The Blackhouse

There has been a murder on the stark Hebridean Isle of Lewis, in the same small town where Edinburgh police detective Fin Macleod was raised, but Fin, sent to investigate, spends much more time peeling back the tragic history of his own youth than following the usual clues. Once the events of The Blackhouse have all unfurled, you'll understand why Fin was so reluctant to return to the island he left for good at the age of 18. The revelations are disturbing and dramatic (even melodramatic), but the real fascination for me was the setting, especially a brutal traditional bird-hunting outing on a nesting rock in the Atlantic, and in the audio version, the atmosphere is only heightened by Peter Forbes's wonderful narration, modulating between island and mainland Scottish accents. —Tom (The audiobook, via our partners at Libro.fm, is the only edition I can currently recommend, since the paperback appears to be between US editions right now.)