Entry Island by Peter May
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Rating:
3 Stars
In a nutshell:
Montreal Inspector Sime (pronounced Sheem) Mackenzie has been tasked with leading a team to investigate a murder that has taken place on a tiny English-speaking island in the heart of French-speaking Canada.
Best for:
Those who enjoy stories that have elements set in current day as well as the distant past (in this case, about 200 years ago).
Worth quoting:
Nothing stuck out to me.
Why I chose it:
So I finally bought a book by Peter May – a famous Scottish crime novelist. And then I realised it was the 4th book in a trilogy (I know – hence why I didn’t know it was part of the series) that I hadn’t yet started. So I immediately put that down, and found this (standalone) audio book at my library.
Review:
When I started reading this book, I didn’t know it took place in two areas: Entry Island and its environs, and Lewis island, the outer Hebrides. I should have known May would work Lewis into the plot, as he is famously from there and writes about there, but I didn’t, so when that kicked off the book, I was confused. It eventually makes sense, but it took awhile for me to get up to speed.
There are two stories here. One is of Sime, who is a bilingual Inspector sent to look into a murder that took place in a tiny island of only English speakers. That part of the story is fairly standard crime fare – who did it, is it who we think, is there a twist, etc. The character of Sime is tortured, again, as we often see. His marriage has fallen apart but he still must work with his wife, he isn’t sleeping, and he’s not doing the best job of investigating this murder (did the wife do it?), partly because he gets a bit sidetracked thinking he has some connection to the wife of the victim.
The second story is the one I found much more interesting – the story of another Sime, who lives on a croft in the island of Lewis in the mid-1800s. His family deals with so much horror, including the potato famine (which I didn’t know had also affected Scotland) and the Highland Clearances, which are a nightmare that I don’t think people in the US are taught much about. We follow Sime as he eventually makes his way to Canada, and again, I didn’t realise so many Canadians would trace their ancestors to Scotland, and then … Nova Scotia. New Scotland. Wooooof.
The main story is fine, standard crime novel fare, but the story set in the 1800s was riveting, and was what saved the book for me.
Would I recommend it to its target audience:
For the target who enjoys historical fiction, yes. For the target who enjoys a modern-day crime mystery, not so much.
