![\"4.0](\"https:\/\/www.wilsonld.com\/weblog\/wp-includes\/images\/stars-4-0.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\nby J.M. Dalgliesh, 2023, Hamilton Press <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While on cruise this summer we had a lecture on noir crime novels. One of the elements of this genre is a sense of place. The itinerary of the cruise included some stops in Scotland, and our lecturer mentioned several Scottish authors, and while he didn’t mention Dalgliesh, I found this book on Amazon Unlimited and decided to give it a try. The story takes place on the Isle of Sky (which we didn’t visit this summer but did back in 2016). The plot was about a body that had been buried in the peat 20 years prior. The case was reopened as a result of the discovery as the deceased girl was thought to have been murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The novel includes an investigator (Duncan McAdam) who is deeply damaged by his youth on the Isle of Sky, and a dark secret uncovered by McAdam in the course of his investigation. The plot is actually a bit slow, but the characters are genuine, and the sense of place is well defined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I am on the topic of “place”, our cruise left us disappointed. Most of the on-board lectures (the one on noir crime novels being an exception) and excursions dealt with the ancient history of each of the places we visited. When we went to Africa a few years ago, I read a number of books about the countries we visited, including histories, novels, biographies, etc. In preparation for this recent trip, I failed to do that and, as a consequence, didn’t feel the attachment to the places we visited. We had toured Scotland on our own many years ago and I felt that I had a much deeper understanding of the place than I did popping in for a visit of only a couple of hours. My conclusions are that the best way to travel to a country and really understand it is to do it on your own if you are able and to read as much as possible about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going back to this book, I really enjoyed it. I liked the characters, the sense of place, and the plot was okay. I may read more of the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by J.M. Dalgliesh, 2023, Hamilton Press While on cruise this summer we had a lecture on noir crime novels. One of the elements of this genre is a sense of place. The itinerary of the cruise included some stops in …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[15,36],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-four-star","tag-fiction","tag-mystery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3931,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/3931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}