The Blackhouse

By: Peter May

Narrated by: Peter Forbes

From acclaimed author and dramatist Peter May comes the Barry award-winning The Blackhouse, the first book in the Lewis Trilogy - a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that bears similarities to a brutal killing on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to the Outer Hebrides to investigate, embarking at the same time on a voyage into his own troubled past.

As Fin reconnects with the people and places of his tortured childhood, the desolate but beautiful island and its ancient customs once again begin to assert their grip on his psyche. Every step toward solving the case brings Fin closer to a dangerous confrontation with the dark events of the past that shaped - and nearly destroyed - his life.

©2013 Peter May (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A gripping plot, pitch-perfect characterization, and an appropriately bleak setting drive this outstanding series debut." (Connie Fletcher, Booklist, starred review)

"A thriller with an intensity that never slackens, chilling and igneous at the same time, like the great country that serves as its setting. A masterpiece indeed." (L'Humanite)

"Abundant local color... matches Macleod's tormented emotional landscape. The struggles of such multidimensional characters... add depth." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Great story but troubling

Story ends well but a lot of sadness and man's inhumanity to man and emotional pain.

Stunning work

I’ve listened to hundreds of books. This ranks as one of the best. Incredibly atmospheric. Wonderful character development and a cracking good who done it. What more could you ask for? Can’t wait to dive into more by this author.

fantastic!

fabulous. I was in Scotland for about five weeks this year and it was so wonderful to listen to a narrator that was Scottish.

Compelling mystery, family saga

Very enjoyable. Not crazy about bird killing but skipped through and loved the book as a whole

challenging mystery

more delightful to hear because of the sonorous Scottish accents. A mystery with many emotion laden twists and turns, weather and Scottish lore told beautifully.

Animal Cruelty Trigger Warning

This is an unbelievably well written book.
Each and every single character mentioned is complete, totally developed and in every sense of the word.
The plot is interesting, unique, and you can’t ever really predict which way the tide is turning.
The one certainly keeps you guessing until the very last few moments.
And our protagonist, Finn, is completely engrossing, as is his history with his homeland and his life in general.
This is a truly atmospheric book also, Peter May understands how to bring the reader right to the shores of the Atlantic, right to the bonfire, the crime scene, the barn, and so on.
He is so utterly and completely descriptive that it is like a breath of very fresh air.
You feel this place.
You smell it, you see it.
I don’t believe that there is any higher compliment one could give to a writer.
It’s an incredible book, performed beautifully.
Having said all of that, please be WARNED.
There are a few reasons to be a little careful as you read this book.
TRIGGER WARNING!!!
There are several scenes, namely the sickening, gut twisting and emotionally triggering scene of the bird “hunt” or “harvest” that will unfortunately be stuck in my subconscious til the end of time.
The fact that anyone would participate in something so unnecessarily cruel, barbaric, and evil is something my heart and soul simply could not process.
It actually takes away from the momentum of the story because it is so graphic, so disturbing and protracted.
This “hunt” on the big rock where men strangle chicks as they sit in their nests while the parents of these poor animals can do nothing but watch helplessly as their chicks are strangled one after the other is utterly nauseating and quite frankly, had I known that Mr May would decide to describe this “hunt” not once or twice but make references to it several times and graphically each and every time, I would have never begun The Black House.
It is a really good book, no doubt about it.
But if you are going to traumatize people, I think your work should come with a warning.
I don’t mind being disturbed, upset, made to feel discomfort when I read. I love the genre.
I love mystery, fear, even horror sometimes.
But this particular aspect of the book was totally unnecessary and it really upset me.
And thanks to a previous reviewer I had at least been warned.
So I thought I could just skip that section and keep it moving.
But no, it is referred to over and over again and it is, above all else, a huge distraction from so many interesting things that are going on and are not so emotionally loaded.
I wish I hadn’t heard any of it, because it changed my opinion of the book.
It’s one thing if people are starving and need to kill animals to live, but that’s not the case here at all.
It is because the meat is a “delicacy” that this horrific event takes place once a year.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
The abject savagery of it.
The cruelty of it.
It just wasn’t necessary, and it makes one beg the question…why did he feel the need to take the reader there? What kind of darkness must be living inside of someone in order to actually want to write about something like this over and over in a story?
He is so talented, and that aspect just made me really sad.
I might read more of his stuff but I don’t know, it’ll be a while before I can process what I just finished.
Great story, but you’ve been warned…

Well written mystery with lots of bleak atmosphere

The Black House is a smart and sad novel, although it ends on a promise of happiness. May is an excellent writer, and there are lovely, haunting descriptions of the village and island where so much of the present collides with the past. The homecoming journey of the narrator was surprising and moving, although I confess to thinking him the / a villain during a good part of the novel. I’m very much looking forward to reading the next book in the series, which I hope will focus some on Glasgow. We shall see !

What a bloody miserable tale!

The story is as bleak and lonely as the island it is set on. The reading’s repetitive tone and meter is guaranteed to put you to sleep. Every sentence has the same rhythm and the paragraphs roll from one into the next without any change in tempo.
The murder is almost secondary to the resurrection of a sad childhood and a mixed-up adolescence of a policeman who doesn’t really want to be a policeman and who has been sent to the island without any real power to investigate anything.
The weather is always cold, gray and raining ... it seems that the islanders’ lives mirror their weather and their landscape... I keep waiting for the sun to break through but so far it hasn’t happened. Maybe something happy will happen in one of the next two books in the trilogy.

An astonishing masterpiece!

A fast paced, multifaceted murder mystery, with twist after twist. It has several well developed characters….all playing off each other. If you have not read anything by this author…..PLEASE DO!

Excellent

Refreshing to listen to a well written and extremely well plotted and perfectly read story. I’m on to the next in the series.