Thursday, January 28, 2016

The Bookman reviews Coffin Road by Peter May

Coffin Road by Peter May – Quercus - $34.99

Radio New Zealand Review on Nine to Noon - Thursday 28 January 2016

There are three major strands to the story:

The story starts with a man washed up on a deserted beach on the Isle of Harris, off the coast of Scotland, he is barely alive and has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his identity is a map tracing a track called the Coffin Road.

The second strand is about a teenage girl who lives at her family home in Edinburgh and who is desperate to discover the truth about her father's death. Two years after the discovery of the pioneering scientist's suicide note, she still cannot accept that he would abandon her. And the more she discovers about his research, the more she suspects that others were behind his disappearance.

Thirdly we have Detective Sergeant George Gunn,  from Lewis in the outer Hebrides, who is investigating the discovery of a bludgeoned corpse on a remote rock 20 miles offshore.
Initially each of these strands develop as separate engrossing stories without any apparent connection to each other and then the author skilfully brings them together.

I can’t say any more really without giving away the story but what I can say is that this is Crime fiction at its very best from a leading exponent of the genre.

About The Author:
Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BCC, he quit journalism and became one of Scotland's most successful television dramatists. He has 16 crime fiction novels published plus a non-fiction title on the Hebrides and he has won several literature awards.
He now lives in South-West France with his wife, writer Janice Hally.
Author Website: www.petermay.co.uk

Author coming to NZ:
Peter May will be in NZ next month when the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival and the Centre of Irish & Scottish Studies at the University of Otago will present an evening with Peter May.: Thursday 25 February. Time: 6pm. Location: Dunedin City Library
Tickets: $15 from the University Book Shop


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