"The Black House" by Peter May

book club choice

blackhouse

      The setting for this novel interested me.  It is the Isle of Lewis, which is part of the Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland.  Since I have been to the Orkney Islands, also in Scotland, I felt that I had a good idea of the landscape of the Isle of Lewis and was ready for a novel in this location of the world.
   I read about the blackhouses that were built in Scotland and Ireland- the floor of flagstones or earth, and a central hearth for the fire.  Because there was no chimney for the smoke to escape, it escaped through the roof, slowly making the interior black.  
   The roof was thatched and often stripped each year because it made excellent fertilizer.  I was fascinated with the location and the beginning of the novel.
   However, it is a murder mystery- not really of interest to me, but I thought that I could read it for the book club.  I do love my book clubs!  I made it through the discovery of the dead body but the autopsy was detailed and completely freaked me out.  So I left it there and read another book- actually the "beach read" that I just blogged about.  Then I took a deep breathe and went back to the description of the autopsy.
   The main character, who had been sent from Glasgow to investigate this crime, had spent his youth on this island.  And so the story goes back and forth from stories of his youth, to the details related to the crime.
   The writing is fabulous and I was so taken in with the atmosphere on Lewis Island that I could feel the cold, the rain and the wind.  Isn't that a perfect setting for a murder mystery?

Peter May-author