ENTRY ISLAND

Peter May. ENTRY ISLAND. Quercus, riverrun, 2014.

Another loan from writer friends. This British mystery writer sets a story in two times, 1840's Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, during the Clearances, and 2010s, Iles de la Madeleine, PQ, Canada. The languages are English, Gaelic, and French. It is the type of book I as a female reader love, with its old diaries, boxes of history and genealogy, graveyards and headstones, and talismans handed down through the generations. And the mystery of "familial familiarity" I first heard of by that name in a Val McDermid Trace episode where something physical about a stranger reminds you of something in your family or your history. 

A woman on Entry Island is charged with murdering her husband. The Surete want a quick resolution; one of the lead investigators, Sime Mackenzie, brought in because of his English, is less than convinced. Personal issues, including insomnia, intervene.

I amused myself watching the use of language in the Canadian scenes. The fly screen door eventually becomes the screen door. I know what a fisherman's creel is but are lobster traps or lobster pots also called creels? Does the Gatineau River flow to Quebec City? The only obvious mistake is that the writer does not understand permafrost.

Personally I found the Quebec story line much more engaging but that is probably because the story of the Clearances is more familiar, has been told before, although probably not with the addition of what happened to individuals after they boarded the boats. The sense of place is palpable in both countries. 

I know that at least one of my grandmothers spent time in quarantine on Grosse Isle.