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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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| 33607002897745 | Adult Fiction | MAY | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
THE SPELL-BINDING SECOND NOVEL IN PETER MAY'S INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING LEWIS TRILOGY'
"HAUNTING." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)
"STUNNING." -- LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW)
"MAY IS SUPERB." -- THE TORONTO STAR
Fin Macleod has returned to the Isle of Lewis, the storm-tossed, wind-scoured outer Hebridean island where he was born and raised. Having left behind his adult life in Edinburgh--including his wife and his career in the police force--the former Detective Inspector is intent on repairing past relationships and restoring his parents' derelict cottage.
His plans are interrupted when an unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog. The only clue to its identity is a DNA match to a local farmer, the now-senile Tormod Macdonald--the father of Fin's childhood sweetheart, Marsaili--a man who has claimed throughout his life to be an only child, practically an orphan. Reluctantly drawn into the investigation, Fin uncovers deep family secrets even as he draws closer to the killer who wishes to keep them hidden.
Author Notes
Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BBC, he quit journalism and during the high-octane 15 years that followed, became one of Scotland's most successful television dramatists. He created three prime-time TV drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels.
His passion for detailed research for his books has taken him behind the closed doors of the Chinese Police force, to the kitchen of a 3-star Michelin chef, and down the Paris catacombs; he has worked as an online private detective, was inducted as a Chevalier of the Grand Order of Gaillac wines and earned honorary membership of the Chinese Crime Writers' Association.
He has won several literature awards in France and received the USA's Barry Award for The Blackhouse , the first in his internationally bestselling Lewis Trilogy.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In May's haunting second entry in the trilogy that began with 2012's The Blackhouse, the last thing former Edinburgh cop Fin Macleod wants any part of is police work, but fate has other plans. Fin has returned to the remote Hebrides Isle of Lewis, where he grew up, to figure out his future. Meanwhile, locals cutting peat discover an almost perfectly mummified young man in a bog. The decades-old murder victim becomes Fin's problem when DNA links it to Tormod Macdonald, the father of his childhood sweetheart, Marsaili, and grandfather to the quondam couple's now-grown son, Fionnlagh. With the demented Tormod unable to illuminate matters (except, partially, through vivid interior monologues, a device some readers may find problematic), it falls to Fin to solve the overlapping mysteries of the victim's identity, what happened to him, and Tormod's possible role in his death-and, eventually, the deeper mystery of who Tormod himself really is. The fast-moving investigation sweeps Fin across the starkly beautiful Hebridean landscape into unexpected byways, back into the darker chapters of Scotland's past, as well as his own-and smack into some very present danger. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
Starred Review. The well-preserved body of a young man, found in a peat bog on Lewis Island in the Scottish Hebrides, doesn't need carbon dating when a tattoo of Elvis Presley is found on his arm. But identifying the victim, who is found to have been murdered, is complicated when DNA reveals he was related to Tormod Macdonald, a man in his 70s who is suffering rapidly from worsening dementia. Newly retired Edinburgh police detective Fin Macleod, just returned to his native Lewis, becomes caught up in the case because Macdonald's now-widowed daughter, Marsaili, was his first love. As Macdonald's first-person narrative of his difficult youth parallels the contemporary investigation, events lead to a climax fueled by revenge. VERDICT This second entry in the Lewis trilogy (after the acclaimed Barry Award-winning The Blackhouse) lives up to the high standard of the first. May weaves a shameful practice in Scottish history into a compelling story with wonderfully drawn characters motivated by deeply held emotions. The bleakly beautiful Outer Hebrides setting adds to the mood of darkness, and the characters' reactions to Macdonald's impairment-ranging from impotent rage to loving compassion-provide a needed touch of humanity. Stunning.-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.