Interesting thriller but one of those books that you can read only once because twist is rather specific that to enjoy the book for the second time you truly need to forget all about it.

Story is about the man who finds himself in the Hebrides on the sea shore wearing all the equipment for sailing but without boat, soaking wet and without any memories. We follow him for a majority of the book as he tries to find out who he is and as he tries to find the proof that he is not some sort of the bad guy - although his gut tells him he just might be a bad guy.

I wont go into details because it would spoil the read for others. I have to admit author truly loves Scotland and Hebrides, untouched nature and paints very vivid pictures of the rugged terrain, mighty mountains, sea-side and tricky mountain tracks. Local people - almost all by definition bind to the sea - are not forgotten and play a central role in the book (although Gaelic names took some time for me to be able to read them).

Author also manages to lead the reader down the cul-de-sac's and leave them wondering what exactly is going on. I truly enjoyed this and had a few aha! moments as story progressed. I am definitely looking for more books by this author.

What I did not quite like was ending that seemed a little bit too rushed to me - after all the buildup, all the tension suddenly it was over and you might wonder what was all the fuss about. I understand that some people are very smart but this sets the bar way higher over any characters in any book I read so far.

All in all good thriller. Recommended. ( )

really enjoyed the beginning 2/3rds of it. went a bit conspiracy theory towards the end, actually was a bit of a let-down. ( )

Excellent, good character building, some nice twists and turns and enough information to allow the reader to predict what will happen without being totally certain. ( )

Dual review with Swedish first and then English!

SWEDISH REVIEW

Peter May är alldeles fantastisk författare och trots att denna bok inte riktigt griper mig som t.ex. Isle of Lewis series gjorde så Coffin Road en bra bok, mycket tack vare att May har en sådan bra förmåga att skriva så målande så det känns som man sugs in i bokens handling. Så varför bara 3 stjärnor om boken nu är bra? Jo, jag kände aldrig den där känslan av att sträckläsa boken som jag har haft tidigare när jag läst vissa av Mays böcker.

Coffin Road är som bäst i början, när allting är så mystiskt, med den främmande mannen som flyter i land utan minne. Men, det är också början som för mig funkar bäst, sedan flyter handlingen på utan att riktigt gripa tag i mig, men tack vare Mays fantastiska skrivförmåga så är boken ändå bra. Men karaktärerna klickar inte riktigt för mig, jag finner att jag inte riktigt kommer dem nära. De föreblir bara karaktärer, inga personer som jag saknar när jag vänder sista bladet. Coffin Road är en helt OK bok, men jag fann aldrig att jag verkligen gillade handlingen utan det är snarare så att för stunden så var boken helt OK att läsa.

Coffin Road börjar bra, men blev inte riktigt den fullträff jag hade hoppas på. Men Peter Mays underbara miljöbeskrivningar och hans sätt att skriva så inlevelsefullt gör boken läsvärd!

Tack till Modernista för recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

Peter May is a great author and even though this book does not really grip me like, The Isle of Lewis series did, is Coffin Road a good book, much thanks to May having a great ability to write so good that it feels like you sucked into the book's story. So why only 3 stars if the book is good? Well, I never felt that feeling of having a hard time putting the book down, like I had before when I read some of May's books.

Coffin Road is best at the beginning, when everything is so mysterious, with the stranger washed ashore without memory. But, it's also the beginning that works best for me, then the story progress without really getting hold of me, but thanks to May's amazing writing ability, the book is still good. Yet, the characters do not really click for me, I find that I do not really get close to them or really care for them. I can't say I miss them when I turn the last page. I liked the book, but I did not love it. It's an OK book to read.

Coffin Road starts off great but never got to be the hit I had expected the book to be. But thanks to Peter May's great milieu descriptions and his excellent way of writing makes the book readable!

Thanks to Modernista for the review copy! ( )

This is my first Peter May book and I'm delighted to have found an "I want to read everything they've written" author.

His language has the satisfying complexity or a good wine. His plot is tightly coiled and intriguing. His characters have depth and authenticity. And it's all narrated by Peter Forbes in a Scottish accent that would delight the ear if it was reading a shopping list aloud.

Memory is a strong theme in the novel, which opens with a first person account of our main character returning to consciousness on a beach, soaked to the skin, wearing a life-jacket and without any memory of who he is or how he came to be on the beach. Peter May does a wonderful job of exploring how closely interwoven memory and identity are.He shows how our actions are driven by our sense of the kind of person we are. Not knowing the kind of person we are makes it hard to trust our own judgement.

The first part of the book centres around the main character's attempt to discover the kind of man he is, or at least, the kind of man he used to be. It quickly becomes clear that our main character is not a straightforward man. He is living off the grid in a house that provides almost no evidence of who he is and why he is there. As he investigates himself, his unease about what he is going to find and his lack of knowledge about who he can trust, create a growing tension, verging on paranoia. Setting all this in the desolate beauty of the wind-blown, sparsely populated Isle of Harris, adds to the sense of dislocation and isolation that the main character experiences.

If the whole novel had been like this, I would have been well pleased but Peter May is much more ambitious than that and cranks the book up a notch. He spins off a second strand to the story, centred around a teenage girl, who, after the apparent suicide of her father two years earlier, has become rebellious, restless and addicted to transforming herself, through tattoos and piercings, into someone far different from the cherished little girl her father left behind.

Clearly the two story lines are related but Peter May keeps us guessing about the details as the young woman and the man without a memory work independently on sorting through the deceptions and the secret truths that connect them.

The pacing is perfect, the plot is credible and the ending did not disappoint. This is a fine, well written, mystery that captured my imagination with great language and a perfect pace but held it with realistic characters and a strong plot.

I enjoyed "Coffin Road" so much that my TBR shelf has grown by three as I've added Peter May's "Lewis Trilogy" to it.

Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear Peter Forbes narrating "Coffin Road"

https://soundcloud.com/quercusbooks/coffin-road

( )