Helpful Score: 2
This novel was not quite what I was expecting but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Inspector Fin Macleod is at a crossroads in his marriage and his life. He is a detective in Edinburgh and has lost his young eight-year-old son to a hit and run. This makes him question his life and marriage. Then he is called to return to his place of birth, the Isle of Lewis off the Northwest coast of Scotland, to investigate a murder that has similar traits to a recent murder that he is investigating in Glasgow. When Fin returns to Lewis, he is immersed in old memories and is surrounded by the people he grew up with on the island. He must learn to face his past even though it has been mostly erased from his mind for the past 18 years. The person who was murdered was an old school acquaintance of Fin's who was also a bully who tormented not only Fin but many of his school mates as well. So who killed him? Was it the same person who killed the man in Glasgow? If not, why are the circumstances of the murders so similar?
As I said, this novel was really not what I was expecting. I thought it would be a usual police procedural about a serial killer. But it was really more about Fin's life and his experiences on Lewis which affected him forever. The book alternates between the present and Fin's investigation and the past told from Fin's perspective as he lived it. This included the death of his parents, his love of a young girl during his boyhood and on into adulthood, the bullying of his peers, and his eventual departure from his life there. A big part of his story revolved around what happened when he went with the group to An Sgeir, a rocky island 50 miles north of Lewis where the annual hunt for young gannets or "guga" is held. The Lewis islanders make an annual pilgrimage there each year and kill about 2000 of the young birds which are considered a delicacy by the islanders. I really had never heard of this and I always like learning something new with each book I read. This one really fleshed out life on the Isle of Lewis and I would recommend it. This is also the first book in a trilogy by May. I have the other two books on my TBR shelves and hopefully will get to them sometime soon.
As I said, this novel was really not what I was expecting. I thought it would be a usual police procedural about a serial killer. But it was really more about Fin's life and his experiences on Lewis which affected him forever. The book alternates between the present and Fin's investigation and the past told from Fin's perspective as he lived it. This included the death of his parents, his love of a young girl during his boyhood and on into adulthood, the bullying of his peers, and his eventual departure from his life there. A big part of his story revolved around what happened when he went with the group to An Sgeir, a rocky island 50 miles north of Lewis where the annual hunt for young gannets or "guga" is held. The Lewis islanders make an annual pilgrimage there each year and kill about 2000 of the young birds which are considered a delicacy by the islanders. I really had never heard of this and I always like learning something new with each book I read. This one really fleshed out life on the Isle of Lewis and I would recommend it. This is also the first book in a trilogy by May. I have the other two books on my TBR shelves and hopefully will get to them sometime soon.
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