Comment

Nov 30, 2017wyenotgo rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
What starts out as a baffling mystery gradually merges into a very timely tale, one with implications that are all too real. To avoid spoilers, I will say very little about the plot. I prefer to complement Peter May on his choice of setting and the degree to which he infuses the story with the uniqueness of that setting, Harris Isle and the tiny Flannan Isles in the Outer Hebrides. Starting a novel in the first person with a protagonist who has lost all memory of who he is, where he is or how he comes to be there certainly gets a mystery off to a good start but it presents many difficulties for the writer: How is it that he remembers how to perform an internet search, drive a car or care for a dog and yet has no recollection of what he has been doing for a living, what special skills he possesses, what city he comes from, whether or not he is married? A degree of suspension of disbelief is required and May succeeds in overcoming this obstacle so unobtrusively that we scarcely notice the trick he has performed. Yes, there are a couple of minor problems in logic along the way, actions that the protagonist takes that hardly stand up to close scrutiny but they don't impede the tale significantly. I also applaud May's extensive research into some pretty abstruse biochemical material. And as said, he takes full advantage of a wonderful geographic setting and the habits and behavior of the people who live there.