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Two other protagonists in the story are a local detective DS George Gunn and a teenage girl, Karen Flemming, in Edinburgh. Eventually their paths cross as the mystery deepens and then begins to unravel. Earlier in the book he went into Edinburgh and met Karen and her mother and they didn’t recognise him. This thriller starts with a man washed up on a beach. As he struggles along the adjacent road, he is recognized by a resident as James McLean and the older woman with her dog walks him to his cottage. McLean doesn't remember who he is or what happened to him. He is greeted by his dog, Bran, is only companion. Later other neighbors drop by and he is able to piece together a bit more. Searching his cottage yields few clues to his identity, and he keeps his amnesia a secret.
Coffin Road by Peter May | Goodreads Coffin Road by Peter May | Goodreads
A man wakes up on a beach, with no memory of who he is or how he got their, he appears to be known as Neal Maclean, though this rings no bells for him. I have no idea where this is. And for the first time since consciousness has returned, I am aware, with a sudden, sharp and painful stab of trepidation, that I have not the least notion of who I am.When I took up with crime fiction, I assumed some of the same good things would be at play as in “serious” fiction. I frequently find it is not. Take Coffin Road by Peter May. He uses one of the saddest tropes in fiction or drama: “I have to know.” In this case it’s Neal –or is it? He was washed up on shore in the Hebrides and has no memory. He must find out who he is, for he soon discovers a dead body. Is he the killer? The Enzo Files is a series of five novels with one on the way. The series tell the story of Enzo Macleod, a half-Scottish, half-Italian former forensic scientist that is forced to use his skills once again to solve old cold-cases in France. In the first novel of this series, Extraordinary People (also published as Dry Bones) Enzo is sent on a disturbing scavenger hunt for body parts around France.
Coffin Road | Crime Fiction Lover Coffin Road | Crime Fiction Lover
With the action going on in the Outer Hebrides, there is a third mystery forming in Edinburg, where a teenage girl is making discoveries that turn her world upside down. It’s been two years since her father’s disappearance was ruled a suicide, and Karen’s mother has just moved her boyfriend into the house with them. Karen’s transformation from a young teen at the time of her father’s death to a bitter, rebellious young woman with multiple tattoos and body piercings two years later has brought her to the point of breaking with her mother. Desperate for an anchor, Karen Fleming turns to her godfather, who worked with her father, for information about her father, something to help her find closure. She finds anything but closure, and lives are in danger as a result. In addition to being an accomplished novelist, Peter has also made himself a name and career in the film and television industries. His television career took off with The Standard, in 1978 which was based off of the characters in his first novel, The Reporter. Peter was then the co-creator and writer of Squadron, a series about an RAF rapid deploying squadron that aired on BBC starting in 1982. Neal sees bills in his name and various documents, including a map which someone had marked the word Coffin Road, which was on the table, but Neal had no idea what it meant. As the story unfolds so do the twists, turns and intrigue.
The author of a trilogy and two series, May scores here with a standout stand-alone. At its core is an eminently satisfying, multilayered mystery populated with sharply drawn characters. In an immediately engaging opening scene, a man struggles to his feet on a beach on the Isle of Harris. Shivering, confused, and disoriented, he cannot recall how he landed here. Worse, he does not know who he is, though islanders recognize him. Guided, then settled into a cottage he scarcely recognizes, he eventually reunites with Sally, a woman who recalls, and resumes, their affair. Attempting to help him recover, she walks with him up the eponymous Coffin Road, where, in a hollow, they discover several beehives. Curiously, the narrator’s hands bear evidence of bee stings. Sally also prompts the narrator, who comes to think his name is Neal, that he was writing a book about the mysterious disappearance a hundred years ago on a nearby island of three men. To jog his memory, Neal journeys to the island only to discover a corpse with its head split open. Neal fears he was the killer, and police soon think likewise. Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, the narrative follows Karen, who, in the two years following her father’s suicide, has gone “from being Daddy’s little girl to Mother’s nightmare.” Investigating her father’s suicide, Karen comes to believe he did not kill himself—that he is indeed alive. That conviction sends her into the Highlands, where she faces her own peril. The many threads of the story play out against a landscape that May, a native Scot, renders vividly. His images capture the capricious play of light and weather across the sea and the moors, matching the surprises in his tale. Peter May has become well recognized for his work both as a novelist and in film and television. His very first award was the Fraser Award in 1973 for being the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year. In 1996, Machair was nominated for the Best Drama Serial Award at the 17th International Celtic Film and Television Festival. Coffin Road opens with a man washed up on the deserted Luskentyre beach with no memory of who he is, where he came from or how he got there. Slowly he begins to unravel details of his character and life, but with each revelation comes more questions and confusion. Just who is Neal Maclean and what has happened to him?
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