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Coffin Road: An utterly gripping crime thriller from the author of The China Thrillers

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Stationed at Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, DS George Gunn is sent to investigate the bludgeoned corpse discovered by tourists in the chapel on Eilean Mor. The victim is unidentified, and murder is a far from common crime in the Outer Hebrides: he wonders if this case will see him completely out of his depth. Peter’s television career also involves Take the High Road (1980-1992), The Ardlamont Mystery (1985), and Machair (1992-1996). To add to his already prestigious career in television, Peter May’s novel The Killing Room is also being adapted into a full-length feature film. Awards and Nominations Even when he does learn a name, it fits like borrowed clothes. The more he discovers, he starts to wonder if he really wants to know who he once was. Coffin Road is the eighth stand-alone novel by British author, Peter May. The audio version is narrated by Peter Forbes. A man wakes, washed up on a beach on the isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides: he doesn’t know who he is, where he is, or how he got there, but he has an overpowering feeling of dread about something that has happened. Instinctively, he does not reveal his amnesia to those around him, relying on the information he gleans from conversations and from items in his cottage to gain knowledge of who he is. I was introduced to Peter May by a Goodreads friend (thanks Gary) and am really enjoying his books. This book is his most recent and I looked forward to reading it whenever I had to put it down.

Peter May: An Exclusive Interview on Coffin Road - WHSmith Blog Peter May: An Exclusive Interview on Coffin Road - WHSmith Blog

And lastly we have Karen Fleming, a young teenage rebel who since her father's death, has gone off the rails a bit, but after discovering some alarming information, wants to investigate her father's death, as she knows something isn't right. Peter May knows the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland and provides some beautiful descriptions of the land and the weather - neither of which is very hospitable on any given day. The book begins with a man washed up on the shore of the Isle of Harris. He does not know his name, or what happened to him. It's as if he just awoken and found himself in a place he has no idea of why he is there. Chi è Neal? Come mai non ricorda nulla del suo passato da quando si è riavuto su una spiaggia sulla quale la burrasca lo ha scaraventato? Cosa è successo prima? Chi sono le persone che mostrano di conoscerlo tanto bene? I find him an excellent writer who is very descriptive and paints a picture for the reader without boring them. Well, let’s wrap it up and bring in still another extraneous being. Is he a “traveler?” Why, no! He’s the one who has been watching out for Neal or whatever his name is all of this time. And he’s a bird watcher, too.

Television and Film

His latest novel, Coffin Road came as a bit of a surprise as it grabbed me from the get-go. Coffin Road Crime is obviously his passion and apparently, when working on a virtual reality-themed novel, he spent a year working as a private detective in Second Life. Nothing, absolutely nothing since I found myself washed up, semi-conscious, on the Traigh Losgaintir, has made sense. My memory loss. My failure to find a single clue to my identity, beyond my name, even in my own home. My affair with Sally. The book on the Flannan Isles mystery that I am not writing. Beehives on the coffin road. My missing boat. Now someone trying to kill me. And someone else stepping in to save me. The weight of it all is very nearly crushing.” May has written novels set in the Outer Hebrides before, and this novel is bound to have readers seeking out his earlier works. A brilliant read!

Coffin Road by Peter May: Summary and reviews - BookBrowse

When I took up with crime fiction, I assumed some of the same good things would be at play as in “serious” fiction. I frequently find it is not. Take Coffin Road by Peter May. He uses one of the saddest tropes in fiction or drama: “I have to know.” In this case it’s Neal –or is it? He was washed up on shore in the Hebrides and has no memory. He must find out who he is, for he soon discovers a dead body. Is he the killer? This was an enjoyable first outing with Peter May and lovers of crime fiction and suspense novels should most certainly enjoy his latest offering.

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Peter May was born on December 20, 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland. Even from a young age, Peter wanted to be a novelist. He started out his writing career in journalism and won his first award, the Fraser Award, in 1973 when he was only 21 years old. For this he was labeled Scotland’s Young Journalist of the Year. Peter completed his first novel at the age of 26 titled The Reporter, which was later adapted to a British television series in 1978 called The Standard. He met his wife, Janice Hally, when he was working on the television series, Take the High Road. They were married in 1990 and are currently residing in France.

Coffin Road by Peter May | Goodreads

One man is dead. A second man is presumed dead. A third man is alive but has no memory and no record of his true identity. Two of these men have bee stings. A teenaged girl wants to know more about her father and embarks, alone, on a perilous journey for answers. A non-profit director rages and threatens. A detective sergeant keeps an open mind and takes copious notes. And all the while, a squatter watches through binoculars. Peter May also is adept at turning out interesting characters, and his movement of them reminds me of chess pieces that are strategically and expertly placed. The main character of the novel is that of the amnesia sufferer, Neal Maclean, so readers must deal with an unreliable narrator much of the time, but one on a fascinating path. There are alternating narrators, with George Gunn and Karen Fleming taking their minor turns, but it is through Neal that readers must try to make sense of most of the twists and turns. Being a fan of the unreliable narrator when done well, I think May pulls it off quite well with the amnesia being the vehicle of unreliability. With every move towards regaining identity and memory, Neal Maclean edges towards reliability, and the story moves towards resolution. The Enzo Files is a series of five novels with one on the way. The series tell the story of Enzo Macleod, a half-Scottish, half-Italian former forensic scientist that is forced to use his skills once again to solve old cold-cases in France. In the first novel of this series, Extraordinary People (also published as Dry Bones) Enzo is sent on a disturbing scavenger hunt for body parts around France. 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.

Reader Reviews

At the same time, a teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her father's death. Two years after the discovery of the pioneering scientist's suicide note, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that her father would willingly abandon her. And the more she discovers about the nature of his research, the more she suspects that suicide had nothing to do with it. I had expected three plotlines. The mystery of the lighthouse keepers that disappeared 100 years ago, the plotline of the man without a memory and of Karen, who refuses to accept that her father has committed suicide. The first one was moot, so it's only the present day voices. The man without the memory washes up on the beach and does not have the first clue of who he is. When a man is found killed on a remote island, the man without memory thinks he might have killed him. 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! The light at Luskentyre is stunning. The wind is brisk but soft. The land has soaked up everything thrown at it last night by the storm. It has, it seems, an endless capacity to do so. The sky presents itself in torn strips of blue interspersed by teased-out cotton wool, and the sun reflects in countless shades of turquoise across an outgoing tide that leaves silver sands shining” That sums up how I felt through much of the book. Wet and cold! This part of the world is known for some challenging weather, so it’s no surprise that it’s a feature here. A man washes up on a beach in the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides and has no idea who he is.

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