Coffin Road

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I could read Peter May just to enjoy his descriptions of the various islands in Scotland. I can feel the wind whipping around my face and see the beauty of the countryside. I feel like I am actually with the characters as they live their lives on the unique, stunning islands they call home. Prix International, Cognac Festival [28] L'Homme de Lewis won the 2012 Prix International at the Cognac Festival. 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! French Literary Prizes – Prix Ancres Noires des Lecteurs". Lesandresnoies.com . Retrieved 9 February 2011. A man wakes up on a beach, with no memory of who he is or how he got their, he appears to be known as Neal Maclean, though this rings no bells for him.

In addition to the Lewis Trilogy, the Enzo Files, and the China Thrillers, Peter was also able to write six standalone novels including his very first novel, The Reporter published in 1978. In this novel, investigative reporter, Colin Anderson, unknowingly puts his life and the life of his assistant, Janis Sinclair, on the line when he begins to uncover what could very well be the biggest international sabotage of all time. Peter’s other standalone novels include Fallen Hero 1979, Hidden Faces 1981 and 1982, The Noble Path 1992 and 1993, Virtually Dead 2010, and Entry Island 2014. Television and Film Le Telegramme newspaper feature about Peter May winning Grand Prix". Letelegramme.fr. 25 May 2012 . Retrieved 12 May 2015. 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.”another big clue is a map of Coffin road, it appears Neal was in the process of writing a book, and he feels he has done something wrong when he discovers a body. Scotland Now feature on Scottish Crime Writers". Archived from the original on 6 June 2008 . Retrieved 27 May 2008. It was interesting. I took a different approach. In the book there are kind of three strands to it. There’s the guy himself who’s lost his memory, there’s the girl who’s looking into the death of her father, and there’s the cop who’s investigating the body found out on the lighthouse island. And the girl’s story and the cop’s story are both told in a conventional third person narrative, but when it came to telling the guy’s story, I told it first person present tense. So that it was absolutely immediate, you’re actually in his head sharing his confusions, his discoveries, his revelations with him at every point, so that you’re entirely with him. And when I was writing it, that’s how it was for me too, I was entirely with him, I was living that experience. It was taking that first person present tense that made it totally immediate.

I thought about dnf-ing this one but then some bee stuff happened and I love bees, so I kept going and then it was too late to abort the mission. But in the interests of fairness, I’ll add a quote about the appeal of the place rather than the rainstorms I complained about earlier. He does write some nice descriptions.What is it like to write a character who is discovering himself at the same time as we are? Was it a challenge? 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. The only clue is a well-thumbed Ordnance Survey map of Harris, with a route sketched out in marker pen. Locals call it the Coffin Road and Neal and his neighbour Sally follow it the next day. The hidden beehives they discover seem familiar to Neal – but what are they doing there? And do they have any bearing on his past life? He has apparently been posing as an author, writing a book about the nearby Flannan Isles, but a search of Neal’s laptop unearths a Word document containing no words whatsoever. What on earth is he doing in this remote spot?

All 3 characters of the story eventually become interwined, and it was overall an entertaining read, and I did like the ending and came to like the characters, but a lot of the first half was slow, and it took me a while to warm to Neal, who I did like by the end, but it still didn't make up for a long first half, nonetheless its still worth a read. Peter May describes becoming a Chevalier de la Dive Bouteille de Gaillac". Petermaylive.blogspot.com . Retrieved 27 May 2008. Snakehead (Hodder & Stoughton 2002), (Poisoned Pen Press 2009), (Quercus E-books 2012), (Riverrun 2017)

“I’LL KEEP YOU SAFE”

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. The novel begins with a man washed up on a beach, sand on his lips, clothes soaked through and shivering half to death as he manages to stagger to his feet and looks around with a feeling of foreboding, only to realise that he cannot remember who he is. Catching the eye of a local busybody who swiftly takes his arm and dispatches him to a cottage, he discovers that he is Neal Maclean.. Or is he? His utility bill tells him so, and informs him that he resides at Dune Cottage, Luskentyre on the Isle of Harris.. All news to 'Neal' and when his neighbours tell him that he is an academic spending his sabbatical writing a book about the enduring mystery of the three lighthouse keepers who disappeared from the Flannan Isles in 1900 he is again left nonplussed. If that is the case he can find no trace on his computer, nothing to point him further than the dog-eared map with a clearly marked route, known locally as coffin road and regarded until fairly recently as the route which people on the east coast of Harris used to carry their dead over the hills to bury them on the west side. 'Neal' treks the marked route the following day, discovering bee hives that he clearly has some familiarity with and eventually venturing out to the Flannan Isles, only to come across a dead man's body lying in the derelict chapel that stands alongside the lighthouse. All in all this is more than enough to cause him to wonder if that explains the ominous feeling he felt when he washed up on the beach. Spotting a tourist excursion as he flees the Flannans, 'Neal' knows the police will soon be on his tail, but decides to travel south in the hope of discovering his identity and thus proving whether or not he is responsible for murdering the man. Could he have killed a man and does this explain his dissociative amnesia? 'Neal's' story is delivered in the first person and gets off to a promising start, albeit the dissociative amnesia has a familiar feel, largely because it has been fairly generously employed in the crime fiction genre to date. My second read of Peter May's books after reading The Man With No Face, this looks a good story, how will it hold up?

This is one of the most abysmally poorly written books I've come across in a long time. I always knew the plot would be far fetched and I've read and watched enough crime fiction and drama to accept things that are hugely unlikely in the name of entertainment, but... Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year". Harrogateinternationalfestivals.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014 . Retrieved 10 July 2013. Elle Magazine, Grand Prix de Littérature (2006) The Firemaker runner up in category Best Crime Novel [8]French Literary Prizes – Prix Ancres Noires des Lecteurs". Lesancresnoires.com . Retrieved 7 July 2010. San Diego reader Article about Peter May's 'The Critic' ". Sandiegoreader.com . Retrieved 27 May 2008.