Showing results by author "Peter May"

When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that bears similarities to a brutal killing on the mainland, Edinburgh detective Fin Macleod is dispatched to the Outer Hebrides to investigate, embarking at the same time on a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the people and places of his tortured childhood, the beautiful island and its ancient customs once again begin to assert their grip on his psyche. Every step toward solving the case brings Fin closer to a confrontation with the dark events of the past that shaped - and nearly destroyed - his life.

It's the 22nd century. Humanity has taken its first steps into the galaxy, and we've found ourselves in a vast playground of alien races and cultures. As the newest players on the universal stage, though, we're at the bottom of the food chain. Welcome back to the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates humans from the majority of the other races. While some of the stories deal with mercenaries, others introduce listeners to the other guilds, organizations, and races that make up the landscape of the Four Horsemen universe.

The Chinese police have once more been forced to enlist the services of American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell, this time to investigate a series of four horrific ritual executions in Beijing. Detective Li Yan is determined to discover just how one of the victims in particular, an American diplomat, became caught up in the slaying. And he is arguably even more determined to have nothing to do with Campbell, whom he finds simultaneously too foreign and too... familiar. The personal polarity that once attracted Yan and Campbell again strengthens their professional partnership.

Lovers and business partners Niamh and Ruairidh are owners of a small Hebridean company, Ranish Tweed. Their fabrics have become internationally sought-after in the world of fashion. But the threads of their relationship are beginning to fray. As they prepare for an important showing at a Parisian fabric fair, Niamh accuses Ruairidh of having an affair with a Russian fashion designer they work with - a fight that ends with Ruairidh storming off. Moments later, Niamh watches in horror as the car containing her life partner explodes in a ball of flame. With Niamh a prime suspect in the murder, the Parisian police hound her....

Living again of the Isle of Lewis, the ex-detective inspector Fin McLeod is working as a security officer for a local landowner. While investigating illegal activity on the estate, Fin encounters elusive poacher and former childhood friend Whistler Macaskill. But while Fin catches up with Whistler, the two witness a freak natural phenomenon - a "bog burst" - that spontaneously drains a loch of its water, revealing a mud-encased light aircraft with a sickeningly familiar moniker on its side.

In The Lewis Man, the second book of the trilogy, Fin Macleod has returned to the Isle of Lewis, the storm-tossed, wind-scoured outer Hebridean island where he was born and raised. Having left behind his adult life in Edinburgh - including his wife and his career in the police force - the former Detective Inspector is intent on repairing past relationships and restoring his parents' derelict cottage. His plans are interrupted when an unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog.

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.

What happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher at the École Nationale d’Administration, who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future prime ministers and presidents, vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. This ten-year-old mystery inspires a bet—one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse, France, instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose.

A grotesquely burned corpse found in a city park is a troubling mystery for Beijing detective Li Yan. Yan, devoted to his career as a means of restoring the respect his family lost during the Cultural Revolution, needs outside help if he is to break the case. The unidentified cadaver in turn provides a welcome distraction for forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell. Campbell, married to her work and having left America and her broken past behind, throws herself into the investigation and before long uncovers a bizarre anomaly.

A prodigious Chinese swimmer kills himself on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. Days later, a champion weightlifter suffers a fatal heart attack prior to competition. Detective Li Yan senses a conspiracy surrounding the fatalities and finds a female athlete willing to talk. But she will trust only one person: Li's fiancée, Margaret Campbell. When Campbell's contact herself vanishes, the gun is fired on a race against time. And Li must now outrun, and outwit, an enemy bent on pushing him beyond endurance.

When France’s top chef, Marc Fraysse, summoned the world’s press to make a shattering announcement, rumors abounded that he was about to lose one of his three coveted Michelin stars. Instead, on arrival at his remote restaurant on a volcanic plateau in central France, they were greeted with the news that the troubled genius had been murdered, and the message he intended to deliver was never made. Seven years later, his killing and the identity of his killer still remain an enigma.

His victims are young, beautiful, and viciously mutilated. He calls himself the Beijing Ripper. The media and terror-stricken public are demanding the killer's arrest, and Li Yan, the head of Beijing’s serious crime squad, has been put in the spotlight. American pathologist Margaret Campbell is asked to perform an autopsy on one of the victims, and her results send shockwaves through the investigation. Then Li begins receiving personal letters from the killer, and his life and career start falling apart.

A vehicle crammed with dozens of dead Chinese immigrants is found in Southern Texas. Pathologist Margaret Campbell must put aside her horror and find out why. Detective Li Yan - an even more unwelcome memory for Campbell - has arrived stateside to investigate a link in the case to a lucrative trade in illegal labourers.

In 1965, five teenage friends fled Glasgow for London to pursue their dream of musical stardom. Yet before year's end three returned, and returned damaged. In 2015, a brutal murder forces those three men, now in their sixties, to journey back to London and finally confront the dark truth they have run from for five decades.

When Detective Sime Mackenzie boards a light aircraft at Montreal's St. Hubert airfield, he does so without looking back. For Sime, the 850-mile journey ahead represents an opportunity to escape the bitter blend of loneliness and regret that has come to characterise his life in the city. Travelling as part of an eight-officer investigation team, Sime's destination lies in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Only two kilometres wide and three long, Entry Island is home to a population of around 130 inhabitants - the wealthiest of which has just been discovered murdered in his home.

Husband and wife Niamh and Ruairidh Macfarlane co-own Ranish Tweed: a Hebridean company that weaves its own special variety of Harris cloth, which has become a sought-after brand in the world of high fashion. But when Niamh learns of Ruairidh's affair with Russian designer Irina Vetrov, then witnesses the pair killed by a car bomb in Paris, her life is left in ruins. Along with her husband's remains, she returns home to the Isle of Lewis bereft.

A man stands bewildered on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris. He cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his identity is a folded map of a path named the Coffin Road. He does not know where this search will take him. A detective from Lewis sits aboard a boat, filled with doubt. DS George Gunn knows that a bludgeoned corpse has been discovered on a remote rock 20 miles offshore. He does not know if he has what it takes to uncover how and why.

An unidentified corpse is recovered from a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. News of the discovery soon reaches Fin Macleod. However, since swapping his life in Edinburgh for a quiet existence on Lewis, such mysteries are no longer a concern for the former Detective Inspector. Or so he thought. The sequel to the Blackhouse which was selected for the WH Smith Richard and Judy Bookclub, and the second book in the Lewis triology.

Glasgow, 1965. Headstrong teenager Jack Mackay cannot allow for even the possibility of a life of predictability and routine. The 17-year-old has just one destination on his mind - London - and successfully convinces his four friends and fellow bandmates to join him in abandoning their homes to pursue a goal of musical stardom.

The third cold-case investigation for Enzo Macleod, from the author of the Richard and Judy best seller The Blackhouse. France. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, Enzo Macleod is running out of time to crack the most confounding of unsolved French murders. His daughter is nearly killed, Enzo is mugged - and then he is arrested. Someone is trying to destroy his character. Someone is framing him for murder. Killers from the past will stop at nothing to halt Enzo, who must use all his forensic skills to solve the case - before they succeed.