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A review by portybelle
The Night Gate by Peter May
5.0
(Review by my husband)
The Night Gate by Peter May is part of the series featuring the investigator Enzo Macleod. Bored with retirement, like all of us he is struggling with the restrictions placed on society dealing with the COVID19 pandemic. He finds himself drawn back into investigation work and is soon trying to piece together clues from a crime scene that has long gone cold.
May develops two parallel stories of present and past with tremendous skill and dexterity teasing the threads and links between the two with the promise of a conjurer – the reader knows the links are there and can sense how they might join, but has no idea how they will form until the very end! How can a dead body found in 2020 be linked to the fate of an art masterpiece in the 1940s? It is May’s effortless style building on wonderful characters and drama that really brings this book to life and makes it an exceptional read.
Set in the second world war, our heroin, Georgette Pignal is a feisty young woman who immediately lights up the page with a strength and determination to do her duty for France. There are some wonderful early scenes as she is posted to a remote camp in Scotland, where she takes on a rough sergeant, and then later whilst undercover in France, a fascinating perspective on the war as the Nazi officers interact with the people of occupied France with the tension and terror brought vividly to life.
One of the most unsettling scenes at the beginning of the story is when the reader first meets Hitler – he oscillates between a sincere love and interest of art and those involved with it to an unbridled unhinged rage and anger with a force that is deeply troubling. May captures the tension and intensity of the characters so well that the reader almost feels bruised by the encounter.
To explore the wider plot further would be to begin to give away the clever development of the storyline and risk spoiling the many twists and turns. The development is carried by powerful characters – Lange, Bauer, Wolff – clever, complex, surprising and so instantly vivid and real that the story seems to unfold with a life of its own. The Night Gate is a fantastic read with a clever fun storyline set on a common World War 2 canvas. The painting of this story is unforgettable. A clear 5 star book.
The Night Gate by Peter May is part of the series featuring the investigator Enzo Macleod. Bored with retirement, like all of us he is struggling with the restrictions placed on society dealing with the COVID19 pandemic. He finds himself drawn back into investigation work and is soon trying to piece together clues from a crime scene that has long gone cold.
May develops two parallel stories of present and past with tremendous skill and dexterity teasing the threads and links between the two with the promise of a conjurer – the reader knows the links are there and can sense how they might join, but has no idea how they will form until the very end! How can a dead body found in 2020 be linked to the fate of an art masterpiece in the 1940s? It is May’s effortless style building on wonderful characters and drama that really brings this book to life and makes it an exceptional read.
Set in the second world war, our heroin, Georgette Pignal is a feisty young woman who immediately lights up the page with a strength and determination to do her duty for France. There are some wonderful early scenes as she is posted to a remote camp in Scotland, where she takes on a rough sergeant, and then later whilst undercover in France, a fascinating perspective on the war as the Nazi officers interact with the people of occupied France with the tension and terror brought vividly to life.
One of the most unsettling scenes at the beginning of the story is when the reader first meets Hitler – he oscillates between a sincere love and interest of art and those involved with it to an unbridled unhinged rage and anger with a force that is deeply troubling. May captures the tension and intensity of the characters so well that the reader almost feels bruised by the encounter.
To explore the wider plot further would be to begin to give away the clever development of the storyline and risk spoiling the many twists and turns. The development is carried by powerful characters – Lange, Bauer, Wolff – clever, complex, surprising and so instantly vivid and real that the story seems to unfold with a life of its own. The Night Gate is a fantastic read with a clever fun storyline set on a common World War 2 canvas. The painting of this story is unforgettable. A clear 5 star book.