book review The Blackhouse by Peter May

The BLACKHOUSE by Peter May

This is the first of Peter Mays' Lewis Trilogy. 

Fin Macleod, still in mourning after the accidental death of his child and the subsequent breakdown of his marriage, returns to his work in the Edinburgh police force, to find that a murder on a Scottish Island bears a remarkable similarity to one he has recently investigated in Edinburgh.  Fin, being familiar with the Edinburgh case and a native of Lewis is forced to return to the Island after eighteen years estrangement from his past life.

As Fin investigates possible links between the murders, he becomes re-acquainted with his ex girlfriend, his best friend (now her husband) and other people from the past. 

Peter May skillfully allows the story to unfold through interspersing childhood memories with Fins' current investigations and his  adult perceptions, until finally in a climatic ending Fin realises the true murderer in time to prevent another death.

Mays' writing is so evocative that I am certain I could taste the sea salt on my lips, feel the breeze in my hair, hear the ominous clinking of the chains that used to stop the children playing on the swings on the sabbath and feel the fire of sermons raking down my spine as I read

I enjoyed this book, not only as a crime novel with appealing characters and a compulsive storyline, but as a historical testament to life on the Lewis of the past and the present, a revelation of geological and cultural facts and an insight into Scottish folklore. 

But, for me the revelation of the abuses perpetrated by adults against children was particularly  sensitively handled and of course these abuses always need addressing.

I definately recommend this book to all Scots, all historians, theologians,crime fiction readers, anthropologists... and well... everyone.

Watch out for my review of the second book in the trilogy The Lewis Man and  my review of the final book The Chessmen and my interview with Peter May himself.