The Peat Dead (Inspector Angus Blue Book 1)

This is truly a five-star mystery/thriller. Starting from a common beginning point in mysteries--the finding of bodies--it progresses into a complex story that keeps one transfixed. It is not at all predictable and the twists keep coming. Yet all points converge eventually to a thrilling ending and the revelation of a "secret" that was behind the whole puzzling turn of events that span 75 years. The setting of most of the story, Islay in the inner Hebrides of Scotland, adds to the charm. Surely it will appeal to the scotch whisky lovers taking up this story. The plot ends with a bit of bending of history, but that is the right and privilege of the fiction writer who asks of us the "willing suspension of disbelief" that allows an author to spin a yarn. My only disappointment is an addendum to the story that implies that the bend in history was plausible. In asserting this he refers to texts that reveal that he seems to have fallen prey to revisionist pseudohistory. As a mystery writer he receives five stars from me, As a historian he gets zero! Read the book and you will, like me, be anxiously awaiting his next work of Scottish mystery.

I really enjoyed it. I had visited Islay this summer and the book tookMe back to a get and magical place. That being said the story was good and as a police procedural it was very good. The ending seemed a little rushed. If you like Peter May’s or Anne Clevees work you’ll enjoy this or it atmosphere.

It was a great read! Wonderful mystery with interesting characters!!