The Critic - Peter May-

The Critic is the second of May's Enzo Macleod series, one of the many novels he wrote and published abroad before his Lewis Trilogy was taken up at home in the UK and The Blackhouse made him a bestseller.  All have now been rushed out to cash in on his success, thereby flooding the market and putting a lot of people off.

However, because they haven't been written to cash in, the standard is high.  May wrote them to try and become a bestseller, and was therefore both ambitious in his storytelling but careful with his prose.  Once The Critic gets going, this certainly pays off.  For the first couple of chapters, I have to say, I was in two minds.  All the descriptions of landscape were essentially the same, though what else May could have done in describing the intensive wine-making country around Albi in the south of France, I don't know.  Then the trick of the prologue paid off and I realised I was in safe hands.

Enzo Macleod, like May, is a Scottish ex-pat of middle years.  He is colourful: he sports a ponytail, a white stripe in his hair and eyes of different colours.  He is a professor of forensic science at Toulouse University but has (in Book One of the series, apparently) set himself the task of solving the unsolved cases in a book written by Roger Raffin, whose ex is now Enzo's girlfriend and who, in this book, finds an unusual way of evening the amatory score.

Essentially, the story here is that an overmighty US wine critic is found, crudely displayed, three or four years after he disappeared.  In the meantime his remains have been stored in the local wine.  Enzo therefore immerses himself in the lore and process of wine to figure out who did it.

The detail, the science and the local characteristics are well and convincingly handled.  I learnt a few French terms I didn't know which will come in useful in my own writing.  Enzo is a great character but, in this book at least, has too many women around him who are not sufficiently distinguished for easy tracking.  The male characters are little better drawn but at least there are fewer of them.  The final revelation was a bit peremptory but that never really bothers me in crime fiction.  Someone has to do the deed and their motives will always be a bit on the loopy side.  I really liked, however, the very last revelation which opens the door for Book Three, Backlight Blue, which I will happily try for the title alone.

The Blackhouse - Peter May

The Blackhouse is the first novel in the Lewis Trilogy and May's breakthrough in the UK.  But it's not his first novel - oh no, not by a long way.  May has long been a bestseller in France, writing in French, with two long-running novel series to his credit, The Enzo Files and The China Thrillers.  Yes, that's right, he writes about China in French.  And is an honorary member of the Chinese CWA.  The Blackhouse itself was originally written and published in French (L'Ile des Chasseurs D'Oiseaux) when no British publishing house would risk it.  It won prizes in France, and no wonder.  No wonder, by the way, that British publishing is at its lowest ebb, publishing ghost written drivel by 'celebs' and snubbing obvious classics of crime like this.

Having read the second of the sequence first (The Lewis Man) I thought I knew too much about what happened here (see my review below).  But I was wrong.  This is because of May's clever technique of going deep into his characters' past in the first person whilst driving the main plot in third.  Thus, while I knew the punchline of The Blackhouse, I didn't know how that had come to be, and had no idea how central to the plot it was.

In many ways the French title is better.  The key events, past and present, centre on the island where selected male islanders go once a year to club baby seabirds in a rite of passage.  It's the perfect metaphor for the blend of deep, ancient tradition which young men like Fin Mcleod are eager to escape but never truly can.  I enjoyed this book, indeed, even more than I enjoyed The Lewis Man.  I will of course seek out the third novel, The Chess Men, but what I'm really looking forward to is the arrival, at last, of The Enzo Files, the first of which, Extraordinary People, is out now.  The China Thrillers are available as ebooks.  I'm in!

The Lewis Man - Peter May

The Lewis Man is the second of the Lewis Trilogy, following The Blackhouse and itself followed by The Chess Men.  It has been hugely influential on Scottish crime fiction, as opposed to Tartan Noir. Let's face it, I have seen the story 'echoed' in Scottish TV crime series at least twice in the past two years.  It is steeped in its setting.  I assumed May was an islander but apparently he was born in Glasgow.  I don't know how accurate his version of the Outer Hebrides is, but it is thoroughly convincing.  He revels in the landscape and island history.  History is what the story is all about - who is the peat bog man and what is his connection with Thormond Macdonald?  Easiest thing would be to ask old Thormond, but he's got dementia ... which is the neatest twist in a multi-layered plot.

I especially enjoyed the way May took us inside Thormond's head, through first person narrative - his befuddlement with the present, and his crystal clear memory of the past.  Our hero, ex-cop Fin Macleod, is treated in third person, which helps provide objectivity.

The Lewis Man is a fine piece of work, hotly recommended.