Helpful Score: 1
The best features of this book were Peter May's beautiful writing and his description which made you feel like you were right there on the island witnessing everything that was happening. Also, I found the island and the people very interesting. It was a brilliant story with just enough mystery that kept me guessing until the very end.
This is a deliciously well realized crime novel that takes place in a setting few Americans have visited - the Hebrides islands off the west coast of Scotland. You get as much foggy, stormy scenery and local culture as you do plot and characterization - which for me was all to the good.
It's quite unusual to come across a detective who can be gentle and empathetic with both a man who has advanced Alzheimer's and a Bible-thumping bully. This too was a plus for me.
I especially liked the way the past unfolded, bit by bit in flashbacks, while not revealing the culprit until the end.
Unlike most dark crime novels, this had a fairly happy ending.
Do read the first volume of this trilogy first: The Blackhouse. I'm on to the third now...
It's quite unusual to come across a detective who can be gentle and empathetic with both a man who has advanced Alzheimer's and a Bible-thumping bully. This too was a plus for me.
I especially liked the way the past unfolded, bit by bit in flashbacks, while not revealing the culprit until the end.
Unlike most dark crime novels, this had a fairly happy ending.
Do read the first volume of this trilogy first: The Blackhouse. I'm on to the third now...
First Line: On this storm-lashed island three hours off the north-west coast of Scotland, what little soil exists gives the people their food and their heat. It also takes their dead. And very occasionally, as today, gives one up.
An unidentified body has been discovered in a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Originally thought to be an ancient burial, once examined, the body proves to have been buried in much more recent times. The only clue to its identity is a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. There's going to be a problem in dealing with the farmer because not only is Tormod Macdonald an old man suffering from dementia, he's also always claimed to be an only child.
Fin Macleod, recently retired from the Edinburgh police force, has returned to the island of his childhood to make a new life for himself. When he's approached by Tormod's family for help, he knows he must do everything he can to solve the mystery of the Lewis Man.
Having fallen under the spell of the first book in Peter May's Lewis trilogy, The Blackhouse, I literally snatched a copy of this book off the shelf when I spied it at my favorite local bookstore. Sometimes when I have such a strong positive reaction to a book I can be rather hesitant to pick up the second, fearing that it won't "live up" to the first. For some reason I didn't feel any such hesitance this time, and I was rewarded with a book that's even more powerful.
To have a mystery rely upon a character suffering from dementia could be a very risky proposition, but Peter May handles it brilliantly. Much is learned about each character in how they relate to Tormod: from his wife, who's kicked him out of the house, to his daughter, who loves her father but doesn't quite know how to cope, to Fin, whose grace and patience and compassion with the old man made me want to cry. While Fin tries to make sense of what little information he can get from Tormod, Tormod's childhood is gradually revealed to the reader. Over the years there have been so many lies and secrets that the ending-- and the way Fin arrives at it-- should come as quite a surprise.
And-- as always in this trilogy-- the Isle of Lewis makes its presence felt in the lyrical beauty of its rugged landscape and in the strength of its people. The Lewis Man is a feast for the eye and the heart and the mind. It is not to be missed.
An unidentified body has been discovered in a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Originally thought to be an ancient burial, once examined, the body proves to have been buried in much more recent times. The only clue to its identity is a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. There's going to be a problem in dealing with the farmer because not only is Tormod Macdonald an old man suffering from dementia, he's also always claimed to be an only child.
Fin Macleod, recently retired from the Edinburgh police force, has returned to the island of his childhood to make a new life for himself. When he's approached by Tormod's family for help, he knows he must do everything he can to solve the mystery of the Lewis Man.
Having fallen under the spell of the first book in Peter May's Lewis trilogy, The Blackhouse, I literally snatched a copy of this book off the shelf when I spied it at my favorite local bookstore. Sometimes when I have such a strong positive reaction to a book I can be rather hesitant to pick up the second, fearing that it won't "live up" to the first. For some reason I didn't feel any such hesitance this time, and I was rewarded with a book that's even more powerful.
To have a mystery rely upon a character suffering from dementia could be a very risky proposition, but Peter May handles it brilliantly. Much is learned about each character in how they relate to Tormod: from his wife, who's kicked him out of the house, to his daughter, who loves her father but doesn't quite know how to cope, to Fin, whose grace and patience and compassion with the old man made me want to cry. While Fin tries to make sense of what little information he can get from Tormod, Tormod's childhood is gradually revealed to the reader. Over the years there have been so many lies and secrets that the ending-- and the way Fin arrives at it-- should come as quite a surprise.
And-- as always in this trilogy-- the Isle of Lewis makes its presence felt in the lyrical beauty of its rugged landscape and in the strength of its people. The Lewis Man is a feast for the eye and the heart and the mind. It is not to be missed.
There may follow SPOILERS for the first book in this trilogy, "The Black House," but I strongly suggest that anyone wishing to read this novel should read that first.
Although there were aspects of "The Black House" that annoyed me (structure and psychology), I enjoyed it sufficiently that I couldn't wait to get my hands on this, the second volume. I won't be reading the third: in "The Lewis Man," May doubles down on what I felt were the faults in the first, and loses control of what I felt was its great strength -- its fabulous presentation of the beauty and savagery of the Isle of Lewis and those who live on that wild edge of the British Isles.
In the first novel, I think May got the balance of plot and setting just about right: scenery, language, geography, weather, wildlife. All, in their way, part of the plot -- the murder that brings police inspector Fin Macleod back to the island of his birth) and the history (personal and community) that drove him away, and makes it so hard for him to return, are all interwoven with the things that make the Hebrides unique.
In "The Lewis Man," I felt that May was once again trying for that "sweet spot," where local color is as important as character and plot, and badly missing the mark. It reads at times as if he was writing it with a "Beginners' Guide to the Hebrides" open at his elbow. There is one painful moment when our hero takes time out from his sleuthing to retell the plot of the movie "Whiskey Galore," when he passes through the village where the real-life events of the movie took place. I had the feeling that May had his character go into the local pub for a lemonade just so the girl behind the bar could say, "You know that movie ..."
Although there were aspects of "The Black House" that annoyed me (structure and psychology), I enjoyed it sufficiently that I couldn't wait to get my hands on this, the second volume. I won't be reading the third: in "The Lewis Man," May doubles down on what I felt were the faults in the first, and loses control of what I felt was its great strength -- its fabulous presentation of the beauty and savagery of the Isle of Lewis and those who live on that wild edge of the British Isles.
In the first novel, I think May got the balance of plot and setting just about right: scenery, language, geography, weather, wildlife. All, in their way, part of the plot -- the murder that brings police inspector Fin Macleod back to the island of his birth) and the history (personal and community) that drove him away, and makes it so hard for him to return, are all interwoven with the things that make the Hebrides unique.
In "The Lewis Man," I felt that May was once again trying for that "sweet spot," where local color is as important as character and plot, and badly missing the mark. It reads at times as if he was writing it with a "Beginners' Guide to the Hebrides" open at his elbow. There is one painful moment when our hero takes time out from his sleuthing to retell the plot of the movie "Whiskey Galore," when he passes through the village where the real-life events of the movie took place. I had the feeling that May had his character go into the local pub for a lemonade just so the girl behind the bar could say, "You know that movie ..."
