EXCERPT: It smells of animal here. Dead animal. Something that has been hung to ripen before cooking. Hundreds of years of fermenting grapes have suffused the earth with odours of yeast and carbonic gas, stale now, sour, a memory retained only in the soil and the sandstone and the rafters. like all the forgotten lives that have passed through this place, in sunlight and in darkness.

It is dark now, and another life has passed.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: West of France, 1989.

A weeping killer deposits the unconscious body of nineteen year old Lucie Martin, her head wrapped in a blue plastic bag, into the water of a picturesque lake.

Lot-et-Garonne, 2003.

Fourteen years later a summer heatwave parches the earth, killing trees and bushes and drying out streams. In the scorched mud and desiccated slime of the lake a fisherman finds a skeleton wearing a bag over its skull.

Paris, October 2011.

In an elegant apartment in Paris, forensic expert Enzo Macleod pores over the scant evidence of this, the sixth cold case he has been challenged to solve. In taking on this old and seemingly impossible task he will put everything and everyone he holds dear in a peril he could never have imagined.

MY THOUGHTS: Trust me to begin this series with the final book! I have to admit that I did not realize it was part of a series when I picked it up, just that it was a book by an author that I have come to admire. But yes, although I know how it all pans out in the end, I am definitely going to read this series from the beginning, because talk about breathtaking! There was surprise after surprise in Cast Iron by Peter May. Definitely nothing predictable. Breathtaking, heart-pounding, suspenseful thriller!

Enzo appears to be a bit of a womanizer, a charmer, a slightly older man with a penchant for younger women. Yet there is nothing sleazy about him. I think I would quite like him if I met him, although I would be a little too old for his taste. He has a clutch of children, all with different mothers, with whom he maintains mostly amiable relationships. He can be moody, broody and prickly. But he is quick witted, sharp and passionate.

I really enjoyed this book. I place it in the 'couldn't put it down' category, and 'more please' Mr May.

*****
THE AUTHOR: Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. He is the recipient of writing awards in Europe and America. The Blackhouse won the U.S. Barry Award for Crime Novel of the Year and the national literature award in France, the CEZAM Prix Litteraire. The Lewis Man won the French daily newspaper Le Télégramme's 10,000-euro Grand Prix des Lecteurs. In 2014, Entry Island won both the Deanston’s Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the UK’s ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year Award.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hachette Australia, Quercus via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Cast Iron by Peter May for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my webpage

A great thriller which kept me turning the pages well into the night. Really well written, and a great plot.

Very impressive tome in what must be a terrific series. I'll definitely be going back to met Enzo at the beginning!

This book is 6th in the series, but could stand alone. Nice read