This is book 2 in the series begun in The Black House. Fin Macleod has left the police force and returned to the Island of Lewis to begin work on restoring his parents' derelict croft just up the road from where Marsaili, his former love, lives with their son. In the first volume, Fin discovered that this son was also his own. Fin continues to be a depressive character who sees his life as wasted when in reality he can only be about late 30s. He destroyed his relationship with Marsaili when they were about 19 through a combination of disinterest and off-handed cruelty and she had married his friend on the rebound, entering an abusive marriage. Now she is widowed and there is the possiblity that the relationship with Fin will be rekindled but he is aware of how fragile it is and of things not being the same as before.

Then a crime comes to light with the discovery of a bog body from the 1950s, proved to be related to Marsaili's father, a man who supposedly was an only child. Various anomalies soon arise, complicated by the fact that her father is suffering from Alzheimer's. Fin must race against time to discover the truth because a policeman will soon be arriving from the mainland who sees Marsaili's father as the prime suspect.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as volume one, partly because, although the narrative by the father was interesting as well as tragic, I couldn't really believe in such a coherent story being told by someone who, to all intents and purposes, couldn't connect to the real world except in odd bursts of lucidity. These couldn't really be his thoughts which, in reality, would be as disjointed as his behaviour and speech. It would only work if this narrative had been taken as extracts from a journal written before suffering from dementia, but there was no indication of that other than one odd torn page found later by the other characters. And since he refers to people who the reader knows to be Fin or the others who have just come to see him etc, his POV sections are obviously meant to be current. So this overextended the suspension of disbelief for me. Also, considering his narrative was meant to be the viewpoint of someone deprived of almost all education, I found the vocabulary unconvincing - use of terms such as 'penumbrous shadows' didn't sound natural and struck me as more how a university don would express themselves.

The parts with Fin are not very interesting, partly because I've got rather bored with his depressive, negative attitude to everything and the treatment of Marsaili as a victim. The pace finally picks up at the end, but overall I can only rate this at 3 stars. ( )

I don't know why it took so long for me to read the second book of this series. I loved the first book. My feelings haven't changed with the second book. There is something about Peter May's writing that just captures me and sucks me in. I guarantee I won't wait as long for the last book. ( )

This second book of the trilogy is nearly as good as the first and easily a five star story. Again multiple mysteries going on in the cold, wet wind blown Hebrides. ( )

4.5 stars. This was really good! ( )

Quality research and writing are always a good thing and in this respect this book continues from the first in the series. Their are numerous references to the first story, but the book works perfectly as a standalone story, though my advice start at the beginning. Completely absorbing and engaging from start to finish, atmospheric clever descriptive intelligent storytelling at its best. Superb characterisation throughout, a mix of coming of age and old age, love lost and found, poignant sad occasionally funny with an intriguing murder mystery at its heart.
Completely and utterly recommended. ( )