Entry Island

I found this an odd book – a mix of murder mystery, historical novel and love story – and it took me a while to get into. A man is found dead in his house on Entry Island, Quebec Province in Canada, and his wife seems the only viable suspect. One of the police investigators is Sime Mackenzie, a troubled man whose career is nosediving, but who has an overpowering feeling that he somehow knows Kirsty, the suspect. The story then leaps back 150 years to the Outer Hebrides, where a crofter boy (called Sime Mackenzie) is in love with the Laird’s daughter, Kirsty. It’s the time of the Highland Clearances and the couple are separated and never meet again, but Sime finds a new life in Canada. Back in the present day, Kirsty the suspect is arrested and Sime sets out to prove she’s innocent. When the identity of the real killer is revealed it’s so far-fetched it’s almost unbelievable but I nonetheless enjoyed the setting and the atmospheric writing.
Freyha, Oundle Crime

All the members of Houghton Reading Group rarely agree (makes for interesting meetings!), but on this book they did. Everyone enjoyed reading it, the inter weaving of stories ancient and modern crossing the Atlantic from the Highland Clearances to modern day Quebec kept all of us engaged to the very end. It sounds as if it would be a complicated read but it wasn't at all, it was so skillfully done.

We all felt we learnt something from the book too, and it sparked quite a debate about emigration and the way the world has shrunk in modern times. Several of the group looked the places up on Google maps (always a sign we are enjoying what we are reading) ad were thrilled to discover the places existed. It was particularly pleasing to follow Scottish Simes arrival in Canada as well as find out more about Quebec from modern Sime.

This is definitely a book we would recommend.

Brilliant story. Well written. Excellent characterisation and plot. Especially liked the ending. I was not able to put it down.