A rock and a hard place

 

    I'm not used to so much tension in a plot that I find myself gripping the arms of the chair while I read, but as I reached the climax of Peter May's novel The Blackhouse, the upholstery bore the marks of my fingernails and I could hardly take in the words fast enough.

    The other day I wrote about a first novel which I criticised for featuring too much drama, too many issues - it was implausible and unbalanced and for me it didn't work. While The Blackhouse contains many feature-filled pages, life-changing events and revelations of major consequence, they are beautifully played here, orchestrated by a writer in full command of his material, perfectly judged and paced, and so the whole story is utterly compelling and it carries the reader to the very last word. This book shows how the dramatic should be done.

    A murder has taken place on the usually peaceable Hebridean island of Lewis. It's a particularly distinctive, brutal killing, and looks to be a carbon-copy of one which happened in Edinburgh some months earlier, so Fin Macleod, the detective leading that investigation, is brought in to look for parallels. Fin is a Lewisman, born and brought up on the island, though he left his past behind him when he went off to university and has scarcely been back since. Returning now to the small community in which he grew up, his schoolfriends - and enemies - victim and possible suspects, he finds a personal mystery a lot deeper than the crime to solve, one which will take much courage in confronting the past and facing the future.

    Somehow connected to events surrounding the murder is the annual voyage to An Sgeir, 'The Rock', a tiny, inhospitable island fifty miles out in the Atlantic which is home to a gannet colony. For centuries, men from the north of Lewis have sailed out to the rock and spent a fortnight there hunting guga - the young gannet, formerly an important source of food, now a prized delicacy, the trip a rite of passage for the young men of the community, its traditions a bond from generation to generation. What happened on the rock when Fin went there as a young man will now determine his fate and that of others, and as the chosen twelve prepare for this year's dangerous expedition, so the novel builds to its powerful and stormy crescendo.

    I found the mixture of the detective story and Fin's own history very deftly done and completely absorbing. Lewis itself - its landscape, its culture, its people - forms a large part of the book, familiar to any reader who has been there, just as fascinating to those who have not. The novel has two epigraphs, one Housman's "land of lost content", the other a Gaelic proverb: Tri rudan a thig gun iarraidh: an t-eagal, an t-eudach 's an gaol - "Three things that come without asking: fear, love and jealousy". If you read The Blackhouse  - and I recommend you do - you'll understand how apt those lines are.

    I see from Peter May's website that this book is the first part of a Lewis trilogy, and I hope he is getting a move on with the other two volumes because on the basis of this one, I can't wait to read them.

Comments

[Coffee and a Book Chick]

Now, this sounds incredible! There are so many different element so this that are jumping out at me that are making me download it right now... :)

[Susan in TX]

Sounds fascintating -- I wonder if the arms of my chair would be up to it? ;) Thanks for the review!

[Juxtabook]

Wow! I wish you'd stop reviewing such good books. I can't keep up!

[Danielle]

This sounds wonderful--I'm adding it to my list. My library just ordered the Paver book (finally I will get to read it!). Love to see what books you have on your sidebar--so many to tempt me!

[efi]

thank you karen.i have just ordered my copy.

[Sandy]

Ochone, ochone ... it's another baited hook that I'm seeing ...

[Your Mother]

And I'll just wait until my next visit down the motorway and pick up your copy !!! sounds like my taste. How lucky am I ? Love, Mum

[LizF]

This looks great. I am already hooked on Ann Cleeve's Jimmy Perez books set in Shetland and Fair Isle so another island story will be very welcome.
Must look out for the Cliff McNish book - I seem to remember Junior Daughter reading a couple by him when she was about 10 or so which she enjoyed.
Also I will be interested in hearing what you think about the new Sarah Moss book as I loved Cold Earth and if this is anything like as good will be well worth reading.

[Cornflower]

I'm glad to see a lot of interest in this book as it is so good (and Mum, you will be getting my copy soon).
Sandy, it doesn't take much bait to hook me either! I've just heard from Peter May that the second in the series, The Lewis Man, is finished and due for release this time next year.
Liz, I'm really looking forward to the Sarah Moss, though I haven't read Cold Earth - like The Blackhouse, Night Waking has a Scottish island setting.

[Mr Cornflower]

Tremendous. Read it in one sitting. Interesting how many really effective crime novels have such a great sense of place: to Donna Leon's Venice, Colin Dexter's Oxford, Conan Doyle's London, Michael Connolly's Los Angeles and Ian Rankin's Edinburgh we can now add Peter May's Lewis.

[Nan]

Wow! I must read this. Thank you.

[Sandy]

I have just finished this book, which I enjoyed. The current plot is woven in with the past in an exceptionally fine manner and you go from one period to another in a seamless and effortless path.

I have lived on the North-west coast for more than 30 years and have spent time in Ness on Lewis. The authenticity of the depiction of place is outstanding, at least from the viewpoint of an incomer. I have not seen it equalled. I cant speak for the locals of course.

The final explanation of the mystery was the only weaker element for me but the book as a whole made up for this and it's my book of 2011 so far.

I hope there is a sequel !

[Cornflower]

So glad you enjoyed it, Sandy, and yes, I hear from Peter May that the sequel is finished, though it's not due out until next Spring.