The Chessmen by Peter May

First Line: He sits at his desk, grey with fear and the weight of this momentous step which, once taken, cannot be taken back.

In the conclusion of Peter May's superb Lewis trilogy, ex-Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is living on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and working as a security officer for a local landowner. Large-scale poaching is being conducted on the estate, and during the course of his investigation Macleod runs into former childhood friend Whistler Macaskill.

The two men witness a "bog burst"-- a freakish natural phenomenon that drains the water out of a loch-- and see what is uncovered: an aircraft containing the remains of Roddy Mackenzie, rock star and friend who disappeared over seventeen years ago. Macleod almost misses seeing the look on his friend's face. Whistler isn't shocked. Whistler has been hiding a secret, and Macleod realizes that, sooner or later, he's going to have to learn the truth.

The atmospheric setting of the Outer Hebrides, the characters, and the story kept me glued to the page. If setting is important to you, Peter May's Lewis trilogy is tailor-made for you. The Isle of Lewis should be listed in the cast of characters, and May always seems able to find something about it that will illuminate and set the mood. In The Chessmen, it's the frightening and eery bog burst. As the water drains out of the loch, secrets are uncovered, and Macleod will have his hands full with one secret after another throughout the book.

The Lewis trilogy has dealt with other secrets, and this final book is no exception. It's as if Macleod has to clear everything up from his past before he can really make a fresh start. (Just as we do in real life.) Here the secrets revolve around his late teens and early twenties when he was a roadie for an up-and-coming Celtic rock band. Whistler Macaskill was a member of the band, and his life has also been shadowed with secrets that will have an effect on his young daughter Anna Bheag ("wee Anna").

It's fascinating to see how the lives of all the various characters mesh together, and how each secret has made a lasting mark on them. The entire book is a feast, but the highlight for me was Fin's speech before the church board at the end. It was filled with truth, it was emotional, and it was oh so right. I would've cheered when Macleod was finished, but the lump in my throat was too big.

You could probably read The Chessmen as a standalone without too much difficulty, but I wouldn't advise it. The entire trilogy is a reading experience that should not be missed.
 

The Chessmen by Peter May

ISBN: 9780857382252  

Quercus © 2013

Paperback, 386 pages

Police Procedural, #3 in the Lewis Trilogy

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

The Lewis Man by Peter May

First Line: On this storm-lashed island three hours off the north-west 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.

An unidentified body has been discovered in a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Originally thought to be an ancient burial, once examined, the body proves to have been buried in much more recent times. The only clue to its identity is a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. There's going to be a problem in dealing with the farmer because not only is Tormod Macdonald an old man suffering from dementia, he's also always claimed to be an only child.

Fin Macleod, recently retired from the Edinburgh police force, has returned to the island of his childhood to make a new life for himself. When he's approached by Tormod's family for help, he knows he must do everything he can to solve the mystery of the Lewis Man.

Having fallen under the spell of the first book in Peter May's Lewis trilogy, The Blackhouse, I literally snatched a copy of this book off the shelf when I spied it at my favorite local bookstore. Sometimes when I have such a strong positive reaction to a book I can be rather hesitant to pick up the second, fearing that it won't "live up" to the first. For some reason I didn't feel any such hesitance this time, and I was rewarded with a book that's even more powerful.

To have a mystery rely upon a character suffering from dementia could be a very risky proposition, but Peter May handles it brilliantly. Much is learned about each character in how they relate to Tormod: from his wife, who's kicked him out of the house, to his daughter, who loves her father but doesn't quite know how to cope, to Fin, whose grace and patience and compassion with the old man made me want to cry. While Fin tries to make sense of what little information he can get from Tormod, Tormod's childhood is gradually revealed to the reader. Over the years there have been so many lies and secrets that the ending-- and the way Fin arrives at it-- should come as quite a surprise.

And-- as always in this trilogy-- the Isle of Lewis makes its presence felt in the lyrical beauty of its rugged landscape and in the strength of its people. The Lewis Man is a feast for the eye and the heart and the mind. It is not to be missed.

The Lewis Man by Peter May

ISBN: 9780857382221

Quercus © 2012

Paperback, 435 pages

Police Procedural, Literary Mystery, #2 in the Lewis Trilogy

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

The Blackhouse by Peter May

First Line: They are just kids.

Just one month ago, Detective Fin Macleod and his wife lost their only child in a hit-and-run. It has ruined their marriage. Forcing himself to return to work in Edinburgh, Fin finds himself assigned to a murder investigation on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland-- the place where he was born and lived until he went away to university. It will be his first time back in twenty years.

Arriving in Stornoway he finds that he's unwanted by a Detective Chief Inspector who's looking for the tiniest excuse to get him off the island. Although Fin intuitively knows that there's no real connection between the Lewis murder and the one he was investigating in Edinburgh, he realizes that he can be of real use because he went to school with the dead man and knows many of the names on the suspect list. What he doesn't know is how deeply into his own past his investigation will take him.

The first thing that struck me as I read this book was that the setting should be included in the cast of characters. When Fin Macleod speaks of his childhood on the Isle of Lewis being filled with rainbows, I remembered my first trip to the Isle of Skye when I was bedazzled and enchanted by an endless procession of waterfalls and rainbows. On another trip, I stood on a windswept cliff and looked out across The Minch to the Isle of Lewis and felt its siren song. The author brought this all back to me (and so much more), and I can see many other readers falling under the same spell.

There are two magnets in this book: its setting, and Fin Macleod. The unfolding of his character throughout the book by alternating the present day investigation with childhood flashbacks is brilliant. We see a happy little boy whose life is filled with rainbows change into a teenager who can't wait to leave the island forever, and finally into a quiet man who seems filled with regrets... and secrets. Macleod's return to Lewis turns out to be good both for the island and for himself.

I'm still a bit under the spell of this book, so I am very glad to know that there are two forthcoming volumes that will continue the story. I can't help but wonder if rainbows will make a reappearance in Fin's skies.

The Blackhouse by Peter May

ISBN: 9781454901273

SilverOak © 2012

Hardcover, 368 pages

Police Procedural, #1 in the Lewis trilogy

Rating: A

Source: Publisher