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apechild 's review for:
The Blackhouse
by Peter May
I've not really read this trilogy in the correct order as I started with the second book and I've now dipped back to the first. And unlike a lot of crime series, this is one that I think you do want to read in order. Yes there is a crime/murder mystery per book, but this is really about the residents of a small village on the Hebridian island of Lewis. So obviously there is a continuing story of these characters throughout the books (I'm assuming the third and final book will continue in such a fashion at this stage!).
May creates such a sense of atmosphere of Lewis. I've not been there (yet) but I really can picture the wilderness and the bleak beauty of parts of the island. As well as the crofter's lifestyle, and the claustrophobic way of village life with everyone knowing everyone else's business. And the way nothing is done on a Sunday. I think with this book in particular, as we see so much of Fin's childhood through the flashbacks, it really shows how stifling life could be. You will be with the same people all your life, so if you don't get on with them in primary school, you're pretty much screwed for the rest of your days.
Fin Macleod has actually been away on the mainland for the past 18 years however, and is working as a detective in Edinburgh. He's sent back to his homeland because a murder committed on Lewis has disturbing similarties with one he'd been investigating a few months ago in Edinburgh. And in coming back to a place he'd been trying to avoid for years he's forced to face up to his own personal history as well.
May creates such a sense of atmosphere of Lewis. I've not been there (yet) but I really can picture the wilderness and the bleak beauty of parts of the island. As well as the crofter's lifestyle, and the claustrophobic way of village life with everyone knowing everyone else's business. And the way nothing is done on a Sunday. I think with this book in particular, as we see so much of Fin's childhood through the flashbacks, it really shows how stifling life could be. You will be with the same people all your life, so if you don't get on with them in primary school, you're pretty much screwed for the rest of your days.
Fin Macleod has actually been away on the mainland for the past 18 years however, and is working as a detective in Edinburgh. He's sent back to his homeland because a murder committed on Lewis has disturbing similarties with one he'd been investigating a few months ago in Edinburgh. And in coming back to a place he'd been trying to avoid for years he's forced to face up to his own personal history as well.