The stories of Fin’s past, his present day entanglements and the murder investigation are woven around each other until they blend seemlessly into the climactic finale on An Sgeir.
Only one minor fault for me – I didn’t entirely buy into the motivation of the killer. (Q: Would someone really wait that long?).
But that is a minor quibble.
The Blackhouse is an atmospheric and engaging read. An unusual crime novel with a final sentence that left a lump in my throat.
. . .
The novel incorporates short but vivid descriptions of the ever-changing landscape and light – much of the latter precipitated by Atlantic storms and frequent horizontal rain, in which men without their waterproofs transform into drowned rats in seconds. (This is a realistic, not a romanticised portrait.) On Eriskay Tormod MacDonald’s real identity begins to emerge with sight of the silver sands of Prince Charlie’s Beach and the identification of the pattern of the blanket in which the dead man was wrapped. With that though comes real danger as past meets present in explosive fashion.
(As an aside I was delighted with the centre-stage moment of my favourite character, the irascible Reverend Donald Murray.)
Though I can’t help but worry about the aftermath. How will the already fragile Marsaili cope? Will Donald find the forgiveness he seeks? How long do I have to wait for the publication of the final episode in this trilogy, The Chessmen? How on earth will I endure the wait?
Another fabulous article by Lewis Trilogy author Peter May on his experiences living in the Outer Hebrides:
The Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides of Scotland are the setting for the three thrillers in my Lewis Trilogy – an archipelago of islands strung from north to south along the extreme north-west coast of Scotland. They are, in fact, as far north and west as you can go in Europe.
Perhaps once all joined by natural causeways, the Vikings knew the Outer Hebrides as “the long island”, and occupied them for 200 years. They comprise four major islands. Lewis and Harris (one island) is the biggest of them, at the north end. Then North and South Uist are separated by the small island of Benbecula. Eriskay becomes a stepping stone for the final ferry trip to the Isle of Barra, where a scheduled service of small aircraft uses the beach as a landing strip at low tide.
The islands are bleak, remote, and for many years were only accessible by long boat trips often made in stormy weather. They take the full brunt of the gales that sweep across 3000 miles of Atlantic Ocean, stunting the growth of anything more than two or three feet in height. There are virtually no trees in the Hebrides.
The islands are characterised by mountain ranges between Lewis and Harris, and along the spine of the Uists. Below the mountains, stretching to the sea, are low-lying coastal plains known as the machair. “Machair” was also the name of the television drama series which I created and produced for Scottish Television. It was so-called because the machair, which is the only fertile land on the islands, is under threat of the erosion from the sea.
It seemed like a perfect metaphor for the culture and language of the Gaels who live there, because their way of life is threatened by the all-consuming culture of the English language.
It was that TV series which took me to the Hebrides for the first time in 1990, and through more than half of that decade I lived on the Isle of Lewis for five months a year during filming.
It was, at first, a bit of a culture shock. The northern half of the Hebrides are still very much under the influence of strict protestant sects, and until very recently there were no Sunday flights or ferries. If you didn’t get off the island on Saturday night you were stuck there till Monday morning. There were no restaurants or shops open on the “sabbath”, children’s swings were chained up, and even the public toilets were locked.
By contrast the southern islands are Catholic, and eating, drinking and shopping on a Sunday are perfectly acceptable activities.
Although the climate is harsh and unforgiving, the people are warm and welcoming, and the beauty of the islands in the ever changing light and weather, is incomparable. You have to spend time there, as I did, to fully appreciate the Outer Hebrides, but I leave with sadness and return with joy on every trip, and they will remain forever in my heart.
This week on the Quercus Couch it’s Peter May author of, among many other things, the fabulous Lewis Trilogy the second book of which The Lewis Man is out now.
Daniel Fraser: Your follow up to The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man, is being published very soon. Could you tell us a little about it?
Peter May: This is a story that delves into the darker aspects of 20th century Scottish history, sparked by the discovery of a perfectly preserved body in a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis, and explored through the thoughts and recollections of a man suffering from dementia. Of course, there is a murder, a mystery, and a resolution.
Daniel Fraser: The Scottish landscape of the Hebrides plays a major role in the novels, was there something which especially drew you to the islands and Lewis in particular?
Peter May: I created and produced a television drama series in the 1990s which was shot entirely on location on the Isle of Lewis. I lived there for five months a year during five years while filming and got to know every blade of grass and every grain of sand on the island. When I was looking for a location for a new book to follow on from my China series, it seemed like the obvious choice.
Daniel Fraser: Fin MacLeod is such a fantastic character. Having created detectives before do you find it gets easier as you go along? Do you draw on any of the same sets of experiences you used for previous characters?
Peter May: Every book you write reflects the accumulated experience of all the others, I think. But characters always take on a life of their own – in a strange way almost beyond the control of the writer. I borrow from people I have met in life, and draw on my own experiences, but the created characters becomes unique and develop their own voices and vices. I often describe the process of writing dialogue as being like a shorthand typist, listening to characters talk and simply writing down what they say.
Daniel Fraser: Is there anything specific to crime fiction for which you had to adapt your writing process? Or did you find your style was naturally suited to it?
Peter May: I always wanted to be a novelist, not necessarily a crime writer. But the commission and investigation of crime provides the opportunity to explore the human condition, often in its darkest form, which is really what the best novels do. I like to think that I write in a genre that the French call roman noir – the black novel.
Daniel Fraser: Did you always want to become a writer?
Peter May: I wrote my first book at the age of four, so I think it must have been in my DNA. I wrote three books during my teen years (unpublished), and got my first book published at the age of 25.
Daniel Fraser: What books would you say have been the biggest influecnces on the style of crime which you have developed?
Peter May: I loved the novels of Georges Simenon, beautifully constructed studies of human frailty. Graham Greene was an enormous influence. The short stories of Somerset Maugham. And, of course, the books which had the most profound influence on my childhood years – Hergé’s adventures of Tintin!
Daniel Fraser: Two of your detectives have had the surname MacLeod, does the name have any personal significance for you?
Peter May: Hahaha, no. That was an accident. When first written, The Blackhouse was rejected by all the major publishing houses in the UK. I shelved it and didn’t expect it ever to see the light of day. I went on to write the Enzo Files, with my character Enzo Macleod, which I thought had a nice ring to it. My German publisher, which has bought both series, insisted that I changed Enzo’s name to save confusion, so in Germany he is Enzo Maclean.
Daniel Fraser: In our last interview with you, you spoke about screenwriting and how it honed your dialogue writing. Many aspiring writers find dialogue difficult so do you have any tips for them?
Peter May: If you have put in the work on creating your characters, they will speak to you. You will hear their voices. No need to write the dialogue for them. But I think the secret of good dialogue is not that it is realistic (people talk terrible rubbish), but that it creates the illusion of being realistic. And never write a line that doesn’t either further story or develop character.
Daniel Fraser: What books do you like to read outside of the crime genre? Do you have a favourite author?
Peter May: Most of my reading these days is confined to research books – many of which I thoroughly enjoy as a great counter-balance to the fiction I write. As a young man my favourite writers were Hemingway, Greene, Steinbeck, H.E. Bates and J.P. Donleavy.
Daniel Fraser: What do you think of online writing, blogs, fan-fiction etc? Are you involved in any online writing yourself?
Peter May: I think the online world of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and fan-fiction, has given us all a voice, in a way that would have been unimaginable just fifteen years ago. I maintain an author page on Facebook, participate enthusiastically in the world of Twitterature, and have a blog on which I post all too rarely – my publisher seems intent on chaining me to my computer to keep turning out books!
Daniel Fraser: We’re all excited about the third book in the Lewis Trilogy as well as the screenplay you mentioned to us last time, but what does the future hold for you after that? Are you working on anything else?
Peter May: I am developing a couple of ideas for a new series which I shall start working on seriously next year. The movie of “The Killing Room” grinds slowly towards a shooting date, and I am juggling a number of TV and film offers for the Lewis Trilogy.
Really excited to bring you an article by Lewis trilogy author Peter May on a hunt entirely unique to the isle of Lewis:
The Guga Hunters
Every year ten men from the community of Ness, in the extreme north-west of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, set off for a storm-lashed rock in the North Atlantic to slaughter two thousand young gannets.
In Gaelic, the ancient language of Scotland, these young birds are called “guga”, and back on the island they are a much fought-over delicacy available only once a year when the guga hunters return from the rock in August.
This annual pilgrimage has been made, almost without interruption, for nearly 400 years. But what started off as a desperate voyage made to forage for food, has become a traditional rite of passage for the young men of Ness.
They spend two weeks on the rock, known as Sula Sgeir, in the most testing conditions. An extreme endurance test. It takes ten hours to get there by trawler. There is no water on the rock. Nothing grows there. The only shelter is an old stone dwelling that the men have to re-roof every visit. They sleep and eat in damp, cramped conditions which they share with millions of earwigs.
Everything they eat and drink has to be brought with them and hauled up the cliffs that rise sheer out of the ocean. Every item of equipment required for the kill. They then spend two perilous weeks clambering across cliffs made slick by a coating of guano, searching out the young chicks in their nests, under constant attack by the adult gannets. Although there have been accidents and illness, miraculously in the 400 years since the ritual began, no one has died on the rock.
The chicks are trapped by a noose, killed by a single blow to the head, quickly decapitated, and passed back along the line of hunters. During the time the men spend there the birds are plucked, gutted and salted, to be brought back to Ness pickled in their own juices, ready to cook and eat.
Queues of anxious islanders form at the pier when the trawler returns, hoping to get one of the precious guga. It is an acquired taste, but considered a great delicacy, with a texture like duck, and the flavour of fish.
The kill is restricted to 2000 for conservation purposes, and licensed by Act of Parliament. In recent years the annual hunt has come under threat from conservationists and animal activists who consider it cruel.
During my research for “The Blackhouse” I asked the leader of the guga hunters, Dods Macfarlane, why they did it. He replied, “Because no one else in the world does. It makes us unique.”
We’re all really excited about Peter May’s follow-up to last year’s incredible novel The Blackhouse, and to show you today we have our spectacular video trailer for The Lewis Man (WARNING: Contains some images which may not be suitable for children):
