The Lewis Man (Lewis Trilogy, bk. 2) | Slighe nan Gàidheal Library | TinyCat |

2024-04-23 7:46 pm

The Lewis Man (Lewis Trilogy, bk. 2)

by Peter May

Hardcover, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

PR6063.A884

Series

The Lewis Trilogy (2)

Tags

Isle of Lewis, MYSTERY & DETECTIVE STORIES, Western Hebrides

Genres

Publication

Quercus (2011), Kindle Edition, 443 pages

Description

Fin Macleod returns to the outer Hebridean island of his youth to make amends and restore his parents' cottage before investigating a death involving family secrets and a sinister adversary.

Language

Original publication date

2012-01-05

ISBN

0857382209 / 9780857382207

Other editions

The Lewis man by Peter May (Paper Book)

Similar in this library

The Chessmen (Lewis Trilogy, bk 3) by Peter May

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

User reviews

LibraryThing member devenish

A body is discovered buried in peat on the isle of Lewis. Thought at first to be centuries old it is later found to have been killed sometime in the 1950's. In the meantime Fin Macleod,the main character in book one 'The Blackhouse',returns to the island,having left the police force. He attempts to

reconstruct his life after the events in that book. He begins to find himself drawn into the present case as DNA tests prove that the body has links to the family of his childhood sweetheart.
This compelling series is another winning one for author Peter May, but I suspect the Lewis Tourist Board will not be over pleased with his dark take on the island.
A warning - do not attempt to read any book in this series if you are feeling at all depressed as you will feel even worse after you have finished them !

LibraryThing member MunichBookGroup

Much more than a detective story.

LibraryThing member librarian1204

The second book in this trilogy. As good as the first book, Blackhouse. In this book, Fin has left the police force and come back to Lewis. When a bog man is unearthed and DNA ties him to Fin's first love, Fin becomes part of the investigation. Once again the setting, both in geography and

atmosphere play a huge part in this story.

LibraryThing member sblock

Even better than the Blackhouse. The Hebrides islands, with their clouds and crags and peat, seem divinely created to serve as the backdrop of a mystery, or three.

LibraryThing member nomadreader

The Lewis Man is the second novel in Peter May's Lewis Trilogy. The first in the trilogy, The Blackhouse, was a five-star read. I loved it so much I ordered the final two volumes from the UK because they don't have a US release date yet. Peter May's writing is beautifully fluid and his characters

are richly developed. Once again he manages to combine a compelling police procedural with the continued exploration of the inhabitants of the Isle of Lewis, both their past and their present.

LibraryThing member Eyejaybee

A dreadfully turgid and depressing sequel to his earlier novel "The Blackhouse".
Very powerful, atmospheric descriptions of life in the Hebrides, but all too lugubrious for my taste.

LibraryThing member Cathymacleod

Blistering
Set on the Isle of Lewis, this second of a crime trilogy is a pageturner. The author uses flashbacks to childhood to plant a few clues and spur the plot along. There is a blistering finish. Wow! Now I'm looking forward to Number Three.
Strange to say, I was not taken by Peter May's

mysteries located in China. And his French titles, I thought, are overloaded with gourmet guff. But that's just me. The Lewis Trilogy is a must read for crime fiction enthusiasts.

LibraryThing member lexieconyngham

Another tartan noir from this evocative writer - dark histories of characters we met in the first book. The noir is not relentless: many of the characters are sympathetic and what happens to them is not always terrible! A very enjoyable read.

LibraryThing member kategibson5

In book two of the trilogy Finn's character starts to really come alive. The mystery of the body in the bog is intriguing and cracks along at a good pace, with twists and turns throughout. The voice of the narrator changes with each chapter, which maintains one's interest and brings a slightly

different dimension to the story as it progresses.

LibraryThing member cathyskye

First Line: On this storm-lashed island three hours off the north-west coast of Scotland, what little soil exists gives the people their food and their heat. It also takes their dead. And very occasionally, as today, gives one up.

An unidentified body has been discovered in a peat bog on the Isle of

Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Originally thought to be an ancient burial, once examined, the body proves to have been buried in much more recent times. The only clue to its identity is a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. There's going to be a problem in dealing with the farmer because not only is Tormod Macdonald an old man suffering from dementia, he's also always claimed to be an only child.

Fin Macleod, recently retired from the Edinburgh police force, has returned to the island of his childhood to make a new life for himself. When he's approached by Tormod's family for help, he knows he must do everything he can to solve the mystery of the Lewis Man.

Having fallen under the spell of the first book in Peter May's Lewis trilogy, The Blackhouse, I literally snatched a copy of this book off the shelf when I spied it at my favorite local bookstore. Sometimes when I have such a strong positive reaction to a book I can be rather hesitant to pick up the second, fearing that it won't "live up" to the first. For some reason I didn't feel any such hesitance this time, and I was rewarded with a book that's even more powerful.

To have a mystery rely upon a character suffering from dementia could be a very risky proposition, but Peter May handles it brilliantly. Much is learned about each character in how they relate to Tormod: from his wife, who's kicked him out of the house, to his daughter, who loves her father but doesn't quite know how to cope, to Fin, whose grace and patience and compassion with the old man made me want to cry. While Fin tries to make sense of what little information he can get from Tormod, Tormod's childhood is gradually revealed to the reader. Over the years there have been so many lies and secrets that the ending-- and the way Fin arrives at it-- should come as quite a surprise.

And-- as always in this trilogy-- the Isle of Lewis makes its presence felt in the lyrical beauty of its rugged landscape and in the strength of its people. The Lewis Man is a feast for the eye and the heart and the mind. It is not to be missed.

LibraryThing member smik

This is a superb book enhanced for me by the excellent narration skills of Peter Forbes. For me this story was even better than #1 in the trilogy THE BLACKHOUSE.
However if you haven't read THE BLACKHOUSE I can't urge you too strongly to read it before starting THE LEWIS MAN.

Not only is there

excellent description of life in Scotland, particularly in the northern isles, in the 1950s, but there is a sensitive and illuminating handling of how a person with dementia functions. Peter May is terrific writer.

And now I'm more than ready for the final novel in the trilogy, THE CHESSMEN.

LibraryThing member jtck121166

Much more than run-of-the-mill 'tartan noir' pulp fiction, this is certainly page-turning, unputdownable, plot-driven etc., but, more than all that, it is also a novel of real sensitivity and subtlety.

The landscape of the western isles is evoked with love, and their geography, physical and

psychological, more integral to characters and action than the usual bolt-on pathetic fallacy stuff we find so often elsewhere.

The central character, Fin Macleod, lives for the reader, a hard yet sympathetic ex-cop driven more now by family and his own broken past than by mere professional duty.

Peter May's finest achievement, though, and it is very fine, is his portrait of Tormod Macdonald, through whom much of the novel is filtered, the past with pin-sharp clarity, the present more faultingly, as he descends into dementia. His embodiment of the book's wider themes of memory, loss, eternity and the corrosive quality of time itself I found deeply moving.

Sometimes I feel like claiming my 20p back; on this occasion I feel guilty for not having paid the full £7-99.

I haven't yet read the others in the Lewis Trilogy, but by the time you've seen this, I will have done!

LibraryThing member mimal

bookshelves: nutty-nuut, e-book, gr-library, britain-scotland, series, published-2011, spring-2014, mystery-thriller, bucolic-or-pastoral, bullies, casual-violence, contemporary, cover-love, dodgy-narrator, families, handbag-read, hebridean, lifestyles-deathstyles, mental-health, ouch, protestant,

religion, roman-catholic, those-autumn-years, tragedy
Read from March 19 to 20, 2014

Description: A MAN WITH NO NAME. An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. A MAN WITH NO MEMORY. But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child. A MAN WITH NO CHOICE. When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery.

Dedication: In memory of my dad

'That is where they live:
Not here and now, but where all happened once.'
- from 'The Old Fools' by Philip Larkin

Opening: On this storm-lashed island three hours off the north-west coast of Scotland, what little soil exists gives the people their food and their heat. It also takes their dead. And very occasionally, as today, gives one up.

Mona and Finn say their goodbyes just down the cobbles from St. Giles on the Golden Mile; sixteen years, ~20% of their lives just written off, and now deeper strangers than they ever had been when they first met. So it's back to the womb, amongst the Wee Frees on the Isle of Lewis, for our hero Finn.

An eye-scorcher that has definitely ratcheted up a couple of notches from the first book. This is a fictionalised story set around the factual and gruelling Roman Catholic practice of sending orphaned kids to the islands to work as slaves.

Sphagnum bog

Beinn Ruigh Choinnich/Ben Kenneth, S. Uist. Strong Roman Catholic community.

Oiled wool Eriskay jumpers: the individual family patterns were as good as a fingerprint.

The Dean Gallery is an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the National Galleries of Scotland. It was opened in 1999, opposite the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, which is its sister gallery. In 2011 the buildings were renamed Modern Art Two and Modern Art One respectively. The building was originally an orphanage, designed in 1830 by Thomas Hamilton. The conversion of the building into a gallery was designed by Terry Farrell. Since its opening it has housed the Paolozzi Gift, a collection of his works given to the Gallery of Modern Art in 1994 by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. It contains a large collection of Dada and Surrealist art and literature, much of which was given by Gabrielle Keiller. It is also used for temporary exhibitions. (wiki sourced)

3.5* The Blackhouse (Lewis Trilogy, #1)
5* The Lewis Man (Lewis Trilogy, #2)
TR The Chessmen (Lewis Trilogy, #3)

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LibraryThing member sushicat

Fin Macleod return to his native Lewis island and leaves behind his life as policeman and a divorced wife, with whom he has no common ground after the death of their son. At loose ends, he starts the restoration of his parent's croft, the only real home he has ever known, and reconnects with the

people of his childhood, he gets first among them his old love Marsaili and their son Fionnlagh. When a bog body is found with an Elvis tattoo, it's clear that this is no centuries old corpse and when a relationship with Tormod, Marsaili's father comes to light, Fin is pulled into the search for the truth as Tormod is no help due to dementia.

The second installment in Peter May's Lewis trilogy is just as good, or even more so than the first one. He tackles difficult and emotional topics (orphanage, dementia) in a realistic and emotionally engaging way. Again the sense of place is excellent, you feel the sea salt on your tongue and the wind in your hair. More of this, please.

LibraryThing member Bruce_McNair

This mystery is set on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. A corpse has been uncovered in a peat bog, which is not unusual as bodies from hundreds and thousands of years ago have been discovered in such bogs all over Northern Europe. However, this one has a tattoo that reads "Heartbreak Hotel"

and a metal plate in his skull. Given that only two previous murders have occurred on Lewis in more than one hundred years, it is understandable that the local police have a mystery on their hands. And then a DNA test suggests the corpse is related to an elderly man with dementia. Former DI Fin Macleod has returned to Lewis to work on his parents croft house. But the ties of friends and family pull him into the investigation. The story is about the search for identity of the dead man, the demented man and others. But it is also a story of revenge as the identities are revealed slowly and the events leading to the original death are replayed. This book further develops many of the characters introduced in The Blackhouse. Another great read from a master storyteller.

LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri

Didn't enjoy it as much as 'The Black House' - maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

LibraryThing member lostinalibrary

The Lewis Man is the second book in author Peter May’s Isle of Lewis trilogy and is just as good as the first book, The Black House, which, in my humble opinion, was brilliant. Fin Macleod has quit the police force, left his wife and Edinborough, and returned to the island. A corpse is found in a

bog and is at first thought to be ancient but it quickly becomes clear that it can’t be older than the ‘50s. DNA shows the man was somehow related to Tormod MacDonald, now suffering from dementia and father of Fin’s first love. Outside investigators have been called but Fin determines to solve the crime before they arrive to protect the people he loves.

The narrative is divided between Finn and Tormod who remembers vividly his early life and what led to the boy in the bog but has little grasp of what is happening in the present. Like the first book, The Lewis man is part coming-of-age tale, part literary fiction and part mystery. It also gives a fascinating look at the terrible treatment of orphans and throw-away children in the early part of the 20th c as well as a sensitive and sympathetic look at the effects of Alzeimer’s on the elderly. The characters here are all well-drawn and, again, the island itself plays an important role. This is a beautifully drawn lyrical tale of hard lives lived in hard places. It is almost unrelentingly bleak and dark and, as such, it will not appeal to everyone. But for those willing to embrace this remote landscape, it is a story well worth reading. The Lewis Man, although part of a series could be read as a standalone but I can’t imagine why would anyone want to do that.

LibraryThing member Schatje

This second novel of the Lewis Trilogy opens with the discovery of a body in a peat bog. Fin Macleod, a retired police detective who has returned to the Isle of Lewis, the Hebridean island of his birth, is drawn into the murder investigation when it is determined that the body has DNA links to

Tormod Mackenzie, the father of Marsaili, Fin’s first love.

The book has two points of view. Part is narrated in third person, focusing on Fin; other sections are in first person with Tormod as the narrator. This latter point of view is interesting because Tormod suffers from dementia. We learn about his life from his memories of the distant past. Some of the suspense in the novel is derived from our wondering whether Fin will be able to uncover that past without Tormod’s assistance. The problem is that Tormod’s memories are formed into such clear and detailed narratives; this hardly seems believable in a person suffering from progressive dementia.

One aspect of the novel that bothered me is the lengthy descriptions of the landscape and weather. Here’s an example: “The night was filled with the whispering sound of the sea. It sighed, as if relieved by the removal of its obligation to maintain an angry demeanour. A three-quarters moon rose into the blackness above it and cast its light upon the water and the sand, a light that threw shadows and obscured truths in half-lit faces. The air was soft, and pregnant with the prospect of coming summer, a poetry in the night, carried in the shallow waves that burst like bubbling Hippocrene all along the beach’ (252). The descriptions are poetic, but when virtually every chapter includes such descriptions, they soon become tedious. The author is certainly trying to establish the beauty and desolation of the Outer Hebrides, but so many references to the weather are not necessary to do so.

It is best if one has read the first book in the trilogy, The Blackhouse, because characters from it reappear and their stories are further developed. Fin’s relationships with Marsaili and her son Fionnlagh are better understood if one knows what transpired earlier. One of the most interesting aspects of this novel is these relationships. The past weighs heavily on Tormod but it does as well in Fin’s life.

Besides the weight of the past, this book also touches in the mistreatment of children. Fin’s childhood was less than ideal and Tormod’s was even less so. The novel touches on "the homers" - children from broken homes who were relocated to foster families in the Hebrides.

The resolution relies too highly on coincidence. The number of characters who come together at the end is unbelievable. And the foreshadowing of Fin’s comment, “’I wish you hadn’t told him your dad’s name’” (279) doesn’t make the ending more credible.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series; this second one was less satisfying, but I will certainly read the third to find out how it all ends.

LibraryThing member everfresh1

The second novel in the trilogy is as good as the first one ('The Blackhouse'). It follows similar pattern - convergence of current life and events hidden in the past, bleak and depressing existence on islands north of Scotland, a mystery hidden in the past. Great writing. I think the unique

feature that makes the novel a great read is the island atmosphere. The narration of part of the story by demented man is quite brilliant.

LibraryThing member edwardsgt

Grim story of life on Lewis and other Hebridean islands seen through the eyes of an old man with dementia. Fin Mcleod has retuned home after leaving the police in Edinburgh and finds himself embroiled in an old murder mystery after a young man's body is recovered from a peat bog. Throws a light on

the cruel practice of sending mainland orphans to the islands where they were often mistreated, sometimes abused but at the very least had extremely harsh lives.

LibraryThing member tinkermn

A retired police officer moves back to the island he grew up on and gets pulled into identifying a body found in the peat. He ventures through old friends and lovers as he tries to identify the body and the story has lots of unsuspected developments. Mr. May does a great job of conveying how

difficult life sounds on the Isle of Lewis. These are very tough people...

LibraryThing member icolford

Peter May's second entry in his successful Lewis Trilogy is another intricately plotted and taut mystery that begins when the body of a young man is unearthed by peat cutters on the Isle of Lewis. Initially thought to be prehistoric, evidence instead reveals the body was buried in the 1950s. Former

Detective Inspector Fin Macleod, the hero of The Blackhouse, has quit the Edinburgh police force and, at something of a loose end, returned to Lewis to see if he can make his dilapidated childhood home livable. George Gunn is the officer in charge of the case, and Fin is drawn in when DNA testing further reveals that the body is someone related Tormod Macdonald, father of Fin's former lover Marsaili Macdonald, to whom Fin is once again growing close (he is very interested in making up for previous mistakes, particularly where Marsaili and her son Fionnlagh are concerned). The investigation is complicated by Tormod's advanced dementia, which makes it impossible to extract information from him regarding the identity of the body. Like The Blackhouse, the plot of The Lewis Man sends Fin digging into the past and drawing into the light of day events and personal histories that are perhaps better left buried. It makes for a story of delightful intrigue and a layered mystery whose solution is revealed piece by piece, the weight of evidence finally pointing in only one direction. May follows a structure similar to the first novel in the series, with some chapters narrated in the third person from Fin’s perspective and others narrated by the addled Tormod, who might not understand much of what’s happening to him in the present day but whose memories of his hardscrabble early life are razor sharp. Throughout, the writing makes generous use of the beautiful and wildly inhospitable islands off Scotland’s northwest coast to create an atmosphere of intense foreboding.

LibraryThing member Olivermagnus

The Lewis man is the second novel in Peter May's Lewis Trilogy. I think it is every bit as excellent as the first one, The Blackhouse. Fin McLeod is once again the central character. He has resigned from his job as a detective inspector in Edinburgh and returned to Lewis, in an attempt to rebuild

his life, as well as his parents' old croft.

Meanwhile, a body has been discovered in the peat. It is originally thought to be one of the prehistoric bog men but the Elvis Presley tattoo on its arm dates it as being rather more recent. DNA testing of the body and comparison with a DNA database indicate that the body is closely related to Tormod Macdonald, the father of Fin's first love, Marsaili. Tormod is now old and and suffers advanced dementia. He has always said that he is an only child with no close family, so this find shocks everyone. Fin steps in to find out what is going on and the truth behind the man that his loved ones think they know, and that he has spent a lifetime trying to forget.

The story unfolds before you in vivid detail, with chapters alternately detailing the present with Fin and Marsaili, and Tormod's distressing childhood in the past. The author does a wonderful job is taking you into the cold and bleak environment of the Hebrides. The story is so well written that it absorbs you completely. Very often the second book in a trilogy seems to be a the worst, acting as a link between the first and third and usually can't stand on its own. This is very definitely not the case with this one. I highly recommend it and am looking forward to reading the final book in the series, The Chessmen.

LibraryThing member austcrimefiction

After listening to the first two books in the Lewis Trilogy pretty much one after the other, I've done it at all the wrong time of the year. I'm a bit partial to listening to, or reading, books from cold, wet climes in the heights of our summer, and all predictions are indicating we're in for a

stinking summer. Hot, dry as a chip and dangerous. So I'll be looking for some seriously cold, wet reading material - including the third book in the trilogy to come.

Aside from the climactic conditions, this is a wonderfully atmospheric series, with some seriously beautifully descriptive writing that works perfectly as an audio book. It's immersive listening, with the narrator able to enhance the atmospherics with perfect pronunciation and accent. The stories themselves are interesting - very much in the closed room vein in many ways - not surprising given the island setting, but with enough local touches to create something particularly interesting. The idea here that a body discovered in the peat could be ancient, but turns out to be more recent, is at the core of this plot. With the local customs of peat cutting and storing, the way that island life revolves around the need to survive the long-harsh winters, and the idea that even in a small community, people can drop through the cracks particularly intriguing and engaging.

The novels have had a tendency to be finished off in a bit of a flourish but that's very forgiveable when everything else about this series has been absolutely perfect. They would be good as reading material, but this is a series I'm particularly pleased to have opted for audio on. It's been a listening pleasure.

LibraryThing member Bookmarque

Rarely do I read novels in a series so close together, mostly because I’m caught up, but with this trio I’m not so it’s like reading one long, long book. And it works like one, too. There is little to no time-lapse between books and the story, while ostensibly about solving a murder, is

mostly about Fin and his relationships. This time out it’s with his high school sweetheart’s father, Tormod, and his relationship to a dead man pulled out of a local bog. The narrative is mostly Tormod remembering and musing to himself, and sometimes having inappropriate outbursts due to severe alzheimer's. Because of the personal nature of the memories, not a lot is spelled out and May takes his time revealing his past. And part of the past is pretty horrible (orphanage from hell) so be warned. May sets the hook well though and Fin eventually gets to the truth. I already have my eye on the third book.

Pages

443

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