Starred Review. May expertly plants nicely misleading red herrings; every time the reader thinks the plot will fall into predictability, the ground shifts and the direction changes. The end comes as a satisfying surprise, built as it is on clues that were subtly in place all along." - Publishers Weekly

The first of Peter May's China critically acclaimed thrillers featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell.

Summary

And this is where the tale got taken out of my hands. I had written five of the books when my then US publisher attempted to sell the series, and all my other books, to a nascent UK publishing house without my permission (as required by contract). We got into a legal wrangle, the biggest casualty of which was the Enzo series itself – and all his readers, who were denied the sixth and ultimate book which was to have resolved the final two murders. In this the final of the Enzo McLeod series, the phlegmatic Scot faces the nightmare of every parent whose offspring go missing: he has been targeted in the past and calls on the help of friends. With a superb subplot it is others who join the dots together as McLeod follows lead after lead, mostly to a dead end. May, Peter (5 November 2013). "A Man of Letters Amongst His Books". Polaroidblipfoto.com. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015 . Retrieved 18 January 2016. Seven years on and the mystery still raw, Enzo Macleod, forensic investigator, forays into the heated world of haute cuisine to uncover bitter feuds and a burning secret. Theakston Award Winners". Harrogateinternationalfestivals.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2016 . Retrieved 18 September 2015.

Extraordinary People (published in United States as Dry Bones by Poisoned Pen Press 2006), (Quercus, 2013) Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year [31] Entry Island won the Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in Stirling September 2014. Prix International, Cognac Festival [28] L'Homme de Lewis won the 2012 Prix International at the Cognac Festival. Dagger in the Library UK Crime Writers' Association award for an author's body of work in British libraries (UK) [49] shortlisted The best recent thrillers – review roundup". The Guardian. 14 April 2020 . Retrieved 3 November 2021.

EXCERPT: It smells of animal here. Dead animal. Something that has been hung to ripen before cooking. Hundreds of years of fermenting grapes have suffused the earth with odours of yeast and carbonic gas, stale now, sour, a memory retained only in the soil and the sandstone and the rafters. like all the forgotten lives that have passed through this place, in sunlight and in darkness. In 1989 a killer dumps the body of Lucie Martin into a lake in a picturesque area of western France, fourteen years later that body is revealed and in 2012 the case remains unsolved. In 2012 Enzo is well on to his way to winning his bet of solving the cases’ in the Raffin’s book of unsolved murders, but the murder of Lucie Martin seems to have him stumped. French Literary Prizes – Prix Ancres Noires des Lecteurs". Lesandresnoies.com . Retrieved 9 February 2011.

Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year". Harrogateinternationalfestivals.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014 . Retrieved 10 July 2013.

The Firemaker ( Hodder & Stoughton 1999), ( St Martin's Press 2005), (Poisoned Pen Press 2008), (Quercus E-books 2012), (Riverrun 2016) Prix Ancres Noires [42] (2012) L'Homme de Lewis (The Lewis Man) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs at the Les Ancres Noires book festival, Le Havre

My researches also took me to Bordeaux in west France. This was a research trip of some contrasts, leading me to the ultra-modern Palais de Justice during the day, and the bars and dark and seedy streets of the city’s red light district at night – providing me with insights into the city which I had never had on previous trips. Western France - now May's own stamping ground - is as much a character in the book as the Hebrides were in his formidable Isle of Lewis sequence * Guardian * I think that Peter May really have a talent for creating interesting characters and the Scottish-Italian Enzo Macload is a really fascinating character. He is a very good forensic expert with a very messy family situation. A baby with a woman that seems to loathe him (for some unknown reason), two daughters, Kristy who has a child with Raffin and Sophie who is not really his daughter after they found out that Enzo's ex-wife had an affair with his best friend. So, Enzo must also deal with a lot of personal stuff during the books progress. Enzo talks to Lucie’s boyfriend, the ex-cop whom the families of the Bordeaux Six hired to investigate, Blanc’s wife and the women he pimped. He locates Lucie’s missing skull and makes a discovery that changes the whole complexion of the case. The more he hears, the less he is convinced that Blanc is Lucie’s killer.

A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read. No one can create a more eloquently written suspense novel than Peter May.' New York Journal of Books French Literary Prizes – Prix Ancres Noires des Lecteurs". Lesancresnoires.com . Retrieved 7 July 2010. Cast Iron is book six in the Enzo file series. Forensic expert Enzo Macleod made a bet to solve cold cases that journalist Roger Raffin has written about in a book, which includes the murder of Roger's wife Marie. In this, the sixth book is the murder of nineteen-year-old Lucie Martin that Enzo is trying to solve. However, it's a difficult case, and it gets personal when someone goes after someone Enzo loves.