Review: THE BLACK LOCH, Peter May

• 
  This edition published by riverrun, an Hachette UK company, 2024
  
• ISBN 978-1-52943-607-5
• 385 pages 
• an extension to the Lewis Trilogy
  

Synopsis (publisher)

The newest instalment in the internationally bestselling Lewis Trilogy, The Black Loch returns to the Isle of Lewis with a twisty and unpredictable investigation that unearths dark secrets from the past.

THE RETURN OF FIN MACLEOD, PETER MAY'S MUCH-LOVED HERO OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING LEWIS TRILOGY.

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.

My Take

It is over 10 years since I read the first two books in the Lewis Trilogy so my recall of the series (and I never read #3) was not very reliable. 

The author does a good job of summarising Fin Macleod's very chequered life for us, and we learn a lot about his childhood and adolescent years. Fin is now no longer a detective, and is working in a police-related job that he hates. Events that scarred his adolescence rise to the surface.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

THE RUNNER

VIRTUALLY DEAD

FREEZE FRAME

4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE - #1

5.0, THE LEWIS MAN - #2

4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE

5.0, ENTRY ISLAND

4.9, COFFIN ROAD

4.8, LOCKDOWN

4.6, ENTRY ISLAND 

4.6, A WINTER GRAVE

 

Lewis Trilogy (Fantastic Fiction)
   1. The Blackhouse (2011)
   2. The Lewis Man (2011)
   3. The Chessmen (2012)
   4. The Black Loch (2024)

Review: A WINTER GRAVE, Peter May

• 
  This edition published Quercus 2023
  
• ISBN 978-1-52942-849-0
• 357 pages

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

A TOMB OF ICE

A young meteorologist checking a mountain top weather station in Kinlochleven discovers the body of a missing man entombed in ice.

A DYING DETECTIVE

Cameron Brodie, a Glasgow detective, sets out on a hazardous journey to the isolated and ice-bound village. He has his own reasons for wanting to investigate a murder case so far from his beat.

AN AGONIZING RECKONING

Brodie must face up to the ghosts of his past and to a killer determined to bury forever the chilling secret that his investigation threatens to expose.

Set against a backdrop of a frighteningly plausible near-future, A WINTER GRAVE is Peter May at his page-turning, passionate and provocative best. 

My Take

Set in November 2051, this novel is not only a murder mystery, but portrays a future affected by global warming after the major powers have failed to meet targets back at the beginning of the century. The world has changed drastically with countries near the equator becoming too hot to live in, sea levels having risen, and the northern hemisphere has entered a new Ice Age.

The body of an investigative reporter has been found entombed in ice near a nuclear power station which supplies all the power for Scotland. It is just days out from a national election in which it is expected that the ruling party will be returned. 

A Glasgow detective, Cameron Brodie, has recently received the worst news from his medical specialist, and decides to undertake this investigation which may very well be his last hurrah. He also has some unfinished business which he hopes the journey north will enable him to complete.

This novel has a nicely balanced story, set against this futuristic scenario, where unmanned drones fly people to destinations.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My rating: 4.6 

I've also read

• THE RUNNER
• VIRTUALLY DEAD
• FREEZE FRAME
• 4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
• 5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
• 4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE
• 5.0, ENTRY ISLAND
• 4.9, COFFIN ROAD
• 4.8, LOCKDOWN
• 4.6, ENTRY ISLAND

Review: ENTRY ISLAND, Peter May

• 
  this edition provided by my local library
  
• Published by Quercus UK 2014
• ISBN 978-1-78206-221-9
• 534 pages

Synopsis (Publisher)

A detective is haunted by the feeling he knows his murder suspect – despite the fact they have never met.

IF YOU FLEE FATE…

When Detective Sime Mackenzie is sent from Montreal to investigate a murder on the remote Entry Island, 850 miles from the Canadian mainland, he leaves behind him a life of sleeplessness and regret.

FATE WILL FIND YOU…

But what had initially seemed an open-and-shut case takes on a disturbing dimension when he meets the prime suspect, the victim’s wife, and is convinced that he knows her – even though they have never met.

And when his insomnia becomes punctuated by dreams of a distant Scottish past in another century, this murder in the Gulf of St. Lawrence leads him down a path he could never have foreseen, forcing him to face a conflict between his professional duty and his personal destiny. 

My Take

Sime  Mackenzie probably should have been given leave rather than assigned to this case. Insomnia combined with his marriage breakdown and then the fact that his wife is the CSI for the case should have been enough to excuse him. But he is chosen because he speaks English as do the inhabitants of Entry Island.

When he meets the wife of the dead man he is convinced he has met her before. He also wears a signet ring that she recognises. It turns out that there is a perfectly rational explanation, but I get ahead of myself. When the rest of the team become convinced of Kirsty's guilt, because all the evidence Sime accumulates points to her, Sime feels they are wrong.

Meanwhile the author takes the opportunity to go back to the Highland Clearances to prove to us that history can repeat itself.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

• THE RUNNER
• VIRTUALLY DEAD
• FREEZE FRAME
• 4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
• 5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
• 4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE
• 5.0, ENTRY ISLAND
• 4.9, COFFIN ROAD
• 4.8, LOCKDOWN

Review: LOCKDOWN, Peter May

• Written 2005
  
  
• Published 2020 by riverrun 
• ISBN 978-1-52941-169-0
• 398 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

Written over fifteen years ago, this prescient, suspenseful thriller is set against a backdrop of a capital city in quarantine, and explores human experience in the grip of a killer virus.

"They said that twenty-five percent of the population would catch the flu. Between seventy and eight percent of them would die. He had been directly exposed to it, and the odds weren't good."

A CITY IN QUARANTINE

London, the epicenter of a global pandemic, is a city in lockdown. Violence and civil disorder simmer. Martial law has been imposed. No-one is safe from the deadly virus that has already claimed thousands of victims. Health and emergency services are overwhelmed.

A MURDERED CHILD

At a building site for a temporary hospital, construction workers find a bag containing the rendered bones of a murdered child. A remorseless killer has been unleashed on the city; his mission is to take all measures necessary to prevent the bones from being identified.

A POWERFUL CONSPIRACY

D.I. Jack MacNeil, counting down the hours on his final day with the Met, is sent to investigate. His career is in ruins, his marriage over and his own family touched by the virus. Sinister forces are tracking his every move, prepared to kill again to conceal the truth. Which will stop him first - the virus or the killers?

My take

After what we have all been through in 2020, and are still undergoing, this novel set in a global pandemic of bird flu is one that most of us can approach with some understanding. Self-isolation, public panic, and permits restricting us to our homes and local areas all ring bells. But this pandemic, admittedly not Covid-19 in origin, didn't just happen. Someone, something, caused it. And the world is waiting for a vaccine.

Jack MacNeil has decided that there has to be life outside his work, and so he has resigned, and now has only about 24 hours left to his working career. The bones in the bag will very likely be his last case and he is determined to solve it. When coincidences indicate that someone is tracking his every move, even protecting him against attack and robbery, he has to ask why.

At times the scenarios strained credibility but the characters and plot threads felt real enough. And with what we know of the "China virus", we might even ask some cynical questions about what has been happening in our world.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME
4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE
5.0, ENTRY ISLAND
4.9, COFFIN ROAD

Review: COFFIN ROAD, Peter May

• first published by Quercus 2016
• ISBN 978-1-78429-309-3
• 390 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

A man stands bewildered on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris. He cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his identity is a folded map of a path named the Coffin Road. He does not know where this search will take him.

A detective from Lewis sits aboard a boat, filled with doubt. DS George Gunn knows that a bludgeoned corpse has been discovered on a remote rock twenty miles offshore. He does not know if he has what it takes to uncover how and why.

A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her scientist father's suicide. Two years on, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would wilfully abandon her. She does not yet know his secret.

My Take

Peter May has become, for me, one of those authors I know I will enjoy. The plots are often multi-stranded, quirky, and sometimes connected to some environmental issue. Like this one is, but you'll have to read some of the book at least to find out which issue.

Neal Maclean comes back to consciousness lying saturated on a deserted beach. His vest tells him he has been in a boat. He knows this is the Hebrides but nothing else. He staggers to his feet and makes his way to a cottage. An elderly woman addresses him by name and walks him to his own cottage. He is met by a dog that recognises him. From that point on he ransacks his cottage for clues to his identity and some neighbours help him fill in some of the details while he waits for his memory to return.

From that point on you always know that this subplot is going to connect somehow to the other two outlined in the blurb on the back of the book, but, as you expect, the path is not straightforward. You race to read on, to make the connections for yourself.

I seem to be saying it a lot lately, but this is another excellent read. Peter May is another to put on your list of authors not to be missed.

My rating: 4.9

I've also read
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME
4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE
5.0, ENTRY ISLAND
4.8, RUNAWAY  

Review: RUNAWAY, Peter May - audio book

• Written by: Peter May
• Narrated by: Peter Forbes
• Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins 
• print published 2015
• Unabridged Audiobook

Synopsis (Audible)

In 1965, five teenage friends fled Glasgow for London to pursue their dream of musical stardom. Yet before year's end three returned, and returned damaged. In 2015, a brutal murder forces those three men, now in their sixties, to journey back to London and finally confront the dark truth they have run from for five decades.

Runaway is a crime novel covering fifty years of friendships solidified and severed, dreams shared and shattered and passions lit and extinguished; set against the backdrop of two unique and contrasting cities at two unique and contrasting periods of recent history.

My Take

The premise of this story is simple: 50 years ago five teenage friends took their band from Glasgow to London, basically running away from home. Months later three of them returned home, their dreams shattered. And now one of them, dying, insists that the truth of what happened then has to be revealed. Things have to be put right.

This story is filled with both poignant and humorous episodes as the three men, and a grandson, help one of them escape from a nursing home, steal a car, and join a pensioners outing, all in an effort to get to London before one of them dies.

Peter Forbes' narration was superb, and the story was excellent.

Peter May is a writer to follow!

My rating: 4.8

I've also reviewed
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME
4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE
5.0, ENTRY ISLAND

Review: THE CRITIC, Peter May - audio book

• series: The Enzo Files, Book #2
  
• available from Audible.com
• Narrated by: James Adams
• Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins 
• Unabridged Audiobook
• originally published 2007 
• source: I bought it

 Synopsis (Audible.com)

Gil Petty, the world's number-one wine critic, is found dead and strung on a cross in the vineyards of France.

Enzo Macleod, Scots exile and former forensics expert, finds that the genteel world of winemakers hides a business driven by greed, envy, and desperation, with no shortage of possible killers.

My Take

I think it probably helped to have read the first in the series, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, which gave biographical background to Enzo McLeod, how a Scotsman comes to be in France, lecturing at a university in biology when he is in fact a forensics expert (although essential details emerge in the narrative).

The first in the series also gives the background to Enzo's quest to solve some unusual cold cases.

I haven't read many crime fiction titles set in the wine industry and thought that would be interesting too.

Before long Enzo finds out that there are a number of people who are not keen on him solving this particular cold case and attempts are made on his life.

For those who know little about the wine industry, the author has done plenty of research and I think you will learn quite a lot.

A good read.

My rating: 4.5

I've already reviewed
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME
4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE (#1 in the Enzo McLeod series)

Review: EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, Peter May

• review copy provided as an e-book by Net Galley
• e-book version released May 2014
• #1 in the Enzo Files series
• originally published in 2006, aka DRY BONES

 Synopsis (Publisher)

PARIS
An old mystery
As midnight strikes, a man desperately seeking sanctuary flees into a church. The next day, his sudden disappearance will make him famous throughout France.
A new science
Forensic expert Enzo Macleod takes a wager to solve the seven most notorious French murders using modern technology - and a total disregard for the justice system.
A fresh trail
Deep in the catacombs below the city, he unearths dark clues deliberately set – and as he draws closer to the killer, discovers that he is to be the next victim. 

Fantastic Fiction

What has happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher who trained some of France's best and brightest at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration as future Prime Ministers and Presidents vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. Talk about your cold case.

My Take


Enzo Macleod undertakes the quest to find out what happened to Peter Gaillard as the result of a bet that modern methods applied to an old cold case will result in new evidence, and eventually to the solving of the case. Formerly employed in Scotland as a forensics expert, Enzo is working at Toulouse university teaching biology. His "modern methods" involve a lot of internet usage, and investigation of DNA, both of which would not have been possible ten years earlier.

The search for Peter Gaillard leads him into conflict with some very senior forces who definitely do not want the truth unearthed, and there are several attempts on Enzo's life.The story gives us a lot of family background for Enzo: why he came to France from Scotland, abandoning brilliant career prospects; and his two daughters who do not know each other.

The title is taken from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and refers to people who regard themselves as above or outside the law. There is even a touch of that about Enzo himself.

It did strike me fleetingly that EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE might have been Peter May's answer to Dan Brown's DA VINCI CODE. My second thought was a regret that I do not know the streets and arondissements of Paris better because they feel so important to the plot of this novel. The reader is at a bit of a disadvantage in interpreting the clues that surface every time Enzo discovers something new about Peter Gaillard.

Very readable, and I'll probably now look for the next in the series.

My Rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME
4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
5.0, THE LEWIS MAN

Review: THE LEWIS MAN, Peter May - audio book

• first published in 2012
• #2 in the Lewis trilogy
• unabridged audio version from Audible.com
• narrator Peter Forbes
• Length:  10 hours 54 mins

Synopsis (author site)

A MAN WITH NO NAME
An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer.

A MAN WITH NO MEMORY
But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child.

A MAN WITH NO CHOICE
When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery.

A perfectly preserved body is recovered from a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis.

The male Caucasian corpse – marked by several horrific stab wounds – is initially believed by its finders to be over two-thousand years old. Until they spot the Elvis tattoo on his right arm. The body, it transpires, is not evidence of an ancient ritual killing, but of a murder committed during the latter half of the twentieth century.

Meanwhile, Fin Macleod has returned to the island of his birth. Having left his wife, his life in Edinburgh and his career in the police force, the former Detective Inspector is intent on repairing past relationships and restoring his parents’ derelict croft.

But when DNA tests flag a familial match between the bog body and the father of Fin’s childhood sweetheart, Marsaili Macdonald, Fin finds his homecoming more turbulent than expected. Tormod Macdonald, now an elderly man in the grip of dementia, had always claimed to be an only child without close family.

A lie, Fin will soon discover, Tormod has had very good reason to hide behind.

The Lewis Man is the follow-up to The Blackhouse, which was an international bestseller in both hardback and paperback.  It is the second novel in the Lewis trilogy.

My Take

This is a superb book enhanced for me by the excellent narration skills of Peter Forbes. For me this story was even better than #1 in the trilogy THE BLACKHOUSE.
However if you haven't read THE BLACKHOUSE I can't urge you too strongly to read it before starting THE LEWIS MAN.

Not only is there excellent description of life in Scotland, particularly in the northern isles, in the 1950s, but there is a sensitive and illuminating handling of how a person with dementia functions. Peter May is terrific writer.

And now I'm more than ready for the final novel in the trilogy, THE CHESSMEN.

Note that THE LEWIS MAN is on the short list for Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for 2013.

My rating: 5.0

My review of THE BLACKHOUSE
Other novels I have reviewed
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME

Review: THE BLACKHOUSE, Peter May

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 505 KB
• Print Length: 386 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1849163842
• Publisher: Quercus (February 3, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004MYF4SS
• Source: I bought it - however a review copy was also sent to me by Pan Macmillan Australia.

Product description (Amazon)
The Isle of Lewis is the most remote, harshly beautiful place in Scotland, where the difficulty of existence seems outweighed only by people's fear of God. But older, pagan values lurk beneath the veneer of faith, the primal yearning for blood and revenge.
When a brutal murder on the island bears the hallmarks of a similar slaying in Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod is dispatched north to investigate. But since he himself was raised on Lewis, the investigation also represents a journey home and into his past.
Each year the island's men perform the hunting of the gugas, a savage custom no longer necessary for survival, but which they cling to even more fiercely in the face of the demands of modern morality. For Fin the hunt recalls a horrific tragedy, which after all this time may have begun to demand another sacrifice.
The Blackhouse is a crime novel of rare power and vision. Peter May has crafted a page-turning murder mystery that explores the darkness in our souls, and just how difficult it is to escape the past.

My take

It does not surprise me that THE BLACKHOUSE has won two French literary awards. The book is compelling reading and the story is delivered in an unusual style.

And yet it was a novel that took me a little effort to break into. A prologue contains the hook: a young couple discover an eviscerated body hanging in a boat shed in the harbour. Once we are into the book proper it takes a while to piece together the tragedy that struck Fin and Mona MacLeod only four weeks earlier and that is now steadily coming between them. In the mix are nightmares that Fin barely remembers and does not understand. A recurrent nightmare from childhood.

The murder on the Isle of Lewis seems to have the same MO as the Leith Walk case in Edinburgh Fin had been investigating before tragedy struck. Now his boss is insisting Fin return to work, and the HOLMES computer has tagged Fin as a person to be attached to the Lewis enquiry. It is 18 years since Fin left Lewis to go to University in Glasgow and going back will mean letting his past catch up with him, and indeed Fin catching up with his past. The fact that he is an "insider" allows Fin to ask questions that an incoming investigative team would not even have thought of.

I was particularly struck by the structure of THE BLACKHOUSE. The author uses two "narrators". There is the third person narration where events involving Fin are described from an outsider's viewpoint, and then Fin's reminiscences and memories which are recounted in the first person. This division is particularly effective in giving the story pace at the same time as giving us Fin's life story.

This is a book where the setting almost becomes another character - whether it is the Isle of Lewis which seems remote enough for me, or the even remoter An Sgeir, three hundred feet of storm-lashed cliffs rising out of the ocean fifty miles to the north-north-east of the tip of Lewis, where the annual guga hunts take place. And yet there is something attractive about the author's description of these wind-swept locations that makes you want to see for yourself.

My rating: 4.7

Peter May's website tells us this is the first of a trilogy and I look forward to the next. So here is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor, so to speak. I suspect reading THE BLACKHOUSE will be important to reading the next.

Another review to check: Amanda Gillies on EuroCrime who seems to have matched my delight in this book.

Other reviews on MiP of Peter May books
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME

Review: FREEZE FRAME, Peter May

Poisoned Pen Press March 2010
ISBN 978-1-59058-717-1
Many thanks to the publishers for a review e-copy for my Kindle through NetGalley.

[I certainly hope this title and the 3 that precede it are made available for Kindle - at present they aren't.]

#4 in a series in which forensic biologist Enzo MacLeod attempts to solve a number of cold cases. In FREEZE FRAME the crime scene has been perfectly preserved for 20 years on a remote island off the northwest coast of France by the daughter-in-law of the victim. Adam Killian knew he was going to die and he left his son Peter a number of clues about the identity of his murderer. Unfortunately Peter himself died before he had a chance to solve the puzzles.

Enzo MacLeod has apparently successfully solved the first 3 of the cases, the result of a challenge to solve a number of cold cases written about in a book by friend Roger Raffin. Roger has a considerable amount of background for each case, and in particular material that didn't make it into his book.

FREEZE FRAME is entertaining and very readable. The main character Enzo MacLeod is not without blemish and has a lot in common with detectives who put their work before personal relationships. In the publisher's supplementary material Poisoned Pen editor in chief Barbara G. Peters says "FREEZE FRAME is sure to please fans looking for an escape, but who still want to learn something about some unusual settings." She says it will appeal to readers of Jon Jefferson, Simon Beckett and Dan Brown. For me it was redolent of P.D. James. I think I found Enzo very like Adam Dagliesh.

My rating 4.6

I'm anxious to get my hands on the earlier titles in the series as well as whatever comes after. FREEZE FRAME is apparently #4 in a 7 title series.

Enzo Files
1. Extraordinary People (2006)
     aka Dry Bones
2. The Critic (2007)
3. Blacklight Blue (2008)
4. Freeze Frame (2010)

Other Peter May reviews on my blog
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD

Review: VIRTUALLY DEAD, Peter May

ISBN 978-1-59058-708-9
Poisoned Pen Press 2010, I read an ARC on my Kindle courtesy of the publishers.

Michael Kapinsky is a crime scene photographer still grieving over the death of his first wife Mora 6 months before. His therapist suggest that he join her Second Life therapy sessions. Initially Michael does not think this sounds like something for him, but he agrees to give it a try. He downloads the Second Life (SL) software onto his computer, sets up his avatar, and then begins to explore.

He realises that one of the homicide victims he recently photographed had SL running on his computer.

In Real Life (RL) Mike is running into some financial problems. His late wife had been the source of the money and their Californian beachside house is mortgaged for several million dollars. The rest of the money is tied up in shares that he can't touch. It is beginning to look as if he will have to sell up, and even then will walk away with nothing.

Then all of Mike's problems appear to be solved when a huge amount of money, more than the mortgage, appears in his SL account. Mike decides to take it out to pay the mortgage. That's when his SL and RL lives cross over and he finds that he owes "the mob".

VIRTUALLY DEAD is a crime fiction thriller in which, among other themes, Peter May explores connections SL residents have with each other, and with their RLs. He raises some interesting issues including the ways in which people use SL to explore things such as sexuality in ways they can't in RL. He looks too at crime in SL, and how it is dealt with. Mike Karpinsky finds himself investigating deaths in RL that coincide with the death of the SL avatar. Mike's mortgage issue links to the possibility of using SL for money laundering and tax evasion in RL.

I'm not sure VIRTUALLY DEAD will appeal to readers who know nothing about Second Life, and I suspect that to appreciate the nuances of the story you may need to have spent some time there and understand some of the possibilities. I think it will be a novel that will appeal to a "Second Life" readership.

It is a very different book to the last Peter May title I reviewed, THE RUNNER, and despite a personal interest in exploring virtual worlds like Second Life, it was not nearly as engaging for me, for at least the first half of the book. Perhaps this was partly because along with the avatars the author took considerable delight in exploring the sexual world of SL. One aspect I did find interesting was that May ceased to specifically tell the reader which world, SL or RL, the action was taking place in, and you had to use other indicators such as what was happening, or the names of the avatars. I liked also his exploration of how much most SL residents know about their RL personalities. In my explorations of SL I have always known who the avatar had been created by, but I accept there will be times when you will never know.

My rating: 4.2

If you are interested in reading more about crime fiction set in Second Life you might like to read my posts about WICKER by Kevin Guilfoile.

Review: THE RUNNER, Peter May

published originally 2003, pub. in USA 2010 by Poisoned Pen Press
read on my Kindle, review copy suppplied by publisher
ISBN 9781590587119
250 pages

THE RUNNER is fifth in Peter May's Chinese thriller series featuring Beijing detective Li Yan, Section chief of the Serious Crime Squad, and his lover American pathologist Margaret Campbell.

China is preparing for the 2008 Olympics, and a competition in a variety of sports against the USA on home soil suffers a serious setback when their top swimmer is found hanging from the diving board at the aquatic centre. Apparently he has committed suicide.

A second death occurs when a young weight lifter dies of a heart attack during sex with the wife of a Beijing Olympic Committee official. There seems no evidence to indicate other than natural causes. Should the death get out though, it will cause create embarrassment to the Olympic Committee struggling to get China ready for the coming Beijing Olympics.

In fact Beijing appears to be in the grip of a crime wave. Li realises there have now been 6 deaths involving top level athletes, and begins to look for connecting threads.

Life is not a bed of roses either in the continuing story of Li Yan and Margaret Campbell. They are expecting a baby in four weeeks, and it is not government policy to allow a senior police officer to remain in office after marrying a foreign national. Margaret believes his marriage will entitle Li to married men's quarters. Li's father and Margare's mother will both arrrive soon for the wedding.

I have only read the first in the series, THE FIREMAKER, in this series and have always promised myself I will read more. THE RUNNER did not disappoint, and I think you could read it quite well as a stand-alone. What adds to the enjoyment of THE RUNNER is the way Peter May blends details of Chinese culture, descriptions of how Beijing is preparing for the Olympics, with forensic details related to the deaths of the athletes.

I read THE RUNNER both as a review book on my Kindle, as well as part of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge.

My rating 4.6


Other books (from Fantastic Fiction)
Beijing series
1. The Firemaker (1999)
2. The Fourth Sacrifice (2000)
3. The Killing Room (2000)
4. Snakehead (2002)
5. The Runner (2003)
6. Chinese Whispers (2004)

Enzo series
1. Extraordinary People (2006)
2. The Critic (2007)
3. Blacklight Blue (2008)
4. Freeze Frame (2010)

Other novels
The Reporter (1978)
Fallen Hero (1979)
Hidden Faces (1981)
     aka The Man With No Face
The Noble Path (1992)
Virtually Dead (2010)