The Chessmen

December 8, 2014
The final volume of May’s darkly lyrical trilogy, set largely on the remote Hebridean Isle of Lewis, works better as a standalone, given that plot threads and characters integral to its two predecessors, The Blackhouse (2012) and The Lewis Man (2014), are all but forgotten. Former Edinburgh police detective Fin Macleod, now living back in his birthplace of Lewis and working as the head of security at a sprawling estate, is tasked with stopping the widespread poaching of salmon. One local poacher happens to be a childhood friend, and he and Macleod witness a rare “bog burst,” where a lake drains itself dry, in a remote area of the island. At the bottom of the dried loch, they find an airplane, which a Celtic rock star and mutual friend was flying 17 years earlier when he disappeared. A story line that strains credibility coupled with a contrived ending may leave fans of the earlier installments unsatisfied.

December 1, 2014
Back on Lewis Island, the quiet Hebrides outpost where he was born (The Lewis Man, 2013, etc.), murder keeps stalking Fin McLeod, late of the Edinburgh CID-this time accompanied by harrowing revelations about his own early years.Emerging from a shelter where they've taken refuge from a passing storm, Fin and his childhood friend Whistler Macaskill realize that a bog burst has drained a nearby loch far enough to reveal the wreckage of a small airplane. From the insignia, they recognize the plane flown by their old friend Roddy Mackenzie, who disappeared 17 years ago. An ill-advised look into the plane's cabin tells Fin that Roddy's finally come home. The revelation of his death opens fresh wounds for the members of Amran, the band he'd played for, especially for singer Mairead Morrison, whose lovely image had been the symbol of its runaway success. The discovery means that Fin will have little time to do the job his old friend Kenny John Maclean has hired him for-rid the Red River Estate, which Kenny manages for the Wooldridge family, of the poachers who've overrun it-and even less to testify on behalf of the Rev. Donald Murray, the father of Fin's newly discovered son Fionnlagh's girlfriend, Donna, and the other grandfather to Donna's baby, Eilidh. Church elders, unhappy that Donald stalked and shot the gangsters about to execute his wife and daughter, plan to remove him from the ministry of the Crobost Free Church. If only they knew how many other locals were walking around burdened by sins all the heavier for remaining hidden. May's poetic descriptions in this final installment of his Lewis trilogy alternate with the loutish behavior of the characters, who are constantly slapping, slugging and coshing each other. The mystery-really, the mysteries-are untidy, but the atmosphere is altogether magical.

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March 1, 2015
Scottish author May's final installment in "The Lewis Trilogy" (after "The Lewis Man") finds retired Detective Inspector Fin McLeod taking on a security job to investigate illegal poaching on a private estate. McLeod reconnects with Whistler, a childhood friend, who is also a suspect in the poaching incident. McLeod's investigation takes a turn when he and Whistler stumble upon a crashed airplane in a peat bog with a dead body inside, which happens to be that of a former classmate who mysteriously vanished almost 20 years ago. Narrator Peter Forbes brings the characters to life and adds richness to the author's beautifully detailed descriptions of the desolate landscapes of the Isle of Lewis in the outer Hebrides of Scotland. VERDICT Recommended for fans of the series and other Scotland-set mysteries.--Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence

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Starred review from December 15, 2014
May brings his acclaimed Lewis trilogy to a close with a novel that is both wrenching and hopefuland absolutely in line with the broader themes of death and redemption explored in each preceding mystery (The Blackhouse, 2012, and The Lewis Man, 2014). The last title is a nod to the famous find in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis of twelfth-century Nordic chess pieces carved out of whalebone. The mystery also involves the sudden discovery of something with links to the past. Fin Macleod, the series hero, who has devolved from Edinburgh cop to security overseer for an estate owner on Lewis, and an old friend, Whistler Macaskill, are on the bogs when they come across a downed plane, one that had been buried under layers of peat and muck until a bog burst slid the layers off. Inside the plane is the body of one of Macleod's and Macaskill's best friends from their youth, Roddy Mackenzie, a Celtic rock star of the past, whose plane disappeared almost 20 years before but who, apparently, died from foul play rather than the crash. The narrative zips back and forth between Macleod's unofficial investigation into Roddy's death and his memories of a golden past. This is an utterly absorbing mystery, but what will stay with readers most is what becomes of series hero Macleod.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)