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.
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Summary
This is the first book of the trilogy by Peter May. It tells of a detective\'s return to a remote island in the outer Hebrides, where he had previously lived. He is there to solve a gruesome murder, but the island brings back many memories for him, including the bizarre annual ritual, the guga harvest, which is for male bonding for adolescent boys. It is certainly not the usual mystery and has an intriguing storyline which will take you into the second book.