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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I don't normally read whodunnits, so I'm not sure how this one got into the house, but I started reading it yesterday and couldn't put it down. Loved the setting, the flawed main character, the unexpected twists. I even don't mind the loose ends, which I normally hate, because halfway into the story I realised it was the first of a trilogy. I've ordered the other two, and can't wait for them to arrive.
We've been to the Isle of Lewis, and this is it. Part mystery, part memoir, parts written in third person and parts written in the first. Atmospheric and enjoyable.
I loved Peter May's Coffin Road, so was glad to have a chance to read this first book in the Lewis Trilogy. He writes a good thriller and police story and I particularly liked his depiction of the Isle of Lewis. What a hard, windswept existence - I sometimes wonder how previous generations stood it, eking out livings in these hard places. It's a novel without a lot of light in it, but it felt realistic in its description of the island and its people. The ending of this thriller is put together perhaps a little too neatly, but it was satisfying enough that I want to know more of Fin McLeod, the central character, and his next adventures in the trilogy.
Crime isn't really my thing. This didn't grab me at the beginning, but because of three very insistent recommendations I kept going. It eventually got its claws into me.
Reading about islander culture is pretty fascinating. Not something I'm familiar with. Same country, but a different world. That, and the general reflection on regrets/escaping the past, was interesting to me. Wasn't too interested in the murder.
I'll be reading the other two, so it was a decent enough read to keep going. I'm not trying to warn people off - it's just my aversion to crime that makes me reluctant.
Reading about islander culture is pretty fascinating. Not something I'm familiar with. Same country, but a different world. That, and the general reflection on regrets/escaping the past, was interesting to me. Wasn't too interested in the murder.
I'll be reading the other two, so it was a decent enough read to keep going. I'm not trying to warn people off - it's just my aversion to crime that makes me reluctant.
Very good first start of this trilogy from May, and my rating would have been higher except for the ending. Even worse, the next one in the series does the same damn thing - sudden blood and horror that makes no sense for the characters or the rest of the story.
May's descriptions of the places and the people on the Isle of Lewis are lovely in a windswept, nostalgic, and deeply connected way.
In this first book, we meet Fin, currently a detective in Edinburgh who is called back to his native Lewis as part of a case. Once there, he falls back into the rhythms of the place, and starts to recover/reconnect to his past.
May's descriptions of the places and the people on the Isle of Lewis are lovely in a windswept, nostalgic, and deeply connected way.
In this first book, we meet Fin, currently a detective in Edinburgh who is called back to his native Lewis as part of a case. Once there, he falls back into the rhythms of the place, and starts to recover/reconnect to his past.
Family saga, not crime story. And almost ruined by the last paragraph.
A very slow first third makes way for a well paced thriller in the latter parts. The Lewis setting is dark and atmospheric and Fin's homecoming to investigate a murder becomes an investigation into his own traumatic past. A couple of issues with it - the main third person narrative is interspersed with chapters told in the first person, from Fin's point of view. I found this a strange way of bringing in the back story - there was no explanation given as to how or from where Fin was talking to us. I'm not sure why the author chose to present in this way, I'm sure it would have been equally (if not more) effective told in third person as flashbacks. And the biggest issue, the whole, shocking denouement relies on the fact that Fin has somehow blocked out all traumatic childhood memories relating to a particular individual, to the extent that the big reveal at the end comes as a shock to him as well as the reader. In my opinion, it was a "suspension of disbelief" scenario taken too far and one which I think leaves the reader feeling a bit "tricked". Still, I enjoyed it enough to read the next one!
I picked this up in a bookstore entirely sold by the cover and blurb (so don't ever let anyone tell you those things don't count.) I'm glad I did. It's an excellent thriller with a great sense of place and character. I'll definitely be picking up the other two in this Lewis Trilogy and I'll keep an eye out for others by this author.