This is the first book of the Lewis Trilogy. The story is complete in itself but the main character Fin Macleod continues on to the 2nd and 3rd books. The second book is The Lewis Man, which was published in 2012 and the 3rd book The Chess Men was published at the beginning of 2013. The author now lives in France and The Black House was first published in French as L'Ile des Chasseurs D'Oiseaux - Island of the Bird Hunters.
Fin Macleod is a police detective in
Edinburgh. He is investigating a murder there when a very similar one is
committed on the Isle of Lewis, where Fin was born and grew up. He is
sent to Lewis to see if the 2 cases are connected.
The murder victim on Lewis is Angel Macritchie,
who was a bully that Fin went to school with and as he begins his
investigations he relives many events in his own past that he would rather
forget. Each summer 12 men from the Ness area in the north of Lewis spend
2 weeks on An Sgeir, an isolated rocky islet many miles north of Lewis,
catching, killing and processing gugas (baby gannets). These are prized as a local delicacy on
Lewis. When he was 17 years old Fin reluctantly
went with them and the island has a pivotal role in the story and the dramatic
ending to it. I look forward to reading
the other 2 books in the series.
The grey, damp and windy weather and the bleak landscape described
in the book mirrors the hard lives Fin’s school friends that he left behind on
Lewis have had to endure and the islanders aren’t portrayed in the best
light.
An
Sgeir doesn’t exist but the men of Ness do still go to the rocky island of Sula
Sgeir each summer to harvest gugas.
Sula Sgeir is located 40 miles to the north of Lewis. The hunting of seabirds is banned but the
men of Ness have been granted an exemption under EU and UK law to enable them
to continue their hunt.
Islands covered - Lewis, Sula Sgeir
Score 8/10
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| Butt of Lewis Lighthouse - this is located at the north end of Lewis |
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