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ctgt 's review for:
The Blackhouse
by Peter May
This story starts off pretty grim. In the first few pages we find out that Fin and Mona have recently lost their young son and not surprisingly their relationship is on the rocks. Fin's boss calls him in and basically tells him it's time to get back to work. He assigns him a case that has the same M.O. as a case Fin had investigated previously. The catch, the new murder happened on The Isle of Lewis, where Fin grew up. All this in the first few chapters.
May does a good job of using the harsh geography, the history of protestant fundamentalism on the Isle of Lewis and the extreme weather to set a very somber mood over the whole story. Frankly, the new murder is really a secondary consideration to the exploration of Fin and his early years growing up in a very unique place.
The narrative switches between time frames to slowly build upon the mysteries of the murders and what happened at the guga harvest on An Sgeir so many years ago. There are some books where this switching back and forth takes me out of the flow of the narrative, but in this instance the technique worked for me.
Although this is considered a mystery(and there were several mysteries throughout), for me, it was a look at friendship, love, betrayal and bitterness.
Almost a 5 star book for me.
May does a good job of using the harsh geography, the history of protestant fundamentalism on the Isle of Lewis and the extreme weather to set a very somber mood over the whole story. Frankly, the new murder is really a secondary consideration to the exploration of Fin and his early years growing up in a very unique place.
The narrative switches between time frames to slowly build upon the mysteries of the murders and what happened at the guga harvest on An Sgeir so many years ago. There are some books where this switching back and forth takes me out of the flow of the narrative, but in this instance the technique worked for me.
Although this is considered a mystery(and there were several mysteries throughout), for me, it was a look at friendship, love, betrayal and bitterness.
Almost a 5 star book for me.