I was introduced to Peter May by a Goodreads friend (thanks Gary) and am really enjoying his books. This book is his most recent and I looked forward to reading it whenever I had to put it down.

COFFIN ROAD | Kirkus Reviews COFFIN ROAD | Kirkus Reviews

The good parts were the writing, which is fluent and enjoyable, and also the characters, which works very well and are both convincing and interesting for most parts. Neal’s chapters are written in first person, but our other two leads (DS Gunn and Karen) are written in third person. I didn’t get much of a sense of Gunn, but he’s really only a means to an end, whereas we spend some time with Karen who’s struggling with her father’s suicide. The Karen / Neal storylines take a while to converge and just when we think we know the connection, May cleverly redirects our attention. For the most part the characters are new, though the island copper does make a return appearance. This time the story focuses on a man who stumbles from the sea one wild and windy night. He’s soaked through, desperately cold and somewhat beaten up. Moreover, he can’t remember what happened to him or even who he is; he’s lost all memory of his history and his identity. As the story develops we get to experience his reactions to his circumstances real-time and through his eyes. It’s pretty well done, though I couldn’t help wondering why he remembered how to do certain things yet was he was unable to recall any details at all regarding his life to date. Is loss of memory this selective? Maybe, but I found it a bit distracting. But the story itself came from something that I’d had in my head for several years in fact. And I’d just been trying to find a way of telling the story, to do justice to the idea that I had. And the idea I had, I suppose it’s an ecological thing, it’s about bees. Which doesn’t sound like a very promising subject. Bees are essential effectively to the long-term survival of the human race, because they pollinate about 70% of the root vegetables, the crops that we eat and need to survive. And they’re dying off at an enormous rate. Basically the major problem is a particular type of pesticide which is being peddled by several of the world’s biggest agrochem producers, and who are in total denial about it. He draws some marvellous word pictures: “Despite

The writer started off pretty good with what appeared to be a female laying unconscious on a sea bed or shore. the began to describe her breathing and the way she felt. She was not in a bad shape it appears. But in the interests of fairness, I’ll add a quote about the appeal of the place rather than the rainstorms I complained about earlier. He does write some nice descriptions. I wish all of my Goodreads’ friends a wonderful Holiday whether you are celebrating the Thanksgiving Day in the US or not. Best wishes to all. These three aspects come together brilliantly, working together to slowly unfold the main mystery of the book. Parts reminded me of the first China thriller, in the way there was something much larger than any of the individual characters at play, but it was far from a carbon copy of the book.

Coffin Road By Peter May | Used | 9781784293130 - Wob Coffin Road By Peter May | Used | 9781784293130 - Wob

In questa storia i misteri e le domande, a cui non seguono risposte adeguate, si susseguono incessantemente, creando una bella atmosfera fatta di suspense, rivelazioni e colpi di scena a più livelli. On top of that, there is an underlying environmental issue. I did feel a bit hit over the head with facts, and while the drama was believable, I definitely felt a bit as if I were being given lessons. There are better ways to introduce information to a reader than to have one character explaining things to another. All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate. His latest novel, Coffin Road came as a bit of a surprise as it grabbed me from the get-go. Coffin Road The novel begins with a man washed up on a beach, sand on his lips, clothes soaked through and shivering half to death as he manages to stagger to his feet and looks around with a feeling of foreboding, only to realise that he cannot remember who he is. Catching the eye of a local busybody who swiftly takes his arm and dispatches him to a cottage, he discovers that he is Neal Maclean.. Or is he? His utility bill tells him so, and informs him that he resides at Dune Cottage, Luskentyre on the Isle of Harris.. All news to 'Neal' and when his neighbours tell him that he is an academic spending his sabbatical writing a book about the enduring mystery of the three lighthouse keepers who disappeared from the Flannan Isles in 1900 he is again left nonplussed. If that is the case he can find no trace on his computer, nothing to point him further than the dog-eared map with a clearly marked route, known locally as coffin road and regarded until fairly recently as the route which people on the east coast of Harris used to carry their dead over the hills to bury them on the west side. 'Neal' treks the marked route the following day, discovering bee hives that he clearly has some familiarity with and eventually venturing out to the Flannan Isles, only to come across a dead man's body lying in the derelict chapel that stands alongside the lighthouse. All in all this is more than enough to cause him to wonder if that explains the ominous feeling he felt when he washed up on the beach. Spotting a tourist excursion as he flees the Flannans, 'Neal' knows the police will soon be on his tail, but decides to travel south in the hope of discovering his identity and thus proving whether or not he is responsible for murdering the man. Could he have killed a man and does this explain his dissociative amnesia? 'Neal's' story is delivered in the first person and gets off to a promising start, albeit the dissociative amnesia has a familiar feel, largely because it has been fairly generously employed in the crime fiction genre to date.The story was involved but always intriguing, I enjoyed the characters very much and there was a bit of a twist at the end which I was not expecting. One star lost though for bombarding me with 'scientific' information. If I wanted to know that much detail about bees I would read a science journal and be sure I was reading facts. That's just me though. The second character we meet is a tattooed, hair-dyed, pierced, loud-music-blasting teen girl. She's self destructive (which according to the author is the only reason why one would get tattoos and piercings) because her daddy died. Or vanished, to be precise.

Coffin Road by Peter May | Waterstones

May touches on some interesting and very topical themes: the importance of bees in the world’s ecosystems; the devastating effect of reputedly harmless pesticides; the power of the large, multi-national agrochemical companies; and the concealment of unfavourable research results. May’s love of the Outer Hebrides is apparent in his wonderfully evocative descriptions: “…I can see the rain falling from it in dark streaks that shift between smudges of grey-blue light and occasional flashes of watery sunshine that burn in brief patches of polished silver on the surface of the sea” Then you have Neal’s lover. Now who is she? And what are all those bee stings about? Why, let’s have some excruciating exposition to explain and how a Swiss agribusiness is ruining the world for future tattooed, multiply pierced, dyed hair, promiscuous, ignorant wee lasses. another big clue is a map of Coffin road, it appears Neal was in the process of writing a book, and he feels he has done something wrong when he discovers a body. Coffin Road by Peter May is another brilliant thriller by this author! Gripping and intense with a fast paced and definitely intriguing plot, I was fascinated by the storyline. I loved the previous standalone, Runaway and when I saw this one was coming out, knew I had to read it. Highly recommended.

Summary

Even when he does learn a name, it fits like borrowed clothes. The more he discovers, he starts to wonder if he really wants to know who he once was.