I am currently reading The Black House by Peter May, a detective novel that takes place on the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. I got a copy from Randy, the local Hachette Book Group rep, who thought I would like it, since I am such a big fan of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch detective series, which Hachette also publishes. The book is very good, and is the story of an Edinburgh police detective who is sent to investigate a murder on the island where he grew up. I like the story, but find the frequent flashbacks to his horrific youth on the island kind of depressing. No doubt these these flashbacks will be the key to the murder, but still... The Black House is the first book in a trilogy. I bought the other two books in the series, plus a coffee table book by May about the Herbrides, off the bargain shelf at the local Denver bookstore where I work. Hopefully the other two books will not have the depressing backstories in them. And by the way, May waxes very nostalgically in the coffee table book about the beauty of the Hebrides, but he lives and writes in France. It seems to me that a significant number of Scots just love Scotland, but choose not to live there anymore. Just like those Iowans.
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