Review
The message in Peter May's darkly atmospheric novel is you can go home again; you just may not find much of a welcome. Fin Macleod, an Edinburgh detective native to the Isle of Lewis (see "Beyond the Book"), returns to this island off the coast of Scotland to investigate a particularly gruesome local murder. As the lead detective in an eerily similar case in Edinburgh, he's best equipped to determine if there could be a connection between the two - if one killer committed both crimes.
A city detective, Fin's presence isn't appreciated by the local investigators, who've pre-supposed he must be too full of himself to work with rural officials. Shortly after his arrival he's informed, "Frankly, DI Macleod ... I've got a perfectly good team here that's quite capable of running this inquiry without your help." Attempts to freeze him out notwithstanding, once Fin finds out the...
Beyond the Book
If you look at a map of the United Kingdom, you'll find Scotland at the top and, to the west, a cluster of islands which are known as the Hebrides (pronounced heb-ree-dees). The islands are split into two groups - the Inner Hebrides and the Outer Hebrides. The islands in the Inner Hebrides lie close to the Scottish mainland, so close that a number of them are indistinguishable from the mainland in the map to the left. The Outer Hebrides are the chain of islands that lie further to the west, about 40 miles from the mainland; they stretch...
