Entry Island: An edge-of-your-seat thriller you won't forget

442 pages4 and 1 / 2 starsDetective Simon “Sime” Mackenzie catches the case of a murder on Entry Island off the coast of Canada. He works for the Quebec Surete. He is the only available detective that speaks both English and French. The islanders are English-only speakers.A woman named Kirsty Cowell is attacked by a masked intruder. When her husband attempts to rescue her, he is fatally stabbed by the intruder. He is dead.Complicating the investigation is the fact the officer in charge is Sime’s ex-wife, Marie-Ange. Things ended very badly between them.Sime and seven of his colleagues sail over to Entry Island to investigate. Sime is startled to realize that he knows Kirsty from somewhere. She says not, however.The other police officers all believe that Kirsty is guilty. Sime does not want her to be for some reason.The book has supernatural overtones as Sime slips into trance-like states where he recalls the stories his grandmother told him as a child. He is transported back in time and essentially lives through his great-great-great grandfather as he struggles through life as a child and teen on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland. He is eventually transported to Canada and suffers terribly on the voyage.Mr. May has a talent for creating unique plots. The writing in this book is creative and colorful. The descriptions of the island and its environment put the reader there so as to see it for themselves. I was very taken with the historical aspect of the book. I wanted so badly to learn what happened to Sime’s many times great grandfather, the original Kirsty and Sime’s Irish friend Michael. And I did.I have read many of Mr. May’s novels and have liked them all. The only disappointment I have about this book was the rather corny ending.

I enjoy the author's fast pace and his imaginative characters and descriptions of the geographic area.

If you liked Peter May's Lewis Trilogy (The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen), I think you will enjoy Entry Island as well. This too is a detective novel, but with different characters, and set mainly on another island, in another part of the world: Entry Island, belonging to the Madeleine Islands in the French-speaking province of Quebec in Canada. However, the population on Entry Island (less than 130 people) forms an isolated English-speaking community.Which is why, when a murder takes place on Entry Island, the police team sent there from Quebec, includes Sime Mackenzie (Sime pronounced Sheem; a Scottish variety of the name Simon), fluent in both languages: English as well as French. One of the other members of the team is his ex-wife, Marie-Ange.The murder victim is a man named Cowell, who lived on the island; and one of the main suspects is his wife Kirsty. When Sime first meets her, he is struck by a weird feeling of recognition, for which he can't find any logical explanation.Sime suffers from insomnia since his divorce, and the few hours he manages to doze off at all are filled with weird dreams. On Entry Island, not only does Kirsty Cowell pursue him even into his dreams, but the dreams also become mixed up with memories of stories he was told in his childhood, about his ancestor who emigrated to Canada from the Hebredian Isle of Lewis in the mid 1800s.Throughout the novel, the perspective shifts between the contemporary murder investigation, and a diary kept by Sime's ancestor (by the same name), who grew up on the Isle of Lewis as the son of a crofter.While I loved the double or triple layers of mystery as such, to begin with I found myself questioning the old diary entries. Did they not seem a bit too detailed and modern in narrative style? ... Then I remembered Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Charles Dickens; and decided to give up that line of criticism and just enjoy the story!Reaching the end, I really could not find any reason to give this book any less than five stars. There is a depth to Peter May's storytelling (in this novel as well as in the Lewis trilogy) that goes way past being just entertainment for the moment. These books leave me with a feeling of having "been somewhere", rather than just having read about it.

I loved the setting for this mystery, the Magdalen Islands, Quebec. It is a part of the country that I knew very little about, but it's history is fascinating and really added to the story that spans generations. When a prominent resident is murdered at his home in this remote island community in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, a team of investigators is sent from Quebec to provide expertise to the local officers. His wife was at the scene and claimed to be attacked as well. However, the lead investigator is not convinced of her story and focuses on her as the prime suspect.I learned a lot about the islands history - settled by Scots evicted during the land clearance in the 1700s and later by French settlers. A second investigator who is fluent in both English and French and has first hand knowledge of these islands is called in as well to assist. He is taken aback when he meets the victim's wife, feeling that he "knows" her an is even more perplexed when a family pendant she owns matches his family ring. It is a fascinating story with many suspects and subplots that will keep you turning pages until the end. Beautifully written story by a excellent author.

Peter May ist immer eine Empfehlung wert

Fantastico thriller, anche per le descrizioni ambientali e storiche. Un Libro appassionante e di grande spessore. Consigliato non solo agli amanti del genere poliziesco

Après avoir été passionnée par la trilogie écossaise, je n'ai pas été déçue par Entry Island. Ayant personnellement étudié l'histoire de la Grande Famine en Irlande, la traversée d' Irlandais vers le nouveau monde, j'ai d'autant plu apprécié ce livre de Peter May relatant l'installation de migrants écossais vers le Canada au XIXème, suite à la famine écossaise (moins connue que celle d'Irlande) et à l'éviction des fermiers par les landlords britanniques... Un meurtre au milieu de personnages "vivants", des flash-back entre aujourd'hui et l'époque des "migrants-pionniers", des descriptions d'îles du côté de Terre Neuve que l'on voit et ressent : un voyage passionnant dans le temps et l'espace... Impossible de terminer la lecture ce thriller historique sans y penser encore longtemps après !

i was really sorry to finish the excellent lewis trilogy, so iwas delighted to see this new offering from peter may. the blending of the old and present day stories was skilfully done, as was the well conjured atmosphere of both scottish and danadian islands hope there will be another soon.