Introduction

The Lewis Man is the second book in Peter May’s remarkable Lewis Trilogy. As The Guardian described it:

“As good as its predecessor…not only a good mystery, but also a moving and evocative portrayal of a place where the weather is matched only by the church’s harsh patronage….”

Set in the remote and windswept Isle of Lewis, this story blends murder mystery with an intimate portrait of the people who endure life in a harsh and beautiful land.

Setting the Scene

From the book’s prologue:

“On this storm-lashed island three hours off the northwest 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.”

During the annual peat harvest, the bog gives up the body of a nineteen-year-old male. The corpse is astonishingly well-preserved—a classic bog body. Such remains are often thousands of years old, but this one has a clue that places it firmly in the modern era: an Elvis tattoo on the forearm.

The Mystery Unfolds

The boy’s internal organs are intact, allowing for DNA testing. When the DNA is matched against samples from island men (taken during the events of The Blackhouse), the results shock the community—it’s connected to Tormod MacDonald, father of Marsaili, the childhood sweetheart of series protagonist Fin MacLeod.

Fin, recently retired from the Edinburgh police, has returned to Lewis to restore his family croft—and perhaps some relationships. But Tormod is suffering from dementia, drifting between past and present, and he may hold the key to solving the mystery of the bog boy.

Tormod’s Hidden Story

Through the haze of Tormod’s mind, a decades-old tale emerges—one of two brothers unknown to Marsaili and other locals. As the narrative shifts between Fin’s investigation and Tormod’s fragmented memories, long-buried secrets are unearthed, changing everything the characters thought they knew.

Why It Stuck With Me

When my wife sent me the Facebook challenge to list 10 books that have stayed with me, The Blackhouse should have been there. Now, The Lewis Man belongs on that list as well.

It’s a tightly woven mystery that keeps the truth hidden until the final pages, but it’s also a beautiful, if sometimes bleak, portrayal of life for the MacDonalds, MacLeods, Murrays, and others who call the Isle of Lewis home.

About the Author

Peter May, a Scotsman now living in France, is also known for his China Thrillers featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell—also well worth reading.

I haven’t yet started The Enzo Files, featuring Scottish forensic scientist Enzo MacLeod, but after finishing the Lewis Trilogy, I may have to.

Awards and Recognition

Winner:

• Prix des Lecteurs of Le Télégramme newspaper in France (10,000 Euro prize)
• Prix des Lecteurs 2012 at Les Ancres Noires Festival, Le Havre, France
• 2012 Prix International at the Polar & Co Festival, Cognac, France

Shortlisted for:

• UK Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award (2012)
• Scottish Crime Book of the Year (2012)
• Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2013)

Final Thoughts

If you’ve never read a Peter May novel, start with The Blackhouse. I’m willing to bet you’ll move quickly on to The Lewis Man.

Rating: ★★★★¾ (4.75/5)
Year Read: 2014
Book Number: 24 for the year

Links

Author’s Website
Goodreads
Amazon

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While on many days in August it was too hot to run, I did get a lot of books read! I read six books in August and while that’s not a lot for many readers it’s a good amount for me.

One of the questions I like to ask, when I’m summarizing the books I’ve read is: “where did my reading take me?”. Well in August it was to a variety of locales, including outer space. My first stop was southern Spain!

A Silent Death – Peter May

Goodreads   Amazon

I requested this book from my library in January of 2020. Thanks to Covid 19 and the subsequent closing of the library, the book didn’t become available  until July. Which is why it is an August read.

About A Silent Death

In A Silent Death Peter May took me to Spain. The book opens with John Mackenzie – an ingenious yet irascible Glaswegian investigator being sent to Spain to transport a known ex-pat fugitive Jack Cleland back to the U.K.

Cleland had been living in Spain under an assumed name. He was captured when police arrived at his home, they thought someone had broken in. When the police arrive and  they enter the house the Cleland accidentally kills his pregnant wife. He then blames the young female arresting officer and vows revenge!

Prior to MacKenzie’s arrival Cleland escapes while being transported and vows to destroy the young officer Cristina Sanchez Pradell and her family.

An important member of Cristina’s family is her Aunt Ana. Anna has been deaf-blind for the entirety of her adult life: the victim of a rare condition named Usher Syndrome. Ana is the centre of Cristina’s world therefore  a key paw  in Cleland’s cruel plan.

Mackenzies quest becomes thwarting Cleland’s plan before he destroys Christina life and that of her beloved Aunt.

Thoughts About Peter May and A Silent Death

Peter May is one of my favorite authors. I particularly liked his Lewis Trilogy set in the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland. As well as, his more recent stand alone novels. His writing is always terrific and his stories original and exciting. Additionally his characters always memorable. John Mackenzie, Ana and to a certain extent Cleland join that group.

I enjoyed A Silent Death a lot. However, I would say it ranks below a few of his other stand-alones like Runaway, Entry Island and Coffin Road in my opinion. Of course, if I think about it longer, I’ll probably change my mind!

The bottom line any book by Peter May is well worth reading. So  Check it Out!

Next stop the Mediterranean Sea and Greenland as James Rollins’ and his Sigma Force take me on  The Last Odyssey. Ok

Links for Further Exploration of the Books of Peter May

Author’s Website
Wikipedidia
Amazon

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The Critic – (Enzo Files #2) Another Winner from Peter May

So over the last few days I’ve spent a lot of time looking forward to what I want to read and back at what I’ve read. What I have actually missed though is to write about the book that I just finished. Actually, I read the majority of the book in 2016, but I didn’t finish it until New Year’s Day! So it is Book #1 of 2017!  Anyway the book was The Critic by Peter May. It is the second book in May’s Enzo Files series featuring Scottish exile and former forensic specialist Enzo Macleod.

i first became acquainted with the writing of Peter May back in 2006 when I read Firestarter the first book in May’s China Thriller series. While the book was a great read, somehow I have never read any of the other books in the series. A few years ago (wow – looking back at my Goodreads bookshelf I see it was 2012) I saw  The Black House at the library, remembering that I liked Firestarter, I
checked it out and I have been a Peter May fan ever since. The Black House Trilogy was great! In 2016 I read four Peter May books. The first three were stand alones, Entry Island, Coffin Road and Runaway. They too were all terrific reads! The fourth was my first Enzo MacLeod mystery. It is also the first book I finished in 2017. All I can say, keep’em coming Mr May!!

About The Critic – Enzo Files #2

In this episode, Enzo travels to the small little known wine-making region of Gaillic in southwestern France. His mission is to solve cold case murder. Three years earlier the world’s number one wine critic, Gil Petty, who disappeared while on a tour of the area. His body was found three years ago, strung up like a scarecrow in among the vines of the vineyard. His body has been preserved in wine before being strung up. Petty’s influence was very  powerful. And one of his reviews could make or break a winery. Do someone kill him to avoid a bad review? Or is it something far deeper?

My Thoughts About The Book

This book was a fast and enjoyable read for me. While I didn’t think it had the same power as any of the other May books that I’ve read, it was still good. I liked Enzo MacLeod and thought he was a lot like another forensic investigator Bill Brockton of the Body Farm series.He even had a graduate assistant, His is Nicole and Brockton’s is Miranda. Both have lost their wives and now have trouble with the ladies in their lives!  and I can see Bill enjoying the vino just about as much as Enzo .So if you like The Body Farm books check out this series!!

I also like it when come away from a book with a little more knowledge than when I started. In this book that knowledge came from the discussions of wine-making. carbonic gases play a big part in the story. Also the discussions on wine-tasting was interesting. I am not a wine drinker I didn’t know so many tastes and smells! Finally, it was interesting that wines differ because of the soils and the overall environment, (i.e what side of hillsides) where the grapes are grown. Therefore an analysis of minerals found in the soil could be used in  determining where the grapes that the wine was made from came from!!

Final Rating

All in all, this book was a solid 3.75 out of 5, not quite a 4 star book. And that may be because I am comparing it to other books by Peter May. I will certainly be checking out more of the books that chronicle the adventures of Enzo  MacLeod!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Peter May

Author’s Website
Goodreads
Amazon

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Yesterday I finished Home by Harlan Coben, the 47th book I have read in 2016. It is also the fifth book that I have finished in November. My goal for the year was to read 60 books. To meet that goal I needed to read five books per month.

Unfortunately there have been more than a few months where I came up short of that goal. So right now I would need to read 13 books over the next 4 plus weeks to get to 60! So

It looks like that I will not reach my goal of 60 books. However, I will surpass 50 books and if I read five more books I will beat last years total of 51 books. Wish me luck!

Now the last book I have written about was book 44   The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter. So here is book 45 Coffin Road by Peter May

Coffin Road – Peter May

Thanks to the talents of my favorite authors, I visit many places around the globe. I think that currently my favorite place to visit is the Isle of Harris in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. I first visited this rugged wind-swept Isle in May’s The Black House and returned via the other two books in his Lewis Trilogy The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. All three visits were terrific, so you should certainly make the trip! My most recent visit via May’s novel Coffin Road was just as wonderful.

I love reading the works of author’s who can create a sense of place in their work. So that after you read the book you feel like you have been to the locale. May certainly does that as well as any writer I know.

The Story

From the Book Jacket…

On the remote Isle of Harris in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, a man washes up on a deserted beach, hypothermic, and completely disoriented. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his condition is a map of the island showing a desolate  ancient path called the Coffin Road. With a sense of dread and no clear idea what lies at the other end, he knows he must follow the trail if he has any hopes of discovering his identity…..

The man soon discovers that his name is Neal Maclean and he has lived on the  Isle of Harris for eighteen months. He is there writing a book about the disappearance of the three keepers of the lighthouse on the island of Eilean Mor in the Flannan Isles.

The keepers disappeared during a storm in December of 1900. The man remembers nothing about writing the book, but does fear that he may have done something dreadful on the island, prior to his being washed into the sea.

Meanwhile, a teenage girl living in Edinburgh is desperate to discover the truth about her father’s death. Two year’s after his suicide she sets out to discover the truth. After she reads his suicide note, which her mother gives to her to shut her up. she believes he may not be dead! The more she digs the more she is convinced she is right!

Bottom Line……

Coffin Road is another amazing read from Peter May. Everything clicks for me in this book. May paints both the setting and the characters well. While the storyline twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing. What did happen on Eilean Mor?  And who is Neal Maclean?

I always like to read the quotes on the back of books and see which ones sum up how I feel about the book. Here are two quotes that fit the bill!

” An eminently satisfying , multilayered mystery populated with sharply drawn characters…The many threads of the story play out against a landscape that May, a native Scot, renders vividly. His images capture the capricious play of light and weather across the sea and the moors, matching the surprises in this tale” – Kirkus Reviews

“An extremely chilling tale. From a man with a memory loss, to a young girl dealing with the loss of her father, to a policeman unmasking the past, readers will have to pay close attention so they don’t lose track of the amazing web May has created” – Suspense Magazine

Rating – Four and a half Thumbs Up out of five!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Peter May

Author’s Website
Goodreads
Amazon

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Peter May’s – Entry Island  A Read for Mystery Lovers and Lovers of Genealogy

I always say that I love to read because books take me to places that i will never visit. One such place is the Outer Hebrides islands off of the western coast of Scotland. I have visited these islands four times thanks to the books of Peter May. The first three visits came via May’s Lewis Trilogy. That trilogy is composed of Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. Each of these books is a terrific read. The last visit was through another of May’s books Entry Island. The setting for the trilogy is modern-day Scotland and features Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod. The dual settings for Entry Island are contemporary Entry Island in the St Gulf of St.Lawrence in Canada and the Outer Hebrides of the mid-19th century. The one thing that one gets from all the books is the life is rough in the Outer Hebrides!!

A Brief Synopsis

Entry Island begins when police detective Sime MacKenzie is sent to the island as part of a team investigating a murder. The main suspect of the murder is the victim’s wife and when Sime first meets her he swears he knows her! As he mulls over why he may know her, Sime begins to have vivid dreams based on the stories that his grandmother used to read to him and his sister when they were little. The stories came from Sime’s great-grandfather’s dairies. They focus on the his life in Scotland and eventually Canada in the mid-1800s.

Entry Island works as both a fine mystery novel with many twists and turns before the final murderer is revealed and a historic tale about the adversities faced by residents of the Outer Hebrides.The novel also paints a grim picture of the conditions that many of our ancestors faced as they made their way to a new land. Reading the novel  made me stop and think about what it must have been like for my ancestors who came to America in the 1800s. from both Scotland and Ireland.

Here’s what some others say……

“Told with exceptional clarity and a fine eyefor the clausrophobia of island life, it weaves a hypnotic spell as it jumps between generations and proves that May is a writer to be cherished” – Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail

“May is the master of painting a vivid picture of his chosen landscapes and weaving a fascinating plot. The research he has packed into this well-paced dual tale is impressive…. An absorbing tale from a writer at the top of his game.” Daily Express

Bottom Line:

Entry Island is another fantastic read from Peter May. It works for both mystery lovers and those who love genealogy! Entry Island was named the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2014, and it also won the ITV Specsavers Book Club Dagger for the Best Read of the Year 2014, So Check it Out!!   Rating **** Book 19 of 2016

Links for Further Exploration of the Books of Peter May

Website
Goodreads
Amazon

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The Chessmen Book # 3 in the Award-winning Lewis Trilogy from Peter May

The Chessmen – Book #3 in the Award-winning Lewis Trilogy from Peter May

The Chessmen is the third and final book in Peter May’s outstanding Lewis Trilogy. The series follows ex-Detective Inspector Fin MacLeod as he returns to his home on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

Through May’s vivid writing, the reader is swept into that rugged landscape and given a true sense of the people who live there.

In this final installment, Fin has left his old life behind and is temporarily living with his childhood love, Marsaili. He’s working as head of security for Red River Estates, where his first assignment brings him face-to-face with his childhood friend John Angus Macaskill — “Whistler” — a poacher who lives on the estate lands.

One night, while pursuing Whistler across the hills, they are forced to shelter in a cave. The next morning they discover that a loch has drained overnight, revealing the wreckage of a small aircraft. It turns out to be the long-missing plane of their friend Roddy MacKenzie, who vanished seventeen years earlier. Inside is a decomposed body — a man who didn’t die in a crash, but was murdered. Finding out who killed Roddy, and why, will upend the lives of Fin’s closest friends.

May tells Roddy’s story, and that of his band Amran, through flashbacks that weave into Fin’s own life. These glimpses show how their college band rose to fame, with Fin helping as a roadie and his friend Donald as manager — a tale that ended in tragedy with Roddy’s disappearance.

I love books that take me to places I’ll never visit, and May certainly does that with this trilogy.

From The Scotsman:

“Vivid descriptions of the barren landscapes and cruel weather are a poignant backdrop for a melancholy tale.”

From The Daily Record:

“Steeped in atmosphere and set in a location that permeates the story like a falling mist, The Chessmen takes the reader on an enticing reel, forwards, backwards, side to side, every step leading to a breathtaking climax.”

The Lewis Chessmen in the British Museum

The title The Chessmen refers to the Lewis Chessmen, a group of 12th-century chess pieces discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis. Carved from walrus ivory, they are among the few surviving medieval chess sets.

Bottom Line:

The Chessmen, and the trilogy as a whole, are five-star reads for me. I love Fin MacLeod and his circle of friends, and I’ll miss them. May creates a “sense of place” like few writers can, and his characters feel incredibly real. I rarely reread books, but this series may be an exception — I can see myself returning to the Hebrides with Fin again and again.

The Lewis Trilogy wasn’t my first encounter with Peter May. Years ago, I read The Firemaker, the first book in his China Thriller series featuring Li Yan and Margaret Campbell. I may have to revisit that series, or perhaps dive deeper into the Enzo Files to get my next Peter May fix.

From The New York Times:

“Peter May is a writer I’d follow to the ends of the earth.”

Book 14 of 2015 – Book 9 of the Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge

✅ Tightened your summary without losing your personal touch.

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The Lewis Man is the second book in Peter May’s wonderful Lewis Trilogy and in the words of The Guardian it is…..

“As good as its predecessor…not only a good mystery, but also a moving and evocative portrayal of a place where the weather is matched only by the church’s harsh patronage….”

The place is the Isles of Lewis, from the book’s  prologue….

On this storm lashed island three hours off the northwest 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.

The body that it gave up is that of a nineteen year old male found in a peat bog during the annual peat harvest. The body is a typical bog body, Bodies found in peat bogs are sometimes perfectly preserved, retaining their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area.

These bodies sometimes are thousands of years old! In this case it is the body of a nineteen year old boy, who was brutally murdered. He stabbed several times and had hos throat slit! The Elvis tatoo on his forearm though squashed any theories that the body was centuries old. Since the bodies internal organs were intact DNA was used to help determine who the boy was. Matched against DNA of male islanders (samples had been collected and tested a year prior see The Blackhouse) a match was found – Tormod MacDonald. Tormod is the father of Marsaili, the childhood sweetheart of Fin MacLeod. MacLeod is a recently retired Edinburgh police detective who has returned to Lewis to restore his family croft and maybe some personal relationships.

Tormod suffers from dementia and lives in a hazy world of past and present. Soon Fin and Marsaili are on a quest to find out who the bog boy was and how and why he was murdered.

The story of the murdered boy is told through the haze of Tormod’s dementia, as Tormod tells a tale of two brothers, neither of whom  Marsaili or other Lewis residents have any knowledge of, and reveals long lost and buried secrets that change everything

Marsaili thought about her past and ancestry! Last week, my wife sent the Facebook challenge to me to list 10 books that have stayed with me, The Blackhouse should have been included on that list and now The Lewis Man should be among those books also!

As the quote at the beginning of this post says, the book is not only a good mystery that is not unraveled until the close of the book, but also a wonderful portrayal of the harsh lives of the MacDonalds, MacLeods, Murrays and other families who live in the harsh environment found on the Isle of Lewis.

Scotsman Peter May now lives and writes in France. I have read several of his China Thrillers that feature Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell and they are also great reads.

I have yet to read any of the books in his other series The Enzo Files which feature a Scottish forensic scientist Enzo MacLeod, but I should!!

The Lewis Man has won…

• the Prix des Lecteurs of Le Télégramme newspaper in France, a 10,000 Euro prize judged by readers of the newspaper
• the Prix des Lecteurs 2012 at Les Ancres Noires Festival, Le Havre, France.
• the 2012 Prix International at the Polar&Co Festival, Cognac, France.

and was shortlisted for…

• the UK Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award for 2012
• the Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2012
• the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime novel of the Year 2013

So if you have never read a Peter May book grab a copy of  The Blackhouse, I do believe you will be moving quickly on to The Lewis Man!!  (Book 24 for 2014) (Grade 4.75 out of 5.0)

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The Lewis Man is the second book in Peter May’s wonderful Lewis Trilogy and in the words of The Guardian it is…..

“As good as its predecessor…not only a good mystery, but also a moving and evocative portrayal of a place where the weather is matched only by the church’s harsh patronage….”

The place is the Isles of Lewis, from the book’s  prologue….

On this storm lashed island three hours off the northwest 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.

The body that it gave up is that of a nineteen year old male found in a peat bog during the annual peat harvest. The body is a typical bog body, Bodies found in peat bogs are sometimes perfectly preserved, retaining their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. These bodies sometimes are thousands of years old! In this case it is the body of a nineteen year old boy, who was brutally murdered. He stabbed several times and had hos throat slit! The Elvis tatoo on his forearm though squashed any theories that the body was centuries old. Since the bodies internal organs were intact DNA was used to help determine who the boy was. Matched against DNA of male islanders (samples had been collected and tested a year prior see The Blackhouse) a match was found – Tormod MacDonald. Tormod is the father of Marsaili, the childhood sweetheart of Fin MacLeod. MacLeod is a recently retired Edinburgh police detective who has returned to Lewis to restore his family croft and maybe some personal relationships. Tormod suffers from dementia and lives in a hazy world of past and present. Soon Fin and Marsaili are on a quest to find out who the bog boy was and how and why he was murdered. The story of the murdered boy is told through the haze of Tormod’s dementia, as Tormod tells a tale of two brothers, neither of whom  Marsaili or other Lewis residents have any knowledge of, and reveals long lost and buried secrets that change everything  Marsaili thought about her past and ancestry! Last week, my wife sent the Facebook challenge to me to list 10 books that have stayed with me, The Blackhouse should have been included on that list and now The Lewis Man should be among those books also! As the quote at the beginning of this post says, the book is not only a good mystery that is not unraveled until the close of the book, but also a wonderful portrayal of the harsh lives of the MacDonalds, MacLeods, Murrays and other families who live in the harsh environment found on the Isle of Lewis. Scotsman Peter May now lives and writes in France. I have read several of his China Thrillers that feature Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell and they are also great reads. I have yet to read any of the books in his other series The Enzo Files which feature a Scottish forensic scientist Enzo MacLeod, but I should!! The Lewis Man has won…

• the Prix des Lecteurs of Le Télégramme newspaper in France, a 10,000 Euro prize judged by readers of the newspaper
• the Prix des Lecteurs 2012 at Les Ancres Noires Festival, Le Havre, France.
• the 2012 Prix International at the Polar&Co Festival, Cognac, France.

and was shortlisted for…

• the UK Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award for 2012
• the Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2012
• the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime novel of the Year 2013

So if you have never read a Peter May book grab a copy of  The Blackhouse, I do believe you will be moving quickly on to The Lewis Man!!  (Book 24 for 2014) (Grade 4.5 out of 5.0)

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