Entry Island - Hardcover

"A Gordian-knotted plot . . . The final result is a fascinating glimpse into a shameful and frequently overlooked aspect of British history. The author has followed the ties that spread out from the Hebrides to the strong Scottish Gaelic-speaking communities on North America's eastern seaboard and used them to embellish a modern murder mystery."--The Independent


"May is the master of painting a vivid picture of his chosen landscapes and weaving a fascinating plot. The research he has packed in to this well-paced dual tale is impressive . . . An absorbing read from a writer at the top of his game."
--Daily Express


"Breathes fresh life into his writing while allowing many of the themes he likes to explore, such as secrets from the past that carry through to the present, to be revisited."--Crimepieces

"For those who enjoy a historical and social context--I have no hesitation in recommending Entry Island as an exciting, absorbing and moving story."--Lynn Harvey, Eurocrime

"May follows his superb Lewis trilogy with an equally absorbing work . . . Mackenzie's historical quest merges rivetingly with his 21st century police work."--Marcel Berlins, The Times

"Told with exceptional clarity and a fine eye for the claustrophobia of island life, it weaves a hypnotic spell as it jumps between generations and proves that May is a writer to be cherished."--Geoffrey Wansell, The Daily Mail

"Fans of May's Lewis trilogy (The Chessmen, etc.) will welcome this solid standalone, which likewise involves crime on an isolated island . . . Mackenzie's dreams of 19th century Scottish crofters (farmers) and their doomed struggle with powerful landowners, a conflict known as the Highland Clearances, which directly affected his ancestors and perhaps Kirsty's too, provide a powerful counterpoint to the present-day story line."--Publishers Weekly

"This is a tale of two islands, two mysteries, and two places and times. A tale of misfits isolated within their own cultures, and a tale of cultures battling each other, both in the 1800s and today."--Suspense Magazine

"A police procedural with elements of romance plus a healthy infusion of historical fiction. That it works so well is owing to May's ability to create atmosphere you can cut with a dirk and to his storytelling prowess that sweeps all before it."--Library Journal

"May skillfully braids his two story lines into both a gripping mystery and a vivid, fully realized novel of lost love, yearning, and unbearable hardship."--Seattle Times

Marilyn Stasio in The New York Times raved: "Peter May is a writer I'd follow to the ends of the earth." Now Peter May takes us to a small island off the coast of Québec with an emotionally charged new mystery.

When a murder rocks the isolated community of Entry Island, insomniac homicide detective Sime Mackenzie boards a light aircraft at St. Hubert airfield bound for the small, scattered chain of Madeline Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as part of an eight-officer investigation team from Montréal.

Only two kilometers wide and three long, Entry Island is home to a population of just more than 100 inhabitants, the wealthiest of whom has just been discovered murdered in his home. Covered in her husband's blood, the dead man's melancholy wife spins a tale for the police about a masked intruder armed with a knife.

The investigation appears to be little more than a formality--the evidence points to a crime of passion, implicating the wife. But Sime is electrified by the widow during his interview, convinced that he has met her before, even though this is clearly impossible.

Haunted by this strange certainty, Sime's insomnia is punctuated by vivid, hallucinatory dreams of a distant past on a Scottish island 3,000 miles away, dreams in which he and the widow play leading roles. Sime's conviction soon becomes an obsession. And despite mounting evidence of the woman's guilt, he finds himself convinced of her innocence, leading to a conflict between the professional duty he must fulfill and the personal destiny he is increasingly sure awaits him.