The Blackhouse

'For the things we hope in the secrets of our hearts. If they were realized, would they really be the answer we'd prayed for?'


The Blackhouse by Peter  May


Detective Inspector Fin MacLeod of the Edinburgh police is at a low point in his life. He is suffering from depression for multiple reasons when his bosses called him in and tell him it's time to shape up or ship out in a manner of speaking. The case they give him will sent him back to the Isle of Lewis which is part of the archipelago of the Outer Hebrides.



Fin left Lewis eighteen years ago returning once only for the funeral of the aunt he lived with for several years. He had never looked back since. MacLeod had felt a great sense of freedom and lightening of the spirit once he came to the city. Many of his friends had also wanted to leave but circumstances has kept them home. One can never predict how ones childhood friends will turn out when they grow up.

Fin tries to reconnect with his past but he finds this difficult since his friends have altered mostly for the worse. Artair his closest childhood friend is a very bitter drunk, Donald once a free spirit is now a forbidding minister and his old girl fried, married with a child is almost unrecognizable.

Now perhaps one of them was the perpetrator of the brutal murder of a bully from childhood to the present. Was Fin wearing blinders then and is he wearing them still? One thing is sure and that is he has to accept what kind of a person he was then and sonsider if he has changed for the better or the worse.

Peter May takes Fin back in his memories through a first person POV and the reader sees that there was a lot of sadness in Fin's life. Fin appears to be an inconsistent character at times but as his journey into his past is revealed  he makes more and more sense. The community in which he grew up helped hide his skeletons and permitted him to survive.

The murder may seem to be a side issue at times but solving it sheds light on all the mysteries in Fin's life. This was a great read.