Fin Macleod, who featured as the detective in May’s earlier Isle of Lewis trilogy, is no longer in the force, nor on the island. He is in Glasgow working for the police in a civilian role monitoring the seedier aspects of cyber-crime. It is unrewarding and is putting a strain on his marriage to Marsaili. So when one night he returns home to hear that his son, Fionnlagh, has been arrested back on Lewis for the murder of a teenaged girl, it is an easy decision to leave it all behind and head for The Isles.
He and Marsaili get the first plane to Stornoway, and Fin wastes no time in using his old contacts to establish the bones of the crime and gain access to Fionnlegh in custody. The circumstantials look bad, the forensics are likely to come back damning, and the lad himself (though at thirty hardly a lad) is uncommunicative and seemingly guilt-ridden.
Fin has no authority but that does not stop him investigating the crime. As he does, connections to his youth arise and memories of past events (some related in the earlier Blackhouse novel, some fresh) intrude and might even have links to the girl’s murder.
It’s all good – trademark atmospheric descriptions of the Hebridean landscape and weather, gritty realism of island life, and a plot that thickens like a good stew. Fin’s parental instinct to protect his son battles with his ingrained police approach to follow the evidence. To add to the mix, Fin and Marsaili have to confront their own relationship as both stumble over old flames from their youth.
A good read. Links
back to The Blackhouse are frequent and a re-read, or pre-read, would do no
harm. Or just read it (it’s very good) afterwards.
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