Name: Janice Hopper's review of The Lewis Man by Peter May
Item: The Lewis Man
Rating: 4
Author: Janice Hopper

Peter May

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. The Lewis Man is the follow-up to The Blackhouse, which was an international bestseller in bothhardback and paperback. It is the second novel in the Lewis trilogy.

The Lewis Man

Sasha Cheung

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. But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child. When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery.

Janice Hopper

** spoiler alert **
           I really enjoyed this story, right up to the last few chapters. Up until then, it was an interesting quiet story about a murder. There's confusion about who the murdered lad was. The story is a very slow unfolding about who the boy was, and how he came to be buried in a peat bog.

The man who'd have the answers has serious dementia, and can't be counted on to reply to questions accurately. But old memories are stronger than new ones, and they float up sometimes.

Then there's the Sudden Big Hollywood Ending, with sketchy gangster-types, and Sudden Sawed-Off Shotguns. And then the Sudden Ending. :( I didn't hate it bad enough to bump it down to 3 stars, but I was disappointed a bit.

Also, through most of the book, the Elvis tattoo that helped to identify the body is said to be on his RIGHT forearm. In Chapter 4, when the body is found, the examining doctor says:
"Take a closer look at the right forearm, Detective Sergeant. I think youll see that what we have here is a crude tattooed portrait of Elvis Presley above the legend Heartbreak Hotel."

 But in Chapter 21, there's this line from Fin, the protagonist: 
"He was fascinated by the description of the Elvis tattoo on the left forearm."

WUT.

The author also has what appears to be a made-up story about knitting patterns being specific to specific families on the Isle of Eriskay. This myth was actually started by Aran sweater makers. There's no evidence that it was an actual thing with either location.

So: mostly happy with the book, slightly disappointed in a few things.

Julie Viravaux

I feel like memory is a theme in this series that is the main plot point of the mysteries that Fin has to uncover. The first book was centered around younger Fin's repressed memories and the second one uses Marsaili's father's Alzheimer to uncover the plot. 
The male characters are still very well written, the women and girls of the book are still more flat, but I've made my peace with it for this author. 
I felt like this one was  still fast-paced in the last 50 pages but otherwise a bit slower than the previous book.

Pierke Bosschieter

Alistair James

Jonas Lincoln

Meryn Kae Addison

Clara

Zoey Mikalatos

Danny Engström

Yulande Lindsay

Kathy Rodger 

Sabine Delorme

Rebecka S.

Ryan B Harvey

Ian MacDonald

Marilyn Stasio in The New York Times raved: "Peter May is a writer I'd follow to the ends of the earth." Among the many honors received, The Blackhouse, the first novel in May's acclaimed Lewis trilogy, won the Barry and Crime Thriller Hound awards. In The Lewis Man, the second book of the trilogy, Fin Macleod has returned to the Isle of Lewis, the storm-tossed, wind-scoured outer Hebridean island where he was born and raised. Having left behind his adult life in Edinburgh--including his wife and his career in the police force--the former Detective Inspector is intent on repairing past relationships and restoring his parents' derelict cottage. His plans are interrupted when an unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog. The only clue to its identity is a DNA match to a local farmer, the now-senile Tormod Macdonald--the father of Fin's childhood sweetheart, Marsaili--a man who has claimed throughout his life to be an only child, practically an orphan. Reluctantly drawn into the investigation, Fin uncovers deep family secrets even as he draws closer to the killer who wishes to keep them hidden. Already an international bestseller and winner of numerous awards, including France's Prix des Lecteurs du Telegramme, The Lewis Man has the lyrical verve of Ian Rankin and the gutsy risk-taking of Benjamin Black. As fascinating and forbidding as the Hebridean landscape, the book (according to The Times) "throbs with past and present passions, jealousies, suspicions and regrets; the emotional secrets of the bleak island are even deeper than its peat bog."

Sasha Cheung &
The Lewis Man by Peter May

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Sasha Cheung &The Lewis Man by Peter May

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Sasha Cheung &
The Lewis Man by Peter May