When Fin Macleod and his wife Marsaili were called to the Isle of Lewis, where a young woman by the name of Caitlin had died, they had no idea of what was ahead. Their son, Fionnlagh, had been arrested for her murder and they needed to do all they could to clear her name. As an ex-cop, Fin knew the ins and outs, but also knew he wouldn't be kept updated with the investigation. George Gunn, a local policeman, and Fin's good friend, helped on the quiet, knowing he could lose his job if discovered.

Thirty years prior, when Fin was a teenager, he and his friends would get up to mischief - as teens do - and stealing salmon from one of his friends' fathers cages earned them some pocket money. It was a great lark - until it no longer was. The more Fin learned, the more he worried that the past was connected to the current day. Could Fin clear his son's name before he was taken from the island and charged?

The Black Loch is the 4th in the Lewis Trilogy by Peter May and it was packed with intrigue, menace and danger. This one could easily be read as a standalone as it's ages since I read the 3rd in the series, but reading from the beginning would obviously work well. Fin is a wonderful character, and reading about the tangled web of the past made me wonder how he actually reached adulthood!! I wonder if there will be a #5 in this captivating series? Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for my digital ARC to read and review.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the original Lewis trilogy I was excited to read a fourth instalment and I'm happy to say I was not disappointed. Peter May has the ability to evoke the feeling of places like no other author. I really felt that I was back on the cold bleak island of Lewis in the Hebrides. This story sees Fin MacLeod return to the place he came from as a civilian, having left the police force. However, the reason for his return forces him to become an investigator again as his son is accused of murdering one of his students. The visit reawakens memories of Fin's teenage years and exposes the strains within his relationship with his partner, Marsaili, the mother of his son. To solve the case, he is forced to face some of the wrongs of the past and we learn a great deal about the demons he carries with him. The characters in the story are made more believable by their flaws. None are whiter than white and all have things they would prefer to keep hidden. When the solution comes, it answers questions from the past as well as the present. An extremely satisfying read.

I read the first book as part of my book club and as I enjoyed it, I went on to read the next two. The 4th installment didn't disappoint, although I found I couldn't entirely remember what happened in the last book, due to it being a while ago, however this isn't the books fault and didn't make a difference, once I started to remember.
It's just as good as the other 3 books, only Fin is no longer a police officer. I enjoyed reading it and solving the mystery with him.
It had twists and turns and a further look into island life.
I would read a 5th, although I wonder if it's a good point to stop.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Over a decade after the publication of the final book in the then-Lewis trilogy, The Black Loch returns the reader to the Outer Hebrides and to the characters of Fin Macleod and his family, who are again central to the plot. This fourth book begins with the arrest for murder of Fin's son, Fionnlagh, and Fin's return to the island to attempt to clear Fionnlagh's name.

The events of Fin's teen years once again cast long shadows over the present, and any reader who is familiar with the previous books could reasonably wonder how much trauma and tragedy one family can endure.

Once again, the spectacular scenery of the island serves almost as an extra character, and the heart-stopping final chapters more than make up for the somewhat slow start to the story.

Peter May is one of my absolutely favourite authors! The Lewis trilogy getting a fourth book was just fantastic news! It did not disappoint me! The characters in the book are so vivid and massively flawed, and I love this combination! This story is uncomfortably personal to Fin, because this time it is not only about his childhood and what happened to him and his friends back in the days, but his son is accused of murder. Safe to say Fin is on the case, but this case is far from an easy case to solve.

This book is fantastic, but poignant. It was great being back on the island after all these years and getting answers to many unsolved things from the past. The characters are believable, oh so human, and because we are talking about a small island, there is so much history between the characters that it almost feels like I know them all. So much time has passed, so many repressed memories, and yet somehow people regress to who they were in olden days.

It is hard, if not impossible to beat this series, and I urge everyone to read this book!

An atmospheric page turner set in the far north of the Scottish islands - the writing is so good that the reader is transported there in all the wild glory of the area, with wind, rain, turbulent seas and a rare hot summer. The story begins with the discovery of a body on a beach, and ex police and Fin McLeod becomes intimately involved with the search for the culprit - no spoilers here! The Gaelic language used at times throughout the book is fascinating and adds even more atmosphere, and each of the characters is so well drawn that they become vivid pictures in the reader’s mind. This is a pretty dark example of Scottish Noir, but is no less riveting for it - in fact the pacing of the story is excellent and the ending surprising and dramatic - perhaps not entirely plausible in places, but this is a really excellent read.

The Black Loch by Peter May

Readers probably won’t believe this but this is my first Peter May novel. I’ve seen his books and had them on my ‘authors to explore’ list for when I’m second hand book shopping, but something always gets in the way of me reading them. So, when I was offered this blog tour I jumped at the chance to read one. I love books, particularly crime and mystery novels, set in Scotland and I was immediately drawn into the incredible scenery and atmosphere of the Isle of Lewis. This is the fourth in a trilogy, so I’ve definitely got some catching up to do where Fin McLeod is concerned. Once a detective and now retired, Fin is drawn back to Lewis when Caitlin Black’s body is discovered on a remote beach. Only eighteen years old, Caitlin was a student at the Nicholson Institute. It emerges that she was having an illicit affair with Fionnlagh McLeod, her teacher and a married man twenty years her senior. Fionnlagh soon becomes the prime suspect and is arrested on suspicion of her rape and murder. He is also Finn’s son. Finn knows he must return to Lewis to support his daughter-in-law and granddaughter. He also knows, despite the evidence against him, that he must try to clear his son’s name. As Fin travels around the island, he is drawn into past memories and soon realises this crime has echoes back into his own teenage past on the island. A terrible accident at a salmon farm caused two deaths, just as the industry started to expand on the island and become a multi-million pound industry. This is a journey of family ties, secret relationships and a bleak and unforgiving landscape, where violence, revenge and relegations converge.

Fin and his wife Marsaili both grew up on the island, so it holds echoes of their relationship over the years. It’s strange for them to be back on Lewis after a ten year absence and awkward to turn up on Fionnlagh’s doorstep where his wife Donna is devastated by the possibility that her husband has killed his teenage lover. Their daughter Eilidh is happy to see her grandparents and currently oblivious about her father’s fate, but it’s clear to see the damage Fionnlagh’s exploits have had on Donna. These early chapters felt like being sucked down into a whirlpool of memories. There’s such an incredible sense of place and the use of Gaelic words and names feels foreign, strange and somehow magical at the same time. There are tourists enjoying the white sandy beaches, but we’re taken down below the surface to the realities of living somewhere so remote and bleak. Then further down to the horrors underneath where salmon are eaten alive by lice in their cages, where beached whales gasp their last agonising breath on the sand and a beautiful girl with her whole life ahead of her can be thrown over a cliff like rubbish. PUT IN A QUOTE ABIUT LANDSCAPE

Peter May has portrayed the environment, whilst also showing the extent to which climate change and the eco- industry have impacted the surroundings he’s known for his whole life. The old cottages are damp and battered, some being refurbed by incomers with money either as family homes or holiday cottages. New houses are squat, one-storey dwellings built to blend with the sand and the heather with large windows giving uninterrupted views of the landscape. Younger islanders are focused on eco-activism with Caitlin Black and her friend Isobel starring in a programme about the island’s ecology. They care about salmon farming practices that prevent wild salmon from swimming up river to spawn. Huge cages that once held a few hundred salmon now hold a hundred thousand, with such a high mortality rate they’re having to take them from the cages and dump them into rock crevices formed from by the tide. They lay there rotting until the sea washes them away.

Finn’s narrative takes us on his investigations around the island, trying to find evidence to disprove the police’s theory that his son is a killer. A task made much more difficult when his DNA matches samples taken from Caitlin’s body. Why would he rape someone he’s been sleeping with for months according to locals who’d noticed their clandestine comings and goings from a derelict cottage by the sea. Yet Finn is also pulled inexorably into the past and we go with him because this island has a huge hold and power. I felt centuries of history in the island, it’s people and their relationships. This is sometimes positive, as Finn remembers beach parties where he first met Masaili as a teenager and they make love on the beach in the present, grasping a tiny moment of happiness and connection in the hurt and devastation. The most terrible memories involve a scheme to steal fish from the fish farm and pass them off as wild salmon, for a ghillie from the estate to sell on. Finn goes along with it despite his misgivings, but the scheme is suggested by Niall. A group of teenagers meet and drive to the fish farm several times, but one night there’s an awful storm and a sense of foreboding. This enterprise leads to two deaths and creates a suspicion in Finn about his friend Niall. If he is willing to steal from his own family and brush aside the death of a friend, is he capable of murder? Niall’s surname is Black.

It feels as if the island has a consciousness. It sees your past and your future as clearly as the present, almost as if they’re happening simultaneously. I felt it when Finn walked across the very place he stood with Masaili when they were first meeting at six years old and she had two pigtails. She also called him Finn for the first time, christening him with a nickname he still uses. This is a thin place, unchanged for centuries. It said something about how we experience the world. We are rarely solidly who we are in the present, with past and future forgotten? We are simultaneously all the selves we’ve ever been. So, Fionnlagh can be a good father, a talented teacher and a suspect in a murder.

Masaili has a secret about the night in Glasgow when she found Finn in bed with another girl in their student flat? It’s one of the only times she narrates so it’s important. It makes us realise that Finn isn’t the upstanding man we think he is, he was also the cause of so much hurt, rather like his son. There’s a sense in which this trauma is generational, not just in individual families but in the island itself. The environment has always been harsh and people have found it to survive. It’s a hunting and fishing community and other nearby islands, like St.Kilda, became uninhabitable in the early Twentieth Century due to the difficulty of growing and catching enough food for the islanders. Fin takes us back to a conversation he had with his grandfather about the whaling industry, brutal tales of harpooning these majestic creatures and turning the sea red. It links to the beached whales in the bay, possibly drawn off course by one of them being unwell and in distress. As the vet assesses these giant creatures and people desperately try to save them he talks about a tradition in the Faroe Islands where they draw whales to the shore then hack them to pieces. Fin has violent memories of being forced to join a seasonal slaughter. In his last summer before university, Fin felt like a black cloud had descended because he and his friend Artair had been chosen to join the guga hunters. This was a four hundred year old tradition where twelve men would travel to An Sgeir, an island no more than a rock in the middle of the ocean. A guga was a young gannet, once hunted in a desperate need for food, their slaughter was now a rite of passage. Hunters killed two thousand birds in a fortnight, then they would be plucked and salted. Fin felt disgusted by the idea, but it seemed unavoidable and it would be dishonourable to give up your place.

This was a tense and complex case with so many possible suspects, and Peter May also keeps us guessing about Fionnlagh. Perhaps he could be the killer, after all he does confess. In a way this created a crime novel that didn’t revolve completely on whodunnit, but on the tensions between different characters and also their environment. He also creates a compelling picture of the beautiful and intelligent victim, Caitlin Black. A girl as embedded in the island as Fin, with a deep passion for the island’s environment and it’s flora and fauna. She epitomises the gap between generations, but also between those who want to protect the island and those who are making a generous living by exploiting and polluting it. I loved how deep the island and it’s history ran in these people, something I can understand having lived right next to the River Trent for most of my life. In fact the first thing I did when moving into my last village twelve years ago was go to the river bank and take off my sandals to feel the river bank under my feet. The river and it’s daily tidal bore, the smell of fresh cut hay, the cool of the forest, the crunch of dry pine needles underfoot as well as the smell of straw bales in the sun and freshly turned earth are all in my soul. They make up part of who I am and although I moved away for study, I have returned and unknowingly into the same village where my great-great grandmother is buried. Our ancestors call to us and this is definitely what Fin and Marsaili are feeling, as well as need to be close to Fionnlagh, Donna and Eilidh. This is something he couldn’t have imagined ten years ago, but now he wonders if it’s where they belong. Perhaps this means future additions to the series and on the basis of this novel, I’ll be the first in the queue if it does.

The fourth novel featuring Fin Macleod, and following on from the Lewis trilogy, sees the former policeman and his wife return to the Hebrides when their son is accused of murder. Tightly plotted, though slow in parts, it was a welcome return to the islands and the characters. The bleak almost otherworldly landscape adds depth to the narrative. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I was so excited to hear that Fin Macleod was making a very welcome return. I read the first three books in this series many years ago, and they made a real impact on me. I am very pleased to say the wait was worth it!

Set against such a haunting background, the black loch sees Fin Macleod returning to Isle of Lewis with his partner Marsaili but there is more sadness awaiting Fin as his son Fionnlagh has been accused of the murder of an eighteen year old TV star Kathleen.

As with the previous books to work out the present there is a need to reach into the past and in doing so we see the Fin's character developing. Peter May really gets under the skin of all his characters, and at times this makes for uncomfortable reading as we can be disappointed by much loved characters.

Don't miss out on this treasure!

It has been quite a while since I have read a book by Petter May so when I saw another instalment in this series I grabbed it straight away. This is the fourth book in the series and is a well-developed story that is very enjoyable.

Caitlin, a young woman in her prime and a local TV star is found dumped on a beach at Black Loch. What is hard to believe in this case is that Cailtin was an extraordinarily good swimmer and canoeist, can she really have drowned?

No longer in the police force, Fin MacLeod and his wife return to where Fin grew up but for the worst possible reason, his son Fionnlagh stands accused of the murder of Caitlin and it soon becomes apparent that he was having an affair with her. Fin is devastated and cannot understand how his son could find himself in such a position and as bad as it all is Fin must help try and save his son.

May creates a wonderful atmosphere which is almost as creepy as it is gloomy, broken and damaged people strengthen the story and everything is not what it seems.
I found the book quite slow in parts, it has a very dark theme about it but altogether is a great thriller. If you have read the previous books in this series, I am sure you will enjoy returning to these familiar characters you have come to know.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions are my own.

I read the Lewis trilogy over a decade ago, when they were first published. When I heard there was to be another book, featuring Fin, I was very eager to read it.

Fin and Marsaili return to Lewis, but it’s a journey they don’t want to make. Their married son, Fionnlagh, aged 30, has been accused of the very worst crime; involving a teenage girl, who by his own admission, he had been having an eyebrow raising relationship with. Their return is hard enough, but made more so, by old memories dredged up, which is unavoidable in such a small insular community.

The elapsed time between the writing of the trilogy, and The Black Loch, puts the reader alongside Fin. I felt the sense of distance, and time passed. This very much echoes the feeling that Fin has on arriving back on Lewis. The character names ringing distant bells in my memory, those same names were evoking distant feelings and long buried memories for Fin and Marsaili too.

If you haven’t read the original trilogy, the many characters, both current and past, may feel a little overwhelming. So I would suggest taking a few notes of the names, and their Gaelic names, to help you stay on top of who is who.

The atmospheric story is complex, with so much of the characters’ histories muddying the waters, confusing the facts of the case. Long held grudges, opinions formed decades, if not generations ago, make impartiality virtually impossible. Scabs are ripped from old wounds, poking the soft flesh underneath.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the characters again, some more so than others. It felt like meeting up with old friends, who I had lost touch with. Lewis itself feels like a character in its own right, the rugged landscape imposing a powerful, foreboding presence. I felt a strong environmental theme running through the pages too.

Readers of the original trilogy and those not au fait with the earlier books, will love this dark thriller; though I did find it to be a slower read than I remember the earlier books being. 4⭐️ from me.

Beautiful descriptions of nature and island life. I loved the Scottish names! Peter May has written a well crafted and thoroughly enthralling story. I would thoroughly recommend

I absolutely loved reading this book. The characters in this book are from Peter Mays The Lewis Trilogy. This can easily be read as a stand alone novel though without you feeling you have missed something. What I loved about this book is how the author managed to incorporate some important ecological things into a murder mystery story. Everything slotted in brilliantly, adding more layers to the story.

Fin MacLeod and his wife Marsaili are back in the Outer Hebrides, on the Isle of Lewis. Not a place they wish to return to after moving away ten years earlier. But when their son Fionnlagh is arrested accused or murdering an 18 year old student of his, they return to try and help prove that their son is innocent. But is he?

The problem is when they have a couple of short visits with their son he doesn’t say much to make them believe he is innocent, except that he was in love with the murdered girl, and despite being her teacher, as well as being married and having a young daughter he had been having an affair with her. Fin is no longer a police officer, even if he was he wouldn’t be able to investigate his own son.

As the plot unfolds, Fin’s past comes back, as we learn of past relationships, along with things Fin and his friends got upto, and there are some things that he has never shared with anyone. Could the past somehow be linked to the present?

Along with the mystery part of the story, the author raises issues on Salmon farms, how the fish are kept cramped in cages, and some die and end up with sea lice, then they are treated with toxic chemicals. The other issue raised is that of whales how things used to be when whales were killed, but within this story a pod of whales become stranded, this is based on something that actually happened in 2023. The way these issues are mentioned blend with the story, it’s not like reading a non fiction book on ecological things. It all blends and adds to the strands of the story bringing it together nicely.

Peter May has done a great job with this story, covering a mystery as well as touching on some of the ecological problems that he has clearly researched. The characters are all relatable, believable and three dimensional. The setting is well described, making you picture each place that they go to on the island.

An engaging, engrossing read from start to finish. Thank you to #Netgalley and @QuercusBooks for an eARC of this book all opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

Another great instalment to this series, a body found at the Black Loch and in suspicious circumstances as Caitlin is an excellent swimmer and canoeist. Fin Macloud and Marsaili come back to the island after 10 years away when he learns his married son Fionnlagh has been having an affair with Caitlin and a suspect for her murder.
Things are not as they seem and for Fin lots of memories are brought back, look forward to a roller coaster of a ride that will keep the pages turning into the early hours. Another excellent read from this awesome author.
My thanks as always to NetGalley, Publisher Quercus Books ,riverrun for the chance of this early read.

If you're familiar with May's previous three books in this series then you'll find yourself on familiar territory here with new ground covered also. One of May's strengths from previous books is his ability to describe locations in a way that makes the reader feel they know places they've never been. While this works as a standalone with plenty of references to the previous books, I'd personally recommend reading the previous books first. That said if you dive straight in here you won't be disappointed. It is dark in places but perhaps that goes with the territory and the ending is both satisfactory and surprising. It will leave you wondering if there's more to come and if there will be such a long wait this time? Only the author will know!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is part of a series but can be read standalone with no issues as plenty of context is given. I enjoyed some aspects of this book but struggled with others.

As always with May's books, The Black Loch is a beautifully descriptive novel, well paced with an intriguing plot and plenty of wonderful characters. Having read the original Lewis trilogy years ago and forgetting a lot of what happened, I thought this might make The Black Loch a slightly confusing read as I tried to remember previous plots, however it holds its own as a stand alone novel with no prior reading necessary. That being said, there are plenty of subtle reminders to catch the reader up.

May always makes the location a key point of the plot which really transports the reader into the story. Initially starting off with a rather slow pace, by the time the story reached its unexpected conclusion, I couldn't put it down!

If you're a Peter May fan, you'll love this one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books | riverrun for the ARC.

A wonderful addition to the Lewis trilogy with the return of Fin McLeod to the island after his son is accused of murder. Full of raw emotion with flashbacks to previous episodes this is storytelling of the highest calibre. Details of salmon farming maybe rather unsettling but as part of the narrative it works brilliantly. It all builds to a violent climax that may well deserve more from these super characters.

Peter May’s latest book is a compelling atmospheric mystery rooted deep in the events of the past. This is the fourth book in his series set on the island of Lewis but it’s many years since I read the previous books and The Black Loch stands up well as a stand alone read.
Fin MacCleod and his wife Marsaili left the island ten years ago but their lives have become increasingly unhappy. When their son, Fionnlagh is accused of murdering an 18 year old girl, they return to Lewis to try and help him and his family.
Although Fin is no longer with the police, he immediately starts trying to find out what has happened. It quickly becomes clear that his son was having an affair with the murdered girl but Fionnlagh refuses to give any more details and the police are happy that they have found their murderer.
As Fin investigates, he becomes increasingly reminded of events in the past when he was a teenager. Many of his friends are still on the island and the memories of the Summer before they all left for university on the mainland form a big part of this story. The further he delves into his son’s relationship with the murdered girl, the more he realises that the past is still influencing the present.
The Black Loch is quite dark in tone. Despite the beauty of the island and the brilliant but unusual sunshine, the feel is definitely gloomy with many of the characters damaged by either the events of the past or the present. I’ve never visited any of the Scottish Isles but Peter May evokes a real sense of place such that I almost feel that I have been there. He obviously has strong views on modern salmon farming too and the details of that industry are so graphic that it has put me off eating salmon for the foreseeable future.
Despite the darkness of tone and subject matter, the book isn’t depressing and the conclusion, which I didn’t see coming, does leave you with a feeling of optimism for the characters.
This was a great read which I didn’t want to put down and brilliantly combines an intriguing murder mystery with serious ecological issues.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers, Quercus Books, for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Fin Mc Leod is back with a bang! An excellent book 4 in the Lewis trilogy, which I can highly recommend. Peter May weaves a fine tale of island life, nature and it's people, all beautifully described. An atmospheric read, filed with tension, surprises and a beautiful unexpected ending. I do recommend reading the previous books for background information, you won't be disappointed! Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.