Yesterday I finished Home by Harlan Coben, the 47th book I have read in 2016. It is also the fifth book that I have finished in November. My goal for the year was to read 60 books. To meet that goal I needed to read five books per month. Unfortunately there have been more than a few months where I came up short of that goal. So right now I would need to read 13 books over the next 4 plus weeks to get to 60! So I looks like that I will not reach my goal of 60 books. However, I will surpass 50 books and if I read five more books I will beat last years total of 51 books. Wish me luck!
Now the last book I have written about was book 44 The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter. So here is book 45 Coffin Road by Peter May
Coffin Road – Peter May
Thanks to the talents of my favorite authors, I visit many places around the globe. I think that currently my favorite place to visit is the Isle of Harris in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. I first visited this rugged wind-swept Isle in May’s The Black House and returned via the other two books in his Lewis Trilogy The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. All three visits were terrific, so you should certainly make the trip! My most recent visit via May’s novel Coffin Road was just as wonderful.
I love reading the works of author’s who can create a sense of place in their work. So that after you read the book you feel like you have been to the locale. May certainly does that as well as any writer I know.
The Story
From the Book Jacket…
On the remote Isle of Harris in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, a man washes up on a deserted beach, hypothermic, and completely disoriented. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his condition is a map of the island showing a desolate ancient path called the Coffin Road. With a sense of dread and no clear idea what lies at the other end, he knows he must follow the trail if he has any hopes of discovering his identity…..
The man soon discovers that his name is Neal Maclean and he has lived on the Isle of Harris for eighteen months. He is there writing a book about the disappearance of the three keepers of the lighthouse on the island of Eilean Mor in the Flannan Isles. The keepers disappeared during a storm in December of 1900. The man remembers nothing about writing the book, but does fear that he may have done something dreadful on the island, prior to his being washed into the sea.
Meanwhile, a teenage girl living in Edinburgh is desperate to discover the truth about her father’s death. Two year’s after his suicide she sets out to discover the truth. After she reads his suicide note, which her mother gives to her to shut her up. she believes he may not be dead! The more she digs the more she is convinced she is right!
Bottom Line……
Coffin Road is another amazing read from Peter May. Everything clicks for me in this book. May paints both the setting and the characters well. While the storyline twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing. What did happen on Eilean Mor? And who is Neal Maclean?
I always like to read the quotes on the back of books and see which ones sum up how I feel about the book. Here are two quotes that fit the bill!
” An eminently satisfying , multilayered mystery populated with sharply drawn characters…The many threads of the story play out against a landscape that May, a native Scot, renders vividly. His images capture the capricious play of light and weather across the sea and the moors, matching the surprises in this tale” – Kirkus Reviews
“An extremely chilling tale. From a man with a memory loss, to a young girl dealing with the loss of her father, to a policeman unmasking the past, readers will have to pay close attention so they don’t lose track of the amazing web May has created” – Suspense Magazine
Rating – Four and a half Thumbs Up out of five!
Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Peter May
Author’s Website
Goodreads
Amazon
