The Black Loch (Lewis Book Four) by Peter May.

 

The Black Loch (Lewis Book Four) by Peter May.

Published 12th September 2024 by riverrun.

From the cover of the book:

A MURDER.

The body of eighteen-year-old TV personality Caitlin is found abandoned on a remote beach at the head of An Loch Dubh - the Black Loch - on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis. A swimmer and canoeist, it is inconceivable that she could have drowned.

A SECRET.

Fin Macleod left the island ten years earlier to escape its memories. When he learns that his married son Fionnlagh had been having a clandestine affair with the dead girl and is suspected of her murder, he and Marsaili return to try and clear his name.

A RECKONING.

But nothing is as it seems, and the truth of the murder lies in a past that Fin would rather forget, and a tragedy at the cages of a salmon farm on East Loch Roag, where the tense climax of the story finds its resolution.

The Black Loch takes us on a journey through family ties, hidden relationships and unforgiving landscapes, where suspense, violent revenge and revelation converge in the shadow of the Black Loch.

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After a decade away from the Isle of Lewis, former police detective Fin Macleod heads back to a place full of haunting memories, for a singular purpose. The brutalised body of eighteen-year-old TV personality, Caitlin Black, has been found on the shore of Black Loch, and Fin's son, Fionnlagh, has been accused of her murder. Despite the complex relationships that have developed in this family, Fin and his wife, Marsalli, cannot believe their son is guilty of such a crime, and hope to clear his name.

They find their son sullen and reeling from the death of the young woman it transpires he was having an affair with, despite being a family-man, the considerable age-gap between them, and the shocking fact that Fionnlagh was Caitlin's teacher. All the evidence points towards Fionnlagh's guilt, and Fin's faith in his son is shaken, but with dogged determination, he sets to work hunting for the truth - this time, as a civilian. What he discovers brings the past and present clashing together with a reckoning that takes Fin right back to his own tragic history with the Black Loch...

Peter May picks up the story of Fin Macleod ten years further down the line from the tales in his best-selling Lewis trilogy, with a dark and atmospheric story that thrums with luscious Tartan noir vibes. 

Fin's life has not turned out quite as he expected, and at the beginning of this tale he is unhappy with both his personal and professional lives. With a job that still immerses him in the shocking depravity of the human condition, albeit now as a civilian employee of the Sottish police force, and a distance between him and Marsalli he has no idea how to breach, it is time for a new direction - but the last thing he expects is that this will involve an investigation back in Lewis that touches his own family.

This is an investigation unlike anything Fin has had to deal with before. Walking a fine line between the difficulties of gathering information that would previously have been freely available as a serving police officer, questioning witnesses as someone linked so closely to the murder suspect, and the effect of Fionnlagh's arrest on his whole family, Fin is also overwhelmed by the emotional power of his own past sins - sins which are determined to force their way into the light with every step on his journey to prove his son's innocence.

The story unfurls with slow-burn twists and turns in the present, broken up with intense, first-person vignettes from Fin's past. As the threads of Fin's investigation develop, laden with the significance of his past deeds and connections, May explores a host of topics about family, friendship, secrets and lies. He also has a lot to say about environmental issues, activism, whaling (be prepared to cry when it comes to these parts of the story), and the impact of commercial salmon farming (I guarantee you will think twice about eating farmed salmon again). Every little piece of the puzzle comes together to increase the pace of the story, until you find yourself careering headlong into a blow by blow climax that leaves you breathless. 

There is an undeniable melancholic air to this novel that works beautifully with the brooding characters and backdrop of the Western Isles. I have rarely read a crime thriller that blends past and present so exquisitely, echoing themes of bitterness, regret, retribution, and the weight of things unsaid. I also loved how May examines the passage of time so well with the interplay between setting and memory, and his use of expressive Gaelic alongside English is divine.   

I have not read the Lewis trilogy, which put me at a slight disadvantage embarking on a novel that relies heavily on what happened in the past. However, as the layers of story peel away, May gives you everything you need to understand how and why the consequences of Fin's own troubled history have rippled through time, in a cracking crime thriller that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

The Black Loch is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to riverrun for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Ransom PR for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BBC, he quit journalism and during the high-octane fifteen years that followed, became one of Scotland's most successful television dramatists. He created three prime-time drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels.

In 2021, he was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library Award. He has also won several literature awards in France, received the USA's Barry Award for The Blackhouse, the first in his internationally bestselling Lewis Trilogy; and in 2014 was awarded the ITV Specsavers Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year award for Entry Island.

Peter now lives in South-West France with his wife, writer Janice Hally.