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The Blackhouse
by Peter May
A distraught Edinburgh police Sergeant returns to his Scottish Outer Hebrides home to solve a murder and finds his past.
After the death of his child and subsequent breakup of his marriage Macleod is an emotionally fragile Edinburgh homicide detective. He is assigned to investigate the murder of a local thug on the somewhat remote Scottish isle he left as a youth and never returned to. There he must liaise with an unfriendly, Glasgow homicide squad and look at old friends as suspects. Despite the efforts of his Glaswegian colleagues and with his local knowledge and contacts Macleod breaks the case. In the process he puts himself back together. Flashbacks to MacLeod's childhood and youth tell an islander's coming-of-age story. Despite the overly theatrical showdown with the perpetrator this was a well written Scottish police procedural, but a better story of a protagonist’s transformation though the inspection of his past.
My dead tree copy was a hefty 390-pages with a 2011 UK copyright. This is the first book of [a:Peter May's|4605488|Peter May|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1295983190p2/4605488.jpg] Lewis Trilogy with Detective Sergeant (DS) Fin Macleod. I read this because I enjoyed The Chessmen (Lewis Trilogy, #3) (my review). Both stories were more literary fiction than detective novels.
Prose was excellent, although a tad too literary for the police procedural sub-genre. Descriptive prose was better than the dialog. The description of the Lewis locale is vividly literary. The author uses a lot of pages to describe Lewis Island . At one point Macleod describes it as a magical place. I came to agree with him. Gaelic and Scottish vernacular are worked into the in the characters dialog. Is a "doon" a "dune"? There is a little help at the beginning of the book with Gaelic pronunciation, but more would have been helpful. Thankfully, the protagonist’s internal narration is in British English. The story was constructed of alternating present and past chapters. There were 18-years between the most recent flashback chapters, but many were from McLeod’s childhood. The flashing back and forth between chapters was well-handled. There were several minor continuity errors. For example, the eponymous Blackhouse is infested with insects much to young Macleod's consternation. Shortly afterward, the insects completely disappear from the narrative. I've never known bugs to give-up so easily.
There was sex, substance abuse and violence in this story. The sex is not graphic, and handled with an eventual fade to black. All the sex was heteronormative. Substance abuse included alcohol and soft-core drug usage. The effects of alcohol abuse were plot element. Alcoholism was rampant on the island. Its description was more graphic than the drug usage. Drug usage was exclusively marijuana. All violence was physical. Note that animal butchery was a major plot element in the story. Physical violence and the resulting trauma were moderately graphic. Most of the physical violence is between the islanders. Body count was modest.
Characters were good. The male island characters were generally a rough lot. The female characters were better than the male characters. I also liked the characters in the flashbacks in which they were children, which was unusual for me. There was a single POV. The protagonist was Fin McLeod ( pronounced Mik-Cloud). He’s damaged goods returning to his remote home after 18-years and with a solid career as a Police Scotland DS. He’s in pieces after the death of his young child and resulting breakup of his marriage The Island is a small place, and everyone knows each other and has some relationship with each other. There is a small cast of island characters, most of them with unpronounceable Gaelic names. There’s Macleod‘s stay-at-home, childhood best friend, and the girl he left behind; now married to his best friend. A friendly Lewis Island, Scottish police detective sergeant aids Macleod in his investigation. Another rebellious, childhood friend of McLeod is now a minister (Church of Scotland). In addition, there were islander NPC s, rough, hard drinking, prone to violence salt-of-the-earth types.
Oddly, except for the minister, ex-girlfriend and the Lewis DC there was only rough overlap between the characters in this book and The Chessmen. I think the author should have been looking further ahead with this character arcs.
The story moves with two plot lines, present and past. Who killed Angel Macritchie ? Angel was a local thug and childhood bully who has spent the last 30-years making enemies in the small Lewis community. Macleod ratchets through the investigation being helped by the local Lewis police man and hindered by the Glaswegian policemen. As McLeod works his way through The Usual Suspects he flashes back to salient, childhood and youthful memories with each of them. The memories were extraordinarily vivid, considering the frailty of human memory? (They’re a literary construct—I know.) McLeod is forced to confront unwanted truths about his childhood and youth. Eventually, the two plot lines converge in repressed memories and a wild trip out to an even remoter island (An Sgeir A.K.A . Sula Sgeir ) which is the site of an almost pagan rite of passage. The eponymous Blackhouse is found there. Note that Sula Sgeir is only ever referred to by the islander name. It took some research to geo-locate it.
World building was detailed. I was very interested in Macleod’s island life leaving for the mainland. I ended up stalking the action in Crosbost his home village and Stornoway where the present day action was concentrated. I frankly thought the best part of the story was the childhood and youth plot-line. Never having been to the Hebrides, the author’s description made me want to visit. However, I would only interest in visiting in the summer, and not the winter.
This was a good story. However, it was not as good as The Chessmen, which was the last book in the series and the first one I read. I thought the crime solving received short shrift by the author, although I came to think the whodunnit was incidental to the MacLeod coming-of-age story. Yet, the level of both description and characterization was high. I recommend this reading this book more for that, than the crime fiction.
I shall be reading the second book in the series, [b:The Lewis Man|12782865|The Lewis Man (The Lewis Trilogy, #2)|Peter May|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328645011i/12782865._SY75_.jpg|17929545].
After the death of his child and subsequent breakup of his marriage Macleod is an emotionally fragile Edinburgh homicide detective. He is assigned to investigate the murder of a local thug on the somewhat remote Scottish isle he left as a youth and never returned to. There he must liaise with an unfriendly, Glasgow homicide squad and look at old friends as suspects. Despite the efforts of his Glaswegian colleagues and with his local knowledge and contacts Macleod breaks the case. In the process he puts himself back together. Flashbacks to MacLeod's childhood and youth tell an islander's coming-of-age story. Despite the overly theatrical showdown with the perpetrator this was a well written Scottish police procedural, but a better story of a protagonist’s transformation though the inspection of his past.
My dead tree copy was a hefty 390-pages with a 2011 UK copyright. This is the first book of [a:Peter May's|4605488|Peter May|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1295983190p2/4605488.jpg] Lewis Trilogy with Detective Sergeant (DS) Fin Macleod. I read this because I enjoyed The Chessmen (Lewis Trilogy, #3) (my review). Both stories were more literary fiction than detective novels.
Prose was excellent, although a tad too literary for the police procedural sub-genre. Descriptive prose was better than the dialog. The description of the Lewis locale is vividly literary. The author uses a lot of pages to describe Lewis Island . At one point Macleod describes it as a magical place. I came to agree with him. Gaelic and Scottish vernacular are worked into the in the characters dialog. Is a "doon" a "dune"? There is a little help at the beginning of the book with Gaelic pronunciation, but more would have been helpful. Thankfully, the protagonist’s internal narration is in British English. The story was constructed of alternating present and past chapters. There were 18-years between the most recent flashback chapters, but many were from McLeod’s childhood. The flashing back and forth between chapters was well-handled. There were several minor continuity errors. For example, the eponymous Blackhouse is infested with insects much to young Macleod's consternation. Shortly afterward, the insects completely disappear from the narrative. I've never known bugs to give-up so easily.
There was sex, substance abuse and violence in this story. The sex is not graphic, and handled with an eventual fade to black. All the sex was heteronormative. Substance abuse included alcohol and soft-core drug usage. The effects of alcohol abuse were plot element. Alcoholism was rampant on the island. Its description was more graphic than the drug usage. Drug usage was exclusively marijuana. All violence was physical. Note that animal butchery was a major plot element in the story. Physical violence and the resulting trauma were moderately graphic. Most of the physical violence is between the islanders. Body count was modest.
Characters were good. The male island characters were generally a rough lot. The female characters were better than the male characters. I also liked the characters in the flashbacks in which they were children, which was unusual for me. There was a single POV. The protagonist was Fin McLeod ( pronounced Mik-Cloud). He’s damaged goods returning to his remote home after 18-years and with a solid career as a Police Scotland DS. He’s in pieces after the death of his young child and resulting breakup of his marriage The Island is a small place, and everyone knows each other and has some relationship with each other. There is a small cast of island characters, most of them with unpronounceable Gaelic names. There’s Macleod‘s stay-at-home, childhood best friend, and the girl he left behind; now married to his best friend. A friendly Lewis Island, Scottish police detective sergeant aids Macleod in his investigation. Another rebellious, childhood friend of McLeod is now a minister (Church of Scotland). In addition, there were islander NPC s, rough, hard drinking, prone to violence salt-of-the-earth types.
Oddly, except for the minister, ex-girlfriend and the Lewis DC there was only rough overlap between the characters in this book and The Chessmen. I think the author should have been looking further ahead with this character arcs.
The story moves with two plot lines, present and past. Who killed Angel Macritchie ? Angel was a local thug and childhood bully who has spent the last 30-years making enemies in the small Lewis community. Macleod ratchets through the investigation being helped by the local Lewis police man and hindered by the Glaswegian policemen. As McLeod works his way through The Usual Suspects he flashes back to salient, childhood and youthful memories with each of them. The memories were extraordinarily vivid, considering the frailty of human memory? (They’re a literary construct—I know.) McLeod is forced to confront unwanted truths about his childhood and youth. Eventually, the two plot lines converge in repressed memories and a wild trip out to an even remoter island (An Sgeir A.K.A . Sula Sgeir ) which is the site of an almost pagan rite of passage. The eponymous Blackhouse is found there. Note that Sula Sgeir is only ever referred to by the islander name. It took some research to geo-locate it.
World building was detailed. I was very interested in Macleod’s island life leaving for the mainland. I ended up stalking the action in Crosbost his home village and Stornoway where the present day action was concentrated. I frankly thought the best part of the story was the childhood and youth plot-line. Never having been to the Hebrides, the author’s description made me want to visit. However, I would only interest in visiting in the summer, and not the winter.
This was a good story. However, it was not as good as The Chessmen, which was the last book in the series and the first one I read. I thought the crime solving received short shrift by the author, although I came to think the whodunnit was incidental to the MacLeod coming-of-age story. Yet, the level of both description and characterization was high. I recommend this reading this book more for that, than the crime fiction.
I shall be reading the second book in the series, [b:The Lewis Man|12782865|The Lewis Man (The Lewis Trilogy, #2)|Peter May|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328645011i/12782865._SY75_.jpg|17929545].