Wednesday 27 February 2013

Book 16 - Murder Solstice

Murder Solstice by Keith Moray - first published in 2008

This is the 3rd book in the series of crime novels set on the fictional island of West Uist and featuring police Inspector Torquil McKinnon and his colleagues.

The story starts with an apparent double suicide of a farmer and his wife.  Then a new age cult-like group  called the Daisy Institute purchases Dunshiffin Castle and attracts some of the islanders to leave their families and join them.  Their charismatic leader Logan Burns is particularly interested in the local ancient stone circle known as the Hoolish Stones.  His theories about the origins and meaning of the stones bring him into conflict with an islander called Finlay MacNeil, who has been studying the stones for many years.  Then Finlay is murdered.

 Meanwhile elsewhere on West Uist some newcomers to the island have set up a dog fighting ring and Torquil's boss has sent Sergeant Lorna Golspie to investigate the way he is running the West Uist Division of the police.  As with the other books in this series this book is a quick and easy read.  The plot isn't entirely believable but who cares, as the main characters are all very likeable.  Given that the population of West Uist is only a few hundred the total number of murders in the 4 books in the series means that the island has one of the highest murder rates in the world, if not the highest! 7/10


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