The Black Loch | Peter May
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
When 18-year-old Caitlin’s body washes up on the beach, it appears that much loved and respected detective Fin McLeod’s son is the prime suspect. Can Fin clear his son’s name?
The Black Loch: book review & synopsis
What an atmospheric and beautifully written book. This may be a chilling and enthralling crime thriller, but Peter May’s prose is exquisite, creating a sense of place brilliantly. The imagery surrounding the natural landscape is transformative, making the setting every bit as important as character or plot.
Reading The Black Loch really is like stepping onto the Isle of Lewis and being surrounded by nature. It’s the use of the senses that weaves such a magical environment so effectively.
The plot is sensationally good. The past reverberates through the narrative, igniting old passions and grievances so that the present events are imbued with guilt, menace and threat. The reader is kept guessing throughout and there are moments of great drama and profound emotion making the story hit the reader like a blow to the solar plexus.
The underlying tone is so affecting…
There’s a profound sense of how crimes impact not just a victim and perpetrator, but all those connected to the case. The Black Loch thrums with sadness and memory and a sense of grief, not just for Caitlin, but for who the people once were and how much has been lost, so that it is heart-rending as well as entertaining to read.
It is in those first person memories that Fin recalls when it seems as if he’s speaking directly to the reader, that deep, deep emotion occurs and hits hard. The metaphor of the whales and their family loyalty is equally impactful.
The characters feel universal and identifiable. Despite Fionnlagh’s seeming guilt and the inappropriateness of his relationship with Caitlin, it is impossible not to feel sorry for him and desperate for his innocence to be proven. Whether that happens is up to other readers to discover for themselves, but Peter May keeps us guessing all the way through. This is an author who understands human frailty and presents it perfectly, particularly through Fin’s relationship with Marsaili, so that we care deeply what happens to the people in the story.
The Black Loch has fantastic storytelling, beautiful descriptions, compelling characters and, incidentally, an assiduously researched presentation of salmon farming, so that it is an example of a master storyteller at the top of his game. Not to be missed!
The Black Loch by Peter May is out now (Riverrun, HB, £22) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood, Small Bomb At Dimperley by Lissa Evans, The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers, Scandalous Women by Gill Paul, Island In The Sun by Katie Fforde, The Trap by Ava Glass and Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman.
