There are many ‘dubh lochs’ on the Isle of Lewis in The Outer Hebrides. The island is studded with lochs which are coloured dark by the underlying peat. One of the civil parishes on the island is even called Lochs. This book is a follow-up to The Lewis Trilogy by Peter May (Peter May author home page), ‘The Blackhouse‘, 2011, The Lewis Man, 2012, and The Chessmen, 2013. The setting is as atmospheric as ever, and the summary is as follows:
The body of eighteen-year-old TV personality Caitlin is found abandoned on a remote beach at the head of An Loch Dubh – the Black Loch – on the west coast of the island. A swimmer and canoeist, it is unlikely that she could have drowned. Fin Macleod had left the island ten years previously to escape its memories. When he learns that his married son Fionnlagh had been having a clandestine affair with the dead girl and is suspected of her murder, he returns to try and clear his name.
Things are murky though (in the same way Lady Macbeth realised ‘Hell is murky’ in Act 5 Scene 1 of The Scottish Play), and the truth of the murder lies in a past that Fin would rather forget. There has been tragedy at the cages of a salmon farm on East Loch Roag, and it is here the tense climax of the story finds its resolution.
Only one thing to do – dive into The Black Loch.
Check if ‘The Black Loch‘ by Peter May is in stock at your local library here Home | South Lanarkshire Libraries (sllclibrary.co.uk)
400 pages in Riverrun
First published 2024
ISBN-13 : 978-1529436105
Peter May