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 ..."
