friend’s father to raise his chances of getting into a university and getting off the island, which is what he did.
He had not had a happy time of it. He can’t avoid his memories of school bullies, especially as the victim was the leader. He’d been back only once, to bury his aunt, but had avoided all contact since. Now he’s back.
“He felt like a ghost haunting his own past, walking the streets of his childhood. He half expected to see himself and Artair coming around the bend in the road at the church, heading on their bikes for the store at the foot of the hill to spend their Saturday pennies.”
He had a bad accident in his youth, and many of his memories are hazy. He’d like to leave it at that, but he’s in Ness now and has to interview everyone, including his best childhood pal.
Artair is still there, much changed. They meet for a beer, Artair already well on his way to drunk, reminds Fin that his father had tutored Fin, expecting more from him than a career with the police. As for Artair, he was stuck working with Lewis Offshore before it finally closed, and now they’re planning windfarms everywhere.
“Fin sat staring fixedly at the table.It was sad beyond words seeing his old childhood friend bitter like this. .. All those childhood dreams lost for ever, like tears in rain. They were not so different, really, he and Artair. In a way, looking at him now was like seeing a reflection of himself, and he did not much like what he saw.”
No wonder he didn’t want to go back and just feel miserable again. The investigation continues, but the authorities on the island aren’t pleased to have Edinburgh butting in, and Fin’s memories get worse all the time.
When he was a boy, he had been taken on the annual guga (gannet) harvest. A group of men take all their gear by trawler to An Sgeir, a steep, rocky island where thousands of gannets nest. Windswept, wet, slippery with guano from centuries of birds, the men form groups to catch the right-sized chicks, limiting the numbers so there will be a continued supply. They are counted, plucked, cleaned, salted, and completely prepared by the men on the island. This has been a custom for hundreds of years.
People love the taste. [In Australia (and presumably other places), we have muttonbirding, where chicks of shearwaters (known locally as muttonbirds) and petrels are harvested as they have been for thousands of years. The difference these days for both guga and muttonbirds is that hunting is licensed and limited to keep it sustainable.]
DI Fin Macleod is questioning Chris Adams, an anti-harvest activist, regarding his previous run-in and beating by the murder victim, who was the harvest cook (as well as Fin’s old school nemesis). Adams says he was at home at the time, enjoying a fish supper.
“‘You like fish, Mr Adams?’
Adams seemed surprised by the question. ‘I don’t eat meat.’
Fin got to his feet. ‘Have you any idea how long it takes a fish to die, starved of oxygen, literally suffocating, when a trawler hauls its nets on board?’ But he wasn’t waiting for an answer. ‘A damned sight longer than a guga in a noose.’”
Enough of the adult politics. The expedition is, quite simply, terrifying. The descriptions are chilling, in more ways than one, of the hours on the boat at sea, the treacherous waters, the deadly rocks, sharp edges, freezing waters, driving rain, and the smoky blackhouse where they all camped out of the weather and ate.
If it were less dangerous, it would be an adventure. As it is, it’s a deadly rite-of-passage, and young Fin has refused to go. Gigs is the leader who skippers the boat and organises the workers. He explains to Fin that the men are a team, reliant on each other, testing themselves to the limit, but they are all the richer for it.
“ ‘ And you’ll feel that connection that we all feel with every one of those men who’ve been out there before us, reaching back through the centuries, joining hands with our ancestors, sleeping in the places they have slept, building cairns by the cairns they have left.’
He took a long pause, sucking on his pipe, allowing the smoke to eddy around his lips and nostrils, rising into the stillness in blue wreaths around his head. ‘Whatever your blackest fear. Fin. Whatever your greatest weakness. These are things you must face up to. Things you must confront, or you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.’
And so with a heart full of dread I went on the trip to An Sgeir that year, although I wish, today, with every fibre of my being that I had not.”
The murder seems almost an aside to much of the story, but the victim figures in so many memories and so many discoveries as Fin reconnects with people, that the mystery actually ties it all together. And it does so in a completely unexpected way.
There is a beautiful, bittersweet love story that begins in the first year of primary school and continues on and off and on and off through Fin’s life. There are sunny summer days, romps in haysheds, and years of teen-aged angst.
A magnificent book and a compelling story. To think I might never have read it if I hadn’t needed it for a reading challenge. What a loss that would have been. I will return to Lewis, but probably not immediately.
“At just about the halfway point, the road took a dip before rising again to a peak from which the Atlantic was distantly visible, venting its relentless anger on a crumbling coastline.”
Relentless anger, crumbling coastline, there seems little to recommend living at Ness, which is on the tip of the Isle of Lewis, the most northern island of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. The tip of the tip of the north – cold, windswept, blustery.
DI Fin Macleod grew up in Ness in the 1960s and 1970s in a house that was neither black nor white but purple. His father was a resourceful scavenger who collected timber, netting, ropes and whatever the sea washed up. When he found a 45 gallon drum of purple paint, he painted every bit of the house purple. Other people live in white houses, while the ancient blackhouses still dot the landscape with stone walls, and collapsed or missing thatched roofs.
Fin left the island when he was 18 and is a detective in Edinburgh. Eighteen years later, he has been called to Ness to investigate a murder that seems identical to one he investigated earlier in Edinburgh. Same killer? Copycat? He’s the obvious choice to at least go have a look.
The investigation and current day are told in the third person, but intervening chapters are told in his childhood or teen-aged first person voice. He is not pleased to be home. He had been orphaned young, raised by an eccentric aunt, tutored by his best friend’s father to raise his chances of getting into a university and getting off the island, which is what he did.
He had not had a happy time of it. He can’t avoid his memories of school bullies, especially as the victim was the leader. He’d been back only once, to bury his aunt, but had avoided all contact since. Now he’s back.
“He felt like a ghost haunting his own past, walking the streets of his childhood. He half expected to see himself and Artair coming around the bend in the road at the church, heading on their bikes for the store at the foot of the hill to spend their Saturday pennies.”
He had a bad accident in his youth, and many of his memories are hazy. He’d like to leave it at that, but he’s in Ness now and has to interview everyone, including his best childhood pal.
Artair is still there, much changed. They meet for a beer, Artair already well on his way to drunk, reminds Fin that his father had tutored Fin, expecting more from him than a career with the police. As for Artair, he was stuck working with Lewis Offshore before it finally closed, and now they’re planning windfarms everywhere.
“Fin sat staring fixedly at the table.It was sad beyond words seeing his old childhood friend bitter like this. .. All those childhood dreams lost for ever, like tears in rain. They were not so different, really, he and Artair. In a way, looking at him now was like seeing a reflection of himself, and he did not much like what he saw.”
No wonder he didn’t want to go back and just feel miserable again. The investigation continues, but the authorities on the island aren’t pleased to have Edinburgh butting in, and Fin’s memories get worse all the time.
When he was a boy, he had been taken on the annual guga (gannet) harvest. A group of men take all their gear by trawler to An Sgeir, a steep, rocky island where thousands of gannets nest. Windswept, wet, slippery with guano from centuries of birds, the men form groups to catch the right-sized chicks, limiting the numbers so there will be a continued supply. They are counted, plucked, cleaned, salted, and completely prepared by the men on the island. This has been a custom for hundreds of years.
People love the taste. [In Australia (and presumably other places), we have muttonbirding, where chicks of shearwaters (known locally as muttonbirds) and petrels are harvested as they have been for thousands of years. The difference these days for both guga and muttonbirds is that hunting is licensed and limited to keep it sustainable.]
DI Fin Macleod is questioning Chris Adams, an anti-harvest activist, regarding his previous run-in and beating by the murder victim, who was the harvest cook (as well as Fin’s old school nemesis). Adams says he was at home at the time, enjoying a fish supper.
“‘You like fish, Mr Adams?’
Adams seemed surprised by the question. ‘I don’t eat meat.’
Fin got to his feet. ‘Have you any idea how long it takes a fish to die, starved of oxygen, literally suffocating, when a trawler hauls its nets on board?’ But he wasn’t waiting for an answer. ‘A damned sight longer than a guga in a noose.’”
Enough of the adult politics. The expedition is, quite simply, terrifying. The descriptions are chilling, in more ways than one, of the hours on the boat at sea, the treacherous waters, the deadly rocks, sharp edges, freezing waters, driving rain, and the smoky blackhouse where they all camped out of the weather and ate.
If it were less dangerous, it would be an adventure. As it is, it’s a deadly rite-of-passage, and young Fin has refused to go. Gigs is the leader who skippers the boat and organises the workers. He explains to Fin that the men are a team, reliant on each other, testing themselves to the limit, but they are all the richer for it.
“ ‘ And you’ll feel that connection that we all feel with every one of those men who’ve been out there before us, reaching back through the centuries, joining hands with our ancestors, sleeping in the places they have slept, building cairns by the cairns they have left.’
He took a long pause, sucking on his pipe, allowing the smoke to eddy around his lips and nostrils, rising into the stillness in blue wreaths around his head. ‘Whatever your blackest fear. Fin. Whatever your greatest weakness. These are things you must face up to. Things you must confront, or you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.’
And so with a heart full of dread I went on the trip to An Sgeir that year, although I wish, today, with every fibre of my being that I had not.”
The murder seems almost an aside to much of the story, but the victim figures in so many memories and so many discoveries as Fin reconnects with people, that the mystery actually ties it all together. And it does so in a completely unexpected way.
There is a beautiful, bittersweet love story that begins in the first year of primary school and continues on and off and on and off through Fin’s life. There are sunny summer days, romps in haysheds, and years of teen-aged angst.
A magnificent book and a compelling story. To think I might never have read it if I hadn’t needed it for a reading challenge. What a loss that would have been. I will return to Lewis, but probably not immediately.
May 27, 2014
The Black House by Peter May is a 2011 Quercus publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
The Isle of Lewis is a place Fin Macleod thought he would never have to visit again. But, as fate would have it a murder has been committed on the Isle of Lewis that bears a remarkable similarity to a murder case Fin is working on in Edinburgh. So, he is told to he must check out this latest murder to see if the crimes could be related.
Fin gets more than he ever bargained for when he returns home for the first time in many years. He encounters his first girlfriend, his best buddy, and floods of memories begin to pour out of his subconscious mind. It just so happens that the murdered man was a bully that made life miserable for Fin and his friends. Over the years the man only became an adult bully and was not a popular guy. There is no shortage of suspects, some of whom were old friends of Fin's. As the memories of childhood become more pronounced and as Fin begins to uncover numerous secrets it looks as though another murder is about to happen and Fin must race against time to prevent it.
Wow! What a well woven, brilliantly told story with an incredible climax that will leave you gasping for air. Fin is a man that is a terrible place in his life when he is assigned this case. He has just lost his only son in a terrible accident and as a result his marriage is falling apart. Being in this fragile state perhaps made it easier for all those old thoughts and feeling to come to the surface. Seeing his first love now married to his best friend when he lived on the Isle and having to interview his old school mates as a part of his job is very awkward and painful, but then a bombshell is dropped in his lap which changes Fin's perceptions of things.
The author did a wonderful job of enlightening the reader about Fin's childhood- the death of his parents , being raised by his sort of eccentric aunt, and various experiences he lived through that might have damaged most of us severely. One major shock after another unfolds until the awful, terrible truth is finally revealed. The race to save a potential victim was incredible suspense and I could hardly bear it. I was literally riveted. I couldn't stop reading this once I started it. The murder mystery and the revelations of Fin's life and all the incredible guilt and bad luck he had was drama at it's finest. Fin's low key character held a great deal of pain and sorrow but he was always in control of himself. However, he felt things much more deeply than anyone realizes because for years he has buried much of his life on the Isle in the back of his mind and has never addressed all the things that happened there. After having put the reader through so many gut wrenching emotional and suspenseful moments the author somehow manages to give the reader hope for the Fin. He does an amazing thing that I felt would go a long ways toward bringing about healing and forgiveness to those who certainly deserved it after all they endured. Very well written with characters we could relate to and feel for. I also enjoyed reading about the traditions on “ The Rock” and the purpose of the black house. The scenery and locations set the stage for tone and atmosphere of the story and it fit perfectly. I highly recommend this book to those that enjoy psychological thrillers, suspense , and mysteries. There is some strong language and emotional topics that are difficult to read, also there are passages of detailed forensics, so be aware this book does have a dark tone. This is the first book in a trilogy and I have already placed “The Lewis Man” in my queue.
This one deserves the top honor- 5 stars!!
The Isle of Lewis is a place Fin Macleod thought he would never have to visit again. But, as fate would have it a murder has been committed on the Isle of Lewis that bears a remarkable similarity to a murder case Fin is working on in Edinburgh. So, he is told to he must check out this latest murder to see if the crimes could be related.
Fin gets more than he ever bargained for when he returns home for the first time in many years. He encounters his first girlfriend, his best buddy, and floods of memories begin to pour out of his subconscious mind. It just so happens that the murdered man was a bully that made life miserable for Fin and his friends. Over the years the man only became an adult bully and was not a popular guy. There is no shortage of suspects, some of whom were old friends of Fin's. As the memories of childhood become more pronounced and as Fin begins to uncover numerous secrets it looks as though another murder is about to happen and Fin must race against time to prevent it.
Wow! What a well woven, brilliantly told story with an incredible climax that will leave you gasping for air. Fin is a man that is a terrible place in his life when he is assigned this case. He has just lost his only son in a terrible accident and as a result his marriage is falling apart. Being in this fragile state perhaps made it easier for all those old thoughts and feeling to come to the surface. Seeing his first love now married to his best friend when he lived on the Isle and having to interview his old school mates as a part of his job is very awkward and painful, but then a bombshell is dropped in his lap which changes Fin's perceptions of things.
The author did a wonderful job of enlightening the reader about Fin's childhood- the death of his parents , being raised by his sort of eccentric aunt, and various experiences he lived through that might have damaged most of us severely. One major shock after another unfolds until the awful, terrible truth is finally revealed. The race to save a potential victim was incredible suspense and I could hardly bear it. I was literally riveted. I couldn't stop reading this once I started it. The murder mystery and the revelations of Fin's life and all the incredible guilt and bad luck he had was drama at it's finest. Fin's low key character held a great deal of pain and sorrow but he was always in control of himself. However, he felt things much more deeply than anyone realizes because for years he has buried much of his life on the Isle in the back of his mind and has never addressed all the things that happened there. After having put the reader through so many gut wrenching emotional and suspenseful moments the author somehow manages to give the reader hope for the Fin. He does an amazing thing that I felt would go a long ways toward bringing about healing and forgiveness to those who certainly deserved it after all they endured. Very well written with characters we could relate to and feel for. I also enjoyed reading about the traditions on “ The Rock” and the purpose of the black house. The scenery and locations set the stage for tone and atmosphere of the story and it fit perfectly. I highly recommend this book to those that enjoy psychological thrillers, suspense , and mysteries. There is some strong language and emotional topics that are difficult to read, also there are passages of detailed forensics, so be aware this book does have a dark tone. This is the first book in a trilogy and I have already placed “The Lewis Man” in my queue.
This one deserves the top honor- 5 stars!!
September 30, 2017
There is something alluring (at least for me) with crime novels placed on islands, especially those far up in the north, with bad weather and people that have known each other for generations. I mean it wouldn't be the same if it would be set on a Caribbean paradise, for instance, who would ever want to leave in the first place. Too idyllic, I prefer more these dark and rugged places with old secrets.
Fin Macleod (From the clan Macleod…sorry I'm a child of the 80s and I love the Highlander) returns home to Isle of Lewis 18 years after he left the island to work as a police. An old classmate has been murdered and the murders similarities with a previous murder in Edinburg. But this is not an easy case to take on for Fin. He most both confronts people and events from his past and at the same time find a killer who could be one of the people he used to know.
Peter May has written a very intense and dark crime novel. As we follow Fin in present day trying to find a killer we also get flashbacks to the past, to the events in his childhood that led to Fin, in the end, leaving the Isle of Lewis. This is one of the best crime novels I have read in a while, with a nerve-racking ending. Highly recommended!
Fin Macleod (From the clan Macleod…sorry I'm a child of the 80s and I love the Highlander) returns home to Isle of Lewis 18 years after he left the island to work as a police. An old classmate has been murdered and the murders similarities with a previous murder in Edinburg. But this is not an easy case to take on for Fin. He most both confronts people and events from his past and at the same time find a killer who could be one of the people he used to know.
Peter May has written a very intense and dark crime novel. As we follow Fin in present day trying to find a killer we also get flashbacks to the past, to the events in his childhood that led to Fin, in the end, leaving the Isle of Lewis. This is one of the best crime novels I have read in a while, with a nerve-racking ending. Highly recommended!
March 16, 2023
My initial thought was it’s an odd police procedural that starts with the detective’s childhood. But that would be The Blackhouse, which takes place on The Isle of Lewis, the northernmost island of the Hebrides. Fin Macleod grew up there, but left 18 years ago for Edinburgh. Now he’s being sent back to investigate a murder; one that resembles a murder he was investigating in Edinburgh.
But as I came to find out, this really isn’t a police procedural. It’s much more drama than mystery. More of the story is spent on Fin’s youth than the present day. The tale switches back and forth between past and present, the past seen through Fin’s eyes and the present told as 3rd person. The murder victim was the young classroom bully. Fin is facing the same people he grew up with, including his best friend and ex-girlfriend. Some of the twists weren’t surprises, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t totally entranced by the way the ending played out.
It’s a small, close community, with a heavy emphasis on a stern Church of Scotland faith. May does a great job of describing the place and its people. It was easy for me to picture each scene as it played out.
This is the first in a trilogy and I’ll be curious to see if the next in the series takes place more in the present.
Peter Forbes was a great narrator, even though I occasionally struggled to keep the names straight.
But as I came to find out, this really isn’t a police procedural. It’s much more drama than mystery. More of the story is spent on Fin’s youth than the present day. The tale switches back and forth between past and present, the past seen through Fin’s eyes and the present told as 3rd person. The murder victim was the young classroom bully. Fin is facing the same people he grew up with, including his best friend and ex-girlfriend. Some of the twists weren’t surprises, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t totally entranced by the way the ending played out.
It’s a small, close community, with a heavy emphasis on a stern Church of Scotland faith. May does a great job of describing the place and its people. It was easy for me to picture each scene as it played out.
This is the first in a trilogy and I’ll be curious to see if the next in the series takes place more in the present.
Peter Forbes was a great narrator, even though I occasionally struggled to keep the names straight.
August 5, 2017
Detective Sergeant Fin Macleod wasn’t impressed when he was told he had to go to the Isle of Lewis to investigate a grisly murder that had similarities to an Edinburgh murder he was currently investigating. Fin came from the island and hadn’t returned for eighteen years – he had no desire to return. There were too many memories –most of them bad…
With Detective Constable George Gunn as his driver and assistant while on the island, Fin found the hostile and reticent nature of the locals hadn’t changed. But when he met up with people from his long ago past, he encountered both pleasure to see him, and also a wish that he were not there. But it was the troubles of that past, when Fin was a school boy, and then a young teen on the island which had the most impact. And the tragedy that almost cost him his life was bringing danger closer to Fin as the secrets threatened to surface once and for all.
The Blackhouse by Peter May is the first in the Lewis trilogy and it was brilliant. I have had it languishing on my TBR since May 2012 and I’m so pleased I’ve finally read it. Peter May knows how to draw the reader in – the twists and turns kept me riveted to the pages and the final reveal was shocking. The Blackhouse is one I have no hesitation in recommending highly and I’m looking forward to reading book two, The Lewis Man soon.
With Detective Constable George Gunn as his driver and assistant while on the island, Fin found the hostile and reticent nature of the locals hadn’t changed. But when he met up with people from his long ago past, he encountered both pleasure to see him, and also a wish that he were not there. But it was the troubles of that past, when Fin was a school boy, and then a young teen on the island which had the most impact. And the tragedy that almost cost him his life was bringing danger closer to Fin as the secrets threatened to surface once and for all.
The Blackhouse by Peter May is the first in the Lewis trilogy and it was brilliant. I have had it languishing on my TBR since May 2012 and I’m so pleased I’ve finally read it. Peter May knows how to draw the reader in – the twists and turns kept me riveted to the pages and the final reveal was shocking. The Blackhouse is one I have no hesitation in recommending highly and I’m looking forward to reading book two, The Lewis Man soon.
July 17, 2025
Не знам защо, но тази чудесна книга се рекламира като трилър или криминален роман. Според мен, тя не е напълно нито едно от двете.
По скоро е хроника на живота на остров Люис и историята на двама приятели - Фин и Артър. На лице в историята е раздвоението - единия се е опитал да промени предопределения си живот, другия не... Връзката, която ги обвързва остава силна, дори след 17 годишна раздяла. Има и една невъзможна, почти свръхестествена любов. А Маршели е най-красивото име за героиня в сигурно последните 500 книги които съм прочел.
Питър Мей има чудесно перо, описанията на острова и кореняците му са автентични, да му се прииска на човек да ги посети, но естествено - през лятото. :)
Чудесен щрих са историите за традиционния улов на морски птици от необитаем остров в близост, както и тази за викингските шахматни фигури, намерени на о. Люис.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_c...
"Три неща идват без покана - страхът, любовта и ревността." - келтска пословица
Моята оценка - 4,5*.
Цитат:
"– Можеше да е и по-зле.
– А някога щяхме да променяме света – поклати тъжно глава тя.
– Светът е като времето, Маршели. Нямаш власт над него. Нито можеш да го моделираш. Той моделира теб."
P.S. Корицата не ми харесва никак, самата история дава такова богато поле за изява на художник, но къде по-лесно (и по-евтино вероятно) е да пляснеш някаква безжизнена 3D илюстрация.
Преводът е добър и няма правописни грешки - самият факт, че го отбелязвам ме натъжава, но това са реалностите днес...
По скоро е хроника на живота на остров Люис и историята на двама приятели - Фин и Артър. На лице в историята е раздвоението - единия се е опитал да промени предопределения си живот, другия не... Връзката, която ги обвързва остава силна, дори след 17 годишна раздяла. Има и една невъзможна, почти свръхестествена любов. А Маршели е най-красивото име за героиня в сигурно последните 500 книги които съм прочел.
Питър Мей има чудесно перо, описанията на острова и кореняците му са автентични, да му се прииска на човек да ги посети, но естествено - през лятото. :)
Чудесен щрих са историите за традиционния улов на морски птици от необитаем остров в близост, както и тази за викингските шахматни фигури, намерени на о. Люис.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_c...
"Три неща идват без покана - страхът, любовта и ревността." - келтска пословица
Моята оценка - 4,5*.
Цитат:
"– Можеше да е и по-зле.
– А някога щяхме да променяме света – поклати тъжно глава тя.
– Светът е като времето, Маршели. Нямаш власт над него. Нито можеш да го моделираш. Той моделира теб."
P.S. Корицата не ми харесва никак, самата история дава такова богато поле за изява на художник, но къде по-лесно (и по-евтино вероятно) е да пляснеш някаква безжизнена 3D илюстрация.
Преводът е добър и няма правописни грешки - самият факт, че го отбелязвам ме натъжава, но това са реалностите днес...
November 12, 2020
Split by Past
Detective Inspector Fin Macleod was still grieving the recent death of his 8 years old son, when he was assigned to a case of murder at the Isle of Lewis.
The island was claustrophobic and he once lived there as a kid. He had not manny happy memories from Lewis and his return to the island led him straight into a dark past. Fin felt like he was two — past and present overlapped and it was hard to cope with both!...
Can you empathize?!...
Moral of the Story:
Find yourself a compulsory headache and watch your heartache melting away!
Detective Inspector Fin Macleod was still grieving the recent death of his 8 years old son, when he was assigned to a case of murder at the Isle of Lewis.
The island was claustrophobic and he once lived there as a kid. He had not manny happy memories from Lewis and his return to the island led him straight into a dark past. Fin felt like he was two — past and present overlapped and it was hard to cope with both!...
Can you empathize?!...
Moral of the Story:
Find yourself a compulsory headache and watch your heartache melting away!
August 5, 2022
Comienzo diciendo que mi opinión sobre este libro vale menos que nada, porque no soy habitual del género. Voy a ello.
Si soy objetivo reconozco que el libro ha tenido algo –no se bien qué- que me ha hecho leerle a buen ritmo. La construcción directa de las frases, las historias que cuenta, la forma de ir alternando pasado y presente creo que está muy lograda y que a pocos puede desagradar o aburrir. Curioso que el comienzo parecía más novela de costumbres en isla remota aislada que novela Negra y no es hasta que avanza la historia que vemos ese retorcimiento de personajes que es lo que yo asocio con el género negro ese (que ya digo que conozco poquito). Hasta aquí era más o menos objetivo.
Si soy subjetivo … j0der, vaya banda de desgraciaos y de desgracias que nos cuenta el Peter May este! Personaje a personaje tienen la negra. Les ha mirado el tuerto más cabrón de las Islas Británicas.
Como no quiero desvelar la trama no cuento más, pero si vais a leer el libro no esperéis alegrías. NO esperéis ni tan siquiera luz en el relato, porque en la bendita isla no tienen sino mal tiempo, días grises, llovizna y hasta tempestades. Una joya, vamos, me quedan ganas de ir a hacer turismo. Aunque igual lo confundo con Málaga, no se yo …
Y como yo no soy de leer sobre desgracias pues por ahí van mis quejas sobre el libro.
Respecto a la trama pocos peros, salvo unos motivos finales de la trama un poco sacados de la manga, pero bueno, bien, bastante bien llevado y resuelto.
Resumen : creo que he acabado un buen libro pero leído por un lector –yo- poco receptivo a las virtudes del género.
Si soy objetivo reconozco que el libro ha tenido algo –no se bien qué- que me ha hecho leerle a buen ritmo. La construcción directa de las frases, las historias que cuenta, la forma de ir alternando pasado y presente creo que está muy lograda y que a pocos puede desagradar o aburrir. Curioso que el comienzo parecía más novela de costumbres en isla remota aislada que novela Negra y no es hasta que avanza la historia que vemos ese retorcimiento de personajes que es lo que yo asocio con el género negro ese (que ya digo que conozco poquito). Hasta aquí era más o menos objetivo.
Si soy subjetivo … j0der, vaya banda de desgraciaos y de desgracias que nos cuenta el Peter May este! Personaje a personaje tienen la negra. Les ha mirado el tuerto más cabrón de las Islas Británicas.
Como no quiero desvelar la trama no cuento más, pero si vais a leer el libro no esperéis alegrías. NO esperéis ni tan siquiera luz en el relato, porque en la bendita isla no tienen sino mal tiempo, días grises, llovizna y hasta tempestades. Una joya, vamos, me quedan ganas de ir a hacer turismo. Aunque igual lo confundo con Málaga, no se yo …
Y como yo no soy de leer sobre desgracias pues por ahí van mis quejas sobre el libro.
Respecto a la trama pocos peros, salvo unos motivos finales de la trama un poco sacados de la manga, pero bueno, bien, bastante bien llevado y resuelto.
Resumen : creo que he acabado un buen libro pero leído por un lector –yo- poco receptivo a las virtudes del género.
July 23, 2016
Fin is an Edinburgh detective who returns to the Lewis Island community of his origins in the Outer Hebrides because of the similar MO of a new murder to one he is working on. A man is found hung with his bowels sliced open. It turns out that the victim was the chief bully and nemesis from his childhood. His search for suspects among his many enemies forces him to deal with many painful memories from his youth, including his own failures with his first love who is now married to his former best friend and early competitor for her heart. Given the death of his parents as a boy and of the aunt who raised him, he has no family ties, but he finds his spirit inspired by the resilient way of life here that he left behind 17 years before.
The story is an effective vehicle for the author to portray the paradoxically rich and stark life of this remote, isolated community and the beauty of its bogs, meadows, and rocky coasts alternatingly beset by the murk of fog or fierce Atlantic storms. Harry Roolaart in his excellent review aptly tags this book an “ethno-mystery”. The tale has a focal point on the centuries’ old tradition for a dozen select community residents to brave a dangerous annual trip to a tiny rocky island of cliff nesting sites 40 miles offshore and spend two weeks harvesting and processing gannet chicks. Though they are a special food delicacy, the event serves mainly as a means of keeping alive a means to connect to a history of their people and a rite of passage for worthy youth. Fin’s own participation in this tradition as a teen turns out to include such a traumatic event that he has blanked a lot out in his memory. Now the trail to the murderer calls for him to go there alone in a terrible storm to avert another killing somehow linked to his own past.
Much of the book moves slowly as Fin unwinds his past and struggles to engage with the present. I had some disbelief over the power of decades-old grudges to drive someone to desperate action, but overall I was well engaged, and I appreciated a lot of its brilliant aspects of the tale and its environment. I have already enjoyed the second in the series, The Lewis Man, and need to track down third.
The story is an effective vehicle for the author to portray the paradoxically rich and stark life of this remote, isolated community and the beauty of its bogs, meadows, and rocky coasts alternatingly beset by the murk of fog or fierce Atlantic storms. Harry Roolaart in his excellent review aptly tags this book an “ethno-mystery”. The tale has a focal point on the centuries’ old tradition for a dozen select community residents to brave a dangerous annual trip to a tiny rocky island of cliff nesting sites 40 miles offshore and spend two weeks harvesting and processing gannet chicks. Though they are a special food delicacy, the event serves mainly as a means of keeping alive a means to connect to a history of their people and a rite of passage for worthy youth. Fin’s own participation in this tradition as a teen turns out to include such a traumatic event that he has blanked a lot out in his memory. Now the trail to the murderer calls for him to go there alone in a terrible storm to avert another killing somehow linked to his own past.
Much of the book moves slowly as Fin unwinds his past and struggles to engage with the present. I had some disbelief over the power of decades-old grudges to drive someone to desperate action, but overall I was well engaged, and I appreciated a lot of its brilliant aspects of the tale and its environment. I have already enjoyed the second in the series, The Lewis Man, and need to track down third.
June 25, 2012
If you like mysteries set in remote locations in the United Kingdom, brooding weather, a tortured detective, a hostile boss, family secrets and some gritty forensic scenes, then, like me, you'll love this book.
The remote location is the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides and the weather is obligingly nasty. Fin Macleod was born and raised on the island, but left as soon as he could and has returned only once in eighteen years, for a family funeral. But now he's been assigned to work a murder case in Lewis that may be connected to an unsolved case in Edinburgh, where he is a police detective. Unhappy with his assignment, Fin has to deal with the resentment of the detective in charge of the case and the strong feelings his return stirs up among the islanders and within himself.
As Fin investigates he is reminded of incidents from his childhood, many of them painful. Peter May makes an interesting choice in structuring the novel. Fin’s childhood memories are told in the first person; the sections of the book dealing with the murder investigation are told in the third. The reason for this unusual (to me, anyway) shift becomes clear at the climax of the story, which I don’t want to spoil by going into too much detail. Suffice to say it involves a charged confrontation in a physically dangerous setting where motives become apparent and the landscape reflects the turmoil of all the emotions laid bare.
I liked the character of Fin Macleod and was largely happy with the plotting (it felt a little rushed at the end, but that may have been because I was turning the pages so fast). I especially recommend this book for its fine use of setting and atmosphere. The island of Lewis is described beautifully and I saw the people, the streets, the blackhouses and the land. The scenes depicting an ancient Lewis custom involving twelve men braving the sea to hunt birds on a remote island are particularly gripping.
The Blackhouse did not have an easy road to publication. It was rejected by British publishers before a French publisher read it, loved it, translated it, and released it to acclaim in France. Only then was it published in England. You can hear the full story from the author at www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjbgVf5Hwno.
This is the first book in a trilogy. I can’t wait to read the second and take a return trip to the Isle of Lewis.
The remote location is the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides and the weather is obligingly nasty. Fin Macleod was born and raised on the island, but left as soon as he could and has returned only once in eighteen years, for a family funeral. But now he's been assigned to work a murder case in Lewis that may be connected to an unsolved case in Edinburgh, where he is a police detective. Unhappy with his assignment, Fin has to deal with the resentment of the detective in charge of the case and the strong feelings his return stirs up among the islanders and within himself.
As Fin investigates he is reminded of incidents from his childhood, many of them painful. Peter May makes an interesting choice in structuring the novel. Fin’s childhood memories are told in the first person; the sections of the book dealing with the murder investigation are told in the third. The reason for this unusual (to me, anyway) shift becomes clear at the climax of the story, which I don’t want to spoil by going into too much detail. Suffice to say it involves a charged confrontation in a physically dangerous setting where motives become apparent and the landscape reflects the turmoil of all the emotions laid bare.
I liked the character of Fin Macleod and was largely happy with the plotting (it felt a little rushed at the end, but that may have been because I was turning the pages so fast). I especially recommend this book for its fine use of setting and atmosphere. The island of Lewis is described beautifully and I saw the people, the streets, the blackhouses and the land. The scenes depicting an ancient Lewis custom involving twelve men braving the sea to hunt birds on a remote island are particularly gripping.
The Blackhouse did not have an easy road to publication. It was rejected by British publishers before a French publisher read it, loved it, translated it, and released it to acclaim in France. Only then was it published in England. You can hear the full story from the author at www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjbgVf5Hwno.
This is the first book in a trilogy. I can’t wait to read the second and take a return trip to the Isle of Lewis.
November 16, 2018
EXCERPT: She sees the dark shape drift out of the shadows almost at the same time she feels it. Soft and cold and heavy. She lets out an involuntary cry.
"For God's sake, Ceit!" Ulleam comes after her, frustration added now to desire and anxiety, and his feet slide away from under him, for all the world like he has stepped on ice. He lands heavily on his elbow and a pain shoots through his arm. "Shit!" The floor is wet with diesel. He feels it soaking through the seat of his trousers. It is on his hands. Without thinking he fumbles for the cigarette lighter in his pocket. There just isn't enough damned light in here. Only as he spins the wheel with his thumb, sparking the flame, does it occur to him that he is in imminent danger of turning himself into a human torch. But by then it is too late. The light is sudden and startling in the dark. He braces himself. But there is no ignition of diesel fumes, no sudden flash of searing flame. Just an image so profoundly shocking it is impossible at first to comprehend.
The man is hanging by his neck from the rafters overhead, frayed orange plastic rope tilting his head at an impossible angle. He is a big man, buck naked, blue-white flesh hanging in folds from his breasts and his buttocks, like a loose fitting suit two sizes too big. Loops of something smooth and shiny hang down between his legs from a gaping smile that splits his belly from side to side. The flame sends the dead man's shadow dancing around the scarred and graffitied walls like so many ghosts welcoming a new arrival. Beyond him, Ulleam sees Ceit's face. Pale, dark-eyed, frozen in horror. For a moment he thinks, absurdly, that the pool of diesel around him is agricultural, dyed red by the Excise to identify its tax-free status - before realising it is blood, sticky and thick and already drying brown on his hands.
ABOUT THIS BOOK: A brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith.
A MURDER
Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past.
A SECRET
Something lurks within the close-knit island community. Something sinister.
A TRAP
As Fin investigates, old skeletons begin to surface, and soon he, the hunter, becomes the hunted.
This is the first book in the Lewis Trilogy.
MY THOUGHTS: I am still reeling from reading this book. It is dark. It is atmospheric. It is breath-taking. It is gripping.
There is crime, but this is not simply a crime novel. It is so much more. We learn, as the story switches back and forth between now as Finlay Macleod investigates the murder, and then, growing up on the small island of Lewis, how insular and isolated life on these small islands is. It is bleak, with joy being fleeting, an almost forbidden thing. There is no childhood as such, or at least as I remember it. It is a harsh and unforgiving environment. Its people are also harsh and unforgiving. In some cases, downright cruel. Jealousies, hate, resentment and misconception all simmer just below the surface. Only with someone, they have boiled over.
If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller, or a police procedural, you are not going to get it with The Blackhouse. If you want a deep, dark, atmospheric mystery that will continue to haunt you after you have finished, then this is the book for you.
Steve Worsley, the narrator, has the perfect voice for this book, and I rate his narration 11/10.
💖💖💖💖💖
THE AUTHOR: Peter May is the multi award-winning author of:
- the award-winning Lewis Trilogy set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland;
- the China Thrillers, featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell;
- the Enzo Files, featuring Scottish forensic scientist Enzo MacLeod, which is set in France. The sixth and final Enzo book is Cast Iron (UK January 2017, Riverrun).
He has also written several standalone books:
- I'll Keep You Safe (January 2018, Riverrun)
- Entry Island (January 2014, Quercus UK)
- Runaway (January 2015, Quercus UK)
- Coffin Road (January 2016, Riverrun)
He has also had a successful career as a television writer, creator, and producer.
One of Scotland's most prolific television dramatists, he garnered more than 1000 credits in 15 years as scriptwriter and script editor on prime-time British television drama. He is the creator of three major television drama series and presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland before quitting television to concentrate on his first love, writing novels.
Born and raised in Scotland he lives in France.
After being turned down by all the major UK publishers, the first of the The Lewis Trilogy - The Blackhouse - was published in France as L'Ile des Chasseurs d'Oiseaux where it was hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French national newspaper L'Humanité. His novels have a large following in France. The trilogy has won several French literature awards, including one of the world's largest adjudicated readers awards, the Prix Cezam.
The Blackhouse was published in English by the award-winning Quercus (a relatively young publishing house which did not exist when the book was first presented to British publishers). It went on to become an international best seller, and was shortlisted for both Barry Award and Macavity Award when it was published in the USA.
The Blackhouse won the US Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel at Bouchercon in Albany NY, in 2013.
DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of The Blackhouse by Peter May, narrated by Steve Worsley, published by Isis Publishing Ltd, via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
"For God's sake, Ceit!" Ulleam comes after her, frustration added now to desire and anxiety, and his feet slide away from under him, for all the world like he has stepped on ice. He lands heavily on his elbow and a pain shoots through his arm. "Shit!" The floor is wet with diesel. He feels it soaking through the seat of his trousers. It is on his hands. Without thinking he fumbles for the cigarette lighter in his pocket. There just isn't enough damned light in here. Only as he spins the wheel with his thumb, sparking the flame, does it occur to him that he is in imminent danger of turning himself into a human torch. But by then it is too late. The light is sudden and startling in the dark. He braces himself. But there is no ignition of diesel fumes, no sudden flash of searing flame. Just an image so profoundly shocking it is impossible at first to comprehend.
The man is hanging by his neck from the rafters overhead, frayed orange plastic rope tilting his head at an impossible angle. He is a big man, buck naked, blue-white flesh hanging in folds from his breasts and his buttocks, like a loose fitting suit two sizes too big. Loops of something smooth and shiny hang down between his legs from a gaping smile that splits his belly from side to side. The flame sends the dead man's shadow dancing around the scarred and graffitied walls like so many ghosts welcoming a new arrival. Beyond him, Ulleam sees Ceit's face. Pale, dark-eyed, frozen in horror. For a moment he thinks, absurdly, that the pool of diesel around him is agricultural, dyed red by the Excise to identify its tax-free status - before realising it is blood, sticky and thick and already drying brown on his hands.
ABOUT THIS BOOK: A brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith.
A MURDER
Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past.
A SECRET
Something lurks within the close-knit island community. Something sinister.
A TRAP
As Fin investigates, old skeletons begin to surface, and soon he, the hunter, becomes the hunted.
This is the first book in the Lewis Trilogy.
MY THOUGHTS: I am still reeling from reading this book. It is dark. It is atmospheric. It is breath-taking. It is gripping.
There is crime, but this is not simply a crime novel. It is so much more. We learn, as the story switches back and forth between now as Finlay Macleod investigates the murder, and then, growing up on the small island of Lewis, how insular and isolated life on these small islands is. It is bleak, with joy being fleeting, an almost forbidden thing. There is no childhood as such, or at least as I remember it. It is a harsh and unforgiving environment. Its people are also harsh and unforgiving. In some cases, downright cruel. Jealousies, hate, resentment and misconception all simmer just below the surface. Only with someone, they have boiled over.
If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller, or a police procedural, you are not going to get it with The Blackhouse. If you want a deep, dark, atmospheric mystery that will continue to haunt you after you have finished, then this is the book for you.
Steve Worsley, the narrator, has the perfect voice for this book, and I rate his narration 11/10.
💖💖💖💖💖
THE AUTHOR: Peter May is the multi award-winning author of:
- the award-winning Lewis Trilogy set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland;
- the China Thrillers, featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell;
- the Enzo Files, featuring Scottish forensic scientist Enzo MacLeod, which is set in France. The sixth and final Enzo book is Cast Iron (UK January 2017, Riverrun).
He has also written several standalone books:
- I'll Keep You Safe (January 2018, Riverrun)
- Entry Island (January 2014, Quercus UK)
- Runaway (January 2015, Quercus UK)
- Coffin Road (January 2016, Riverrun)
He has also had a successful career as a television writer, creator, and producer.
One of Scotland's most prolific television dramatists, he garnered more than 1000 credits in 15 years as scriptwriter and script editor on prime-time British television drama. He is the creator of three major television drama series and presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland before quitting television to concentrate on his first love, writing novels.
Born and raised in Scotland he lives in France.
After being turned down by all the major UK publishers, the first of the The Lewis Trilogy - The Blackhouse - was published in France as L'Ile des Chasseurs d'Oiseaux where it was hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French national newspaper L'Humanité. His novels have a large following in France. The trilogy has won several French literature awards, including one of the world's largest adjudicated readers awards, the Prix Cezam.
The Blackhouse was published in English by the award-winning Quercus (a relatively young publishing house which did not exist when the book was first presented to British publishers). It went on to become an international best seller, and was shortlisted for both Barry Award and Macavity Award when it was published in the USA.
The Blackhouse won the US Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel at Bouchercon in Albany NY, in 2013.
DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of The Blackhouse by Peter May, narrated by Steve Worsley, published by Isis Publishing Ltd, via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
April 1, 2023
On the cover of my copy there is a quote by a NYT reviewer - “Peter May is a writer I’d follow to the ends of the earth.” After finishing this book I’ve decided that I agree. This is the first in a trilogy and I’m very happy I already own the others. I’ve never read anything set in the Hebrides so I learned a bit about life there. I wouldn’t mind visiting so it’ll have to go on my travel bucket list.
For me, the story was captivating. I enjoyed following Fin Macleod on his investigation into the murder of a man he’s known since they were children. Those chapters alternated with chapters telling the story of Fin’s life on the island - from childhood into his teens and ultimately when he left the island.
I now find myself with a book hangover so this one gets all 5 shining stars from me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For me, the story was captivating. I enjoyed following Fin Macleod on his investigation into the murder of a man he’s known since they were children. Those chapters alternated with chapters telling the story of Fin’s life on the island - from childhood into his teens and ultimately when he left the island.
I now find myself with a book hangover so this one gets all 5 shining stars from me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
November 1, 2012
With its ‘evil lies within’ tag on the cover and ‘the hunter becomes the hunted’ in the blurb, this book sounded right up my street, and I loved the beginning of it. The creepy remote Scottish island setting, early gruesome murder and gorily detailed post mortem reminded me of the excellent Written in Bone by Simon Beckett, and I was excited to have found another great mystery/thriller author.
Sadly though, he peaked at this point. The rest of the book fizzled out into a nothingness with far too much back-story and not nearly enough tension; I was skim reading before half way. Very disappointing.
Sadly though, he peaked at this point. The rest of the book fizzled out into a nothingness with far too much back-story and not nearly enough tension; I was skim reading before half way. Very disappointing.
April 30, 2020
Wow! 'The Blackhouse' by Peter May is fantastic! I LOVED this noir mystery! It is the first in the Lewis trilogy, but it can be read as a standalone.
Every main character is haunted by disappointment. None of them feel they got the life they wanted. Plus, secrets, lots of secrets. It takes a shocking murder to begin cracking characters, and old animosities, open like rotten eggs....
Thirty-seven-year old Finley Macleod has been asked to return to his hometown. His parents had lived half a mile outside a small village called Crobost, part of a community named Ness. Ness is on the extreme northern tip of the Isle of Lewis, the most northerly island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Finley was a child in the 1960's and 1970's, and he grew up speaking Gaelic until he started school. Because a man has been murdered in Crobost in exactly the same manner as a murder he is investigating in Edenburgh, and because Finley speaks Gaelic, he is sent to assist in the Crobost investigation.
Finley left Crobost eagerly eighteen years ago, hoping to begin a new life after graduating from Glasgow University. Instead he flunked out after his first year. Now a detective inspector, DI in the Edinburgh Police, he is eager to go back to the island - not because he is homesick, but because his eight-year-old son was killed a month ago in an accident. His wife Mona wants a divorce. And Finley is wrecked, not showing up regularly to work. So, when his boss, DCI Black, orders him to go, hinting Fin's job might be at stake if he doesn't go, he quickly packs his bag.
The man who was killed, Angus 'Angel' Macritchie, was a bully. Fin knew him well, having been beaten up by him a few times as a child. Seeing Angel's body brings back a lot of childhood memories, most of them sad or bleak. Besides the English language he was forced to learn after starting school, and the schoolyard harassments and beatings, Fin's parents had been killed in a car accident when he was eight years old. He had gone to live nearby with his mother's sister, an aunt, but she had not loved Fin. He had had a cold lonely childhood. Fin had friends, including a best friend, Artair Macinnes, and girls seemed to like Fin, especially Marsaila, who was now Artair's wife. But Fin did not remember anyone being happy with life on the island. Not anyone, except Fin's parents. He certainly was not happy.
From my reading between the lines, life on the island seems ingrown and generally full of small-minded folk, a hothouse of jealousies and conflicts - which are quickly buried by surface social conformity, especially in the more isolated 1960's and 1970's. Everybody knows everybody. The men drink too much. Plus, the weather! Strong winds and storms, no trees, only plenty of rocks and hills, only sheep and fishing as sustenance occupations. Most men were employed at a on oil-fabrication yard, including Fin's dad before he died. For kids, there was not a lot of opportunities to do things if it was not about exploring and playing harsh games on the cliffs and beaches and wild country around them when not doing chores and attending churches regularly.
This is a grim novel, gentle reader.
The one thing most of the men long for is the two-week guga harvest on an island called An Sgeir. Gentle reader, this involves wringing the necks of gannet chicks, then preparing them to eat. The locals consider the cooked birds a food delicacy and the harvest as a manly rite of passage. It was dangerous work as it involved climbing around cliffs, and sometimes bad injuries occurred. Fin had a REALLY bad thing happen - but his memory of it is shrouded, maybe blocked. He doesn't want to know...
The book has two narration timelines - Fin's childhood, which he remembers in first person "I", and the present, which is in third person "he". I did not like this change of voice! Never mind. I got over my annoyance. A little. Sort of.
Anyway.
Fin's backstory is interesting and important for the later reveals. The murder which he is investigating has everything to do with the past, so the personal history is important to read. I suspect some readers might feel the backstory slows down the action, and it does, but it is integral to solving the murder. When things begin to bust open, it starts a series of Big Exciting Events! The last chapters are thrilling! I could not put the book down!
Caution: animals are killed, violence is graphic, child abuse occurs.
Every main character is haunted by disappointment. None of them feel they got the life they wanted. Plus, secrets, lots of secrets. It takes a shocking murder to begin cracking characters, and old animosities, open like rotten eggs....
Thirty-seven-year old Finley Macleod has been asked to return to his hometown. His parents had lived half a mile outside a small village called Crobost, part of a community named Ness. Ness is on the extreme northern tip of the Isle of Lewis, the most northerly island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Finley was a child in the 1960's and 1970's, and he grew up speaking Gaelic until he started school. Because a man has been murdered in Crobost in exactly the same manner as a murder he is investigating in Edenburgh, and because Finley speaks Gaelic, he is sent to assist in the Crobost investigation.
Finley left Crobost eagerly eighteen years ago, hoping to begin a new life after graduating from Glasgow University. Instead he flunked out after his first year. Now a detective inspector, DI in the Edinburgh Police, he is eager to go back to the island - not because he is homesick, but because his eight-year-old son was killed a month ago in an accident. His wife Mona wants a divorce. And Finley is wrecked, not showing up regularly to work. So, when his boss, DCI Black, orders him to go, hinting Fin's job might be at stake if he doesn't go, he quickly packs his bag.
The man who was killed, Angus 'Angel' Macritchie, was a bully. Fin knew him well, having been beaten up by him a few times as a child. Seeing Angel's body brings back a lot of childhood memories, most of them sad or bleak. Besides the English language he was forced to learn after starting school, and the schoolyard harassments and beatings, Fin's parents had been killed in a car accident when he was eight years old. He had gone to live nearby with his mother's sister, an aunt, but she had not loved Fin. He had had a cold lonely childhood. Fin had friends, including a best friend, Artair Macinnes, and girls seemed to like Fin, especially Marsaila, who was now Artair's wife. But Fin did not remember anyone being happy with life on the island. Not anyone, except Fin's parents. He certainly was not happy.
From my reading between the lines, life on the island seems ingrown and generally full of small-minded folk, a hothouse of jealousies and conflicts - which are quickly buried by surface social conformity, especially in the more isolated 1960's and 1970's. Everybody knows everybody. The men drink too much. Plus, the weather! Strong winds and storms, no trees, only plenty of rocks and hills, only sheep and fishing as sustenance occupations. Most men were employed at a on oil-fabrication yard, including Fin's dad before he died. For kids, there was not a lot of opportunities to do things if it was not about exploring and playing harsh games on the cliffs and beaches and wild country around them when not doing chores and attending churches regularly.
This is a grim novel, gentle reader.
The one thing most of the men long for is the two-week guga harvest on an island called An Sgeir. Gentle reader, this involves wringing the necks of gannet chicks, then preparing them to eat. The locals consider the cooked birds a food delicacy and the harvest as a manly rite of passage. It was dangerous work as it involved climbing around cliffs, and sometimes bad injuries occurred. Fin had a REALLY bad thing happen - but his memory of it is shrouded, maybe blocked. He doesn't want to know...
The book has two narration timelines - Fin's childhood, which he remembers in first person "I", and the present, which is in third person "he". I did not like this change of voice! Never mind. I got over my annoyance. A little. Sort of.
Anyway.
Fin's backstory is interesting and important for the later reveals. The murder which he is investigating has everything to do with the past, so the personal history is important to read. I suspect some readers might feel the backstory slows down the action, and it does, but it is integral to solving the murder. When things begin to bust open, it starts a series of Big Exciting Events! The last chapters are thrilling! I could not put the book down!
Caution: animals are killed, violence is graphic, child abuse occurs.
April 25, 2021
Nuestro protagonista, Fin Macleod, vuelve al lugar donde se crio - y al que esperaba no volver nunca- para investigar un asesinato que guarda similitud con el que está investigando en Glasgow, sin embargo, lo que presuponemos como trama principal quedará relegada a un segundo plano.
El autor se centra en la vida del protagonista: recuerdos de su infancia y de tiempos pasados, reencuentro con antiguos amigos y conocidos. Un recorrido por los paisajes y costumbres de la isla, en la que un ancestral ritual destrozó su vida.
Y así, entre envidias, amores frustrados y oscuros recuerdos se van sucediendo las páginas, siendo la investigación del asesinato prácticamente inexistente, con una resolución más que previsible y quedando el asesinato ocurrido en Glasgow sin resolver.
Entre 2,5 y 3*
El autor se centra en la vida del protagonista: recuerdos de su infancia y de tiempos pasados, reencuentro con antiguos amigos y conocidos. Un recorrido por los paisajes y costumbres de la isla, en la que un ancestral ritual destrozó su vida.
Y así, entre envidias, amores frustrados y oscuros recuerdos se van sucediendo las páginas, siendo la investigación del asesinato prácticamente inexistente, con una resolución más que previsible y quedando el asesinato ocurrido en Glasgow sin resolver.
Entre 2,5 y 3*
April 2, 2024
La Isla de los cazadores de pájaros
Excelente novela ambientada en el norte de Escocia, en una de las islas Hébridas. La Isla de Lewis, un lugar recóndito, con un tiempo y unas condiciones de vida duras.
Finlay MacLeod, policía en Glasgow, al poco de sufrir una tragedia familiar recibe el encargo de investigar un asesinato en la isla de Lewis ante el parecido con otro crimen ocurrido en Edimburgo.
La elección de que sea Finlay el encargado de la investigación no es casual. Finlay se crío en la Isla y la víctima fue compañero suyo en su infancia.
Bien, pues digamos que el asesinato es la excusa para escribir esta novela sobre la isla de Lewis. En la mayor parte de esta historia el autor se olvida de la investigación, dos terceras partes son dedicadas a las vivencias de Finlay cuando residía en la isla.
Sula Sgeir, la isla de los cazadores de pájaros.
Esto hace que sea difícil clasificar esta novela como del género negro, ni siquiera policíaca. La verdad es que es difícil clasificarla porque te encuentras situaciones que te llevan del drama a las risas, de la tragedia latente al rencor y la venganza. Muchas situaciones pendientes que ocurrieron en el pasado y que Peter May va contando en el momento preciso.
Yo creo que lo hace bastante bien, los recuerdos de Finlay son narrados de una manera que te hace olvidar que estamos en una investigación de asesinato. Algunos son divertidísimos, otros dramáticos, otros son aventuras de chicos y chicas.
A todo esto, ni siquiera he comentado la isla de los cazadores, para eso hay que leer la novela, basada en situaciones reales.
Para el que tenga curiosidad si lo que ocurre en la novela se hace en la realidad en la isla Sula Sgeir, aquí hay un video de la ruta y la caza de los pájaros:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqkAs...
Casi mejor verlo después de leer la novela.
Muy buena novela que además forma parte de una trilogía que se desarrolla en la misma isla. Muchas cosas que contar sobre la isla de Lewis y sus aislados habitantes.
Excelente novela ambientada en el norte de Escocia, en una de las islas Hébridas. La Isla de Lewis, un lugar recóndito, con un tiempo y unas condiciones de vida duras.
Finlay MacLeod, policía en Glasgow, al poco de sufrir una tragedia familiar recibe el encargo de investigar un asesinato en la isla de Lewis ante el parecido con otro crimen ocurrido en Edimburgo.
La elección de que sea Finlay el encargado de la investigación no es casual. Finlay se crío en la Isla y la víctima fue compañero suyo en su infancia.
Bien, pues digamos que el asesinato es la excusa para escribir esta novela sobre la isla de Lewis. En la mayor parte de esta historia el autor se olvida de la investigación, dos terceras partes son dedicadas a las vivencias de Finlay cuando residía en la isla.
Sula Sgeir, la isla de los cazadores de pájaros.
Esto hace que sea difícil clasificar esta novela como del género negro, ni siquiera policíaca. La verdad es que es difícil clasificarla porque te encuentras situaciones que te llevan del drama a las risas, de la tragedia latente al rencor y la venganza. Muchas situaciones pendientes que ocurrieron en el pasado y que Peter May va contando en el momento preciso.
Yo creo que lo hace bastante bien, los recuerdos de Finlay son narrados de una manera que te hace olvidar que estamos en una investigación de asesinato. Algunos son divertidísimos, otros dramáticos, otros son aventuras de chicos y chicas.
A todo esto, ni siquiera he comentado la isla de los cazadores, para eso hay que leer la novela, basada en situaciones reales.
Para el que tenga curiosidad si lo que ocurre en la novela se hace en la realidad en la isla Sula Sgeir, aquí hay un video de la ruta y la caza de los pájaros:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqkAs...
Casi mejor verlo después de leer la novela.
Muy buena novela que además forma parte de una trilogía que se desarrolla en la misma isla. Muchas cosas que contar sobre la isla de Lewis y sus aislados habitantes.
November 14, 2018
In this first mystery in the Lewis trilogy, we are introduced to detective inspector Fin MacLeod of Edinburgh. In the midst of a personal tragedy that is tearing his marriage apart, he is given an assignment to go to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and investigate the grisly murder of a local resident. Why involve Fin? This murder seems to be quite similar to one that occurred in Edinburgh that Fin is already handling. And he grew up on the Isle of Lewis, knows the residents as well as the victim, so perhaps he'll provide some insider knowledge to help the investigation.
Fin is not at all happy to be returning to the island that he couldn't wait to leave eighteen years ago. How can he face all the bad memories or the people who knew him back then?
The present story is told in third person narrative but this changes to first person as Fin recalls his painful past. Both storylines are quite riveting as Peter May really delves into his characters' psyches and past actions.
This mystery was so intriguing! The murdered man was universally disliked so the possibilities are wide open as to motive and murderer as Fin begins to follow police procedures to learn the truth.
These are tough people who have fought Mother Nature to eke out a living. The sea and the beautiful but desolate Isle of Lewis of course play major roles in the story, as do the ancient customs the islanders still carry on. Outstanding descriptive writing places the reader right in the midst of blasting winds, torrential rains and crashing waves.
I can't wait to read the other books in the trilogy! I owe a debt of gratitude to my new GR friend Paula for recommending this book to me. You were so right; it's excellent!
Fin is not at all happy to be returning to the island that he couldn't wait to leave eighteen years ago. How can he face all the bad memories or the people who knew him back then?
The present story is told in third person narrative but this changes to first person as Fin recalls his painful past. Both storylines are quite riveting as Peter May really delves into his characters' psyches and past actions.
This mystery was so intriguing! The murdered man was universally disliked so the possibilities are wide open as to motive and murderer as Fin begins to follow police procedures to learn the truth.
These are tough people who have fought Mother Nature to eke out a living. The sea and the beautiful but desolate Isle of Lewis of course play major roles in the story, as do the ancient customs the islanders still carry on. Outstanding descriptive writing places the reader right in the midst of blasting winds, torrential rains and crashing waves.
I can't wait to read the other books in the trilogy! I owe a debt of gratitude to my new GR friend Paula for recommending this book to me. You were so right; it's excellent!
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August 18, 2021
Audiobook - 12:45 Hours - Narrator: Steve Worsley
What a great feeling it is to finish a book and think "I really enjoyed that!".
Needless to say, I loved "The Blackhouse"; I loved the plot and storyline; I loved the descriptive writing; I loved the portrayal of the desolate and savagely beautiful Isle of Lewis in The Outer Hebrides and the harsh lives of the people who live there; and I really loved the narration by Steve Worsley.
Steve Worsley, a native of Aberdeen (an 'Aberdonian'), is an actor who specialises in voice over work and lists twenty audiobook narrations for Audible alone. His variety of accents, dialects and vocal characterisations made listening to the audiobook version of "The Blackhouse" an aural joy.
I can't wait to tackle "The Lewis Man", book two of The Lewis Trilogy!
What a great feeling it is to finish a book and think "I really enjoyed that!".
Needless to say, I loved "The Blackhouse"; I loved the plot and storyline; I loved the descriptive writing; I loved the portrayal of the desolate and savagely beautiful Isle of Lewis in The Outer Hebrides and the harsh lives of the people who live there; and I really loved the narration by Steve Worsley.
Steve Worsley, a native of Aberdeen (an 'Aberdonian'), is an actor who specialises in voice over work and lists twenty audiobook narrations for Audible alone. His variety of accents, dialects and vocal characterisations made listening to the audiobook version of "The Blackhouse" an aural joy.
I can't wait to tackle "The Lewis Man", book two of The Lewis Trilogy!
November 5, 2025
I think I won’t really change my review or write a new one. Once again I was swept up in the prose, the action, the characters, and the ever changing dramatic setting. I had forgotten some of the important details which made this second reading a second adventure. Once again, I recommend Blackhouse and the rest of May’s Lewis Trilogy highly.
11/04/2025
……………………………………………
Detective Fin Macleod is coming off a difficult time in his personal life when he is told by his boss that he must travel back to a place he has avoided for years, the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides, the island of his birth and where he grew up. He is being sent to assess whether a local murder may, in fact, be related to one that has been committed in Edinburgh where he has been on the force for some 16 years. They both bear marked similarities.
The Blackhouse is a mystery/police procedural but is also much more. It is a tale of people, characters, setting, history and culture. The land and ocean have shaped the people as has the stern religion. All of these are major parts of this novel. Personally, this is what I want in a mystery---backstory where the characters earn the action. And here all is most definitely earned.
The descriptions of the island are poetic at times, though not always pretty.
Ahead lay twelve miles of bleak moorland as the road
straightened out and took them northwest toward the tiny
settlement of Barvas on the west coast. It was a brooding
landscape that in a moment of sunlight could be
unexpectedly transformed. Fin knew the road well, in all
seasons, and had never ceased to marvel at how the inter-
minable acres of featureless peatbog could change by the
month, the day, or even the minute. The dead straw colour
of winter, the carpets of tiny white spring flowers, the
dazzling purples of summer. To their right the sky had
blackened, and the rain was falling somewhere in the
hinterland. To their left the sky was almost clear,
summer sunlight falling across the land, and they could
see in the distance the pale outline of the mountains of
Harris. Fin had forgotten how big the sky was here.
(loc 800)
Fin relives elements of his past as the story unspools which introduces us to the island communities more than brief descriptions would. He also finds a capable and friendly partner in a local policeman, DS George Gunn. The two become a good team working with and against the DCI from Inverness running the investigation.
I definitely recommend this book to mystery lovers who like that extra element, history of the characters and culture beyond the specific mystery at hand. Combine that with evocative writing and I will return again, for sure.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ecopy of this book for the purpose of review.
11/04/2025
……………………………………………
Detective Fin Macleod is coming off a difficult time in his personal life when he is told by his boss that he must travel back to a place he has avoided for years, the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides, the island of his birth and where he grew up. He is being sent to assess whether a local murder may, in fact, be related to one that has been committed in Edinburgh where he has been on the force for some 16 years. They both bear marked similarities.
The Blackhouse is a mystery/police procedural but is also much more. It is a tale of people, characters, setting, history and culture. The land and ocean have shaped the people as has the stern religion. All of these are major parts of this novel. Personally, this is what I want in a mystery---backstory where the characters earn the action. And here all is most definitely earned.
The descriptions of the island are poetic at times, though not always pretty.
Ahead lay twelve miles of bleak moorland as the road
straightened out and took them northwest toward the tiny
settlement of Barvas on the west coast. It was a brooding
landscape that in a moment of sunlight could be
unexpectedly transformed. Fin knew the road well, in all
seasons, and had never ceased to marvel at how the inter-
minable acres of featureless peatbog could change by the
month, the day, or even the minute. The dead straw colour
of winter, the carpets of tiny white spring flowers, the
dazzling purples of summer. To their right the sky had
blackened, and the rain was falling somewhere in the
hinterland. To their left the sky was almost clear,
summer sunlight falling across the land, and they could
see in the distance the pale outline of the mountains of
Harris. Fin had forgotten how big the sky was here.
(loc 800)
Fin relives elements of his past as the story unspools which introduces us to the island communities more than brief descriptions would. He also finds a capable and friendly partner in a local policeman, DS George Gunn. The two become a good team working with and against the DCI from Inverness running the investigation.
I definitely recommend this book to mystery lovers who like that extra element, history of the characters and culture beyond the specific mystery at hand. Combine that with evocative writing and I will return again, for sure.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ecopy of this book for the purpose of review.
August 1, 2020
"The whole truth would never leave the rock. It would stay here among the chaos of boulders and birds, whispered only in the wind."
A brilliant crime novel. The Blackhouse is my first novel by Peter May and I'm patiently waiting inline for the second book in the trilogy. The backdrop for the novel is in the remote northwestern island of Scotland, Isle of Lewis. Detective Inspector Fin MacLeod in Edinburgh, Lewis born and raised, was assigned and to return to Lewis to investigate a crime.
Bear in mind, Guga hunting tradition is part of this story.
A brilliant crime novel. The Blackhouse is my first novel by Peter May and I'm patiently waiting inline for the second book in the trilogy. The backdrop for the novel is in the remote northwestern island of Scotland, Isle of Lewis. Detective Inspector Fin MacLeod in Edinburgh, Lewis born and raised, was assigned and to return to Lewis to investigate a crime.
Bear in mind, Guga hunting tradition is part of this story.
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