-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:From acclaimed author and television dramatist Peter May comes the first book in the Lewis Trilogy - a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a formidable and forbidding world where tradition rules and people adhere to ancient ways of life.
When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that has the hallmarks of a killing he's investigating on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to see if the two deaths are connected. His return after nearly two decades not only represents a police investigation, but a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the places and people of his tortured childhood, he feels the island once again asserting its grip on his psyche. And every step forward in solving the murder takes him closer to a dangerous confrontation with the tragic events of the past that shaped - and nearly destroyed - Fin's life.
The Blackhouse is a thriller of rare power and vision that explores the darkest recesses of the soul.
Peter May's tight prose and gorgeously rendered sense of place keeps the reader turning the pages. An accomplished writer of mysteries, at no time does Peter May let up the sense of suspense; this is a masterful work by a masterful writer, likely to hook mystery fans, especially those with an interest in the British Isles...continued
Full Review
(846 words)
(Reviewed by Lisa Guidarini).
If you look at a map of the United Kingdom, you'll find Scotland at the top and, to the west, a cluster of islands which are known as the Hebrides (pronounced heb-ree-dees). The islands are split into two groups - the Inner Hebrides and the Outer Hebrides. The islands in the Inner Hebrides lie close to the Scottish mainland, so close that a number of them are indistinguishable from the mainland in the map to the left. The Outer Hebrides are the chain of islands that lie further to the west, about 40 miles from the mainland; they stretch about 130 miles from top to bottom. Of the approximate 65 islands in the group, 15 are inhabited with a population of about 26,000, most of whom live on the Island of Lewis and Harris, which is the large ...
If you liked The Blackhouse, try these:
by Anthony Horowitz
Published 2019
Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.
by Louise Penny
Published 2017
Winner of the 2016 BookBrowse Fiction Award
Bestselling author Louise Penny pulls back the layers to reveal a brilliant and emotionally powerful truth in her latest spellbinding novel.
