Monday, December 10, 2012

The Black House


I really should resurrect Eagleton Notes properly because last night I finished Peter May's book The Blackhouse.  I can think of no book I have read for many years that kept me so riveted to it: particularly towards the end when I couldn't put the light out until I'd finished it.  It's complex (though not really complicated)  and, in parts, implausible (are not most novels?) but the characters and places are so real it's uncanny.  Having lived the majority of my years on Lewis makes it all the more poignant and I can see many of the characters in people I know or am acquainted with.  Contrary to at least one reviewer I do not think it is insulting in any way to the people of what has long been my home.  Every place has it's characters both good and bad and Lewis is no different.  Some of the less central characters who are there for the embellishment of the story though not from Ness are immediately recognisable (sometimes as an amalgamation of real people).

The descriptions of the Island and the places (I'm fortunate enough through my work, for example, to have been all over the Lews Castle before it was declared dangerous and closed to the public) are wonderfully evocative of the place and reading the book here in New Zealand I was transported back to Lewis: almost like being beamed there à la Star Trek.

Oh yes, the story.  Police officer, unpleasant senior police officer, friendly and loyal police officer colleague, murder, deaths and so much more (some of which would sow ideas which could give the stories - this is not one story - away).  Frankly you don't need to have a synopsis: it seems to me in many ways that the murder is just a way of having a setting on which to hang (sorry) the characters who are really what I think the novel is all about.

I would stick my neck out and say that I think that anyone I know who reads this book will enjoy it at one level or another.

I bought it on Kindle (as I will now do the others in the trilogy) but when I return to Lewis I will have to have the real copies as well. 

6 comments:

  1. You certainly make this sound intriguing without giving away too much.

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    1. It is intriguing Meike and it's one of the most compelling books I've read for many years. It may, of course, partly be due to its setting but I think Adrian felt pretty much the same.

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  2. Everyone's talking about Kindle, I should get one, but I'm undecided. Is it very light? If it's lighter than a book then it's worth getting.
    This sounds like one of those can't-put-them-down books. I get the same feeling when I read John Grisham. Normally I don't like thrillers but I love his books, I have read them all...in fact that reminds me that I still have to read his last one. I bought it and forgot about it.

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    1. Francesca, the Kindle is the only e-book of which I have any experience although I can read Kindle books via my iPhone or iPad. My Kindle (it has a small manual keyboard) is no longer available although the 'ordinary' Kindles weigh around 250 grams which is about the same as an average paperback (but half the weight of the Peter May paperback above). Because I travel and live in two places carrying my current choose of books with me is the perfect way to keep them. Nothing, of course, really replaces the books on my shelves though for collecting.

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  3. I know this is an old post, but I wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed Peter May's "Lewis" books. I read them one after the other, in just a few days. They're kind of like peanuts...hard to eat just one! I was sorry to learn that he had originally thought of the Fin books as being a trilogy and now that he's written three, that's it. I feel like the old pop song -- "How do you like it? More, more, more!"

    Good to see your posts again. For some reason you vanished from my connections and I've linked to it through Pauline's posts. I missed you! I even asked CJ if you were okay? He assured me you were.

    The garden re-do looks great by the way. Ours needs doing next! :)

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    1. Thanks Carol. CJ did let me know that you'd been asking. I was partly out of Blogland for a month or so simply because there were too many other things that needed to be done, I had visitors and I spent time in Glasgow. It's been a busy time and still is but at least I'm back in Blogland.

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