The Long Isle by Andrew Raymond review: 'oozing with atmosphere'

Andrew Raymond | Contributed

A priest is horribly murdered on a beach on South Uist, throwing the local community into fear and panic. Detective Constable Mairead Maclean, who left her childhood home on the island over 20 years before, returns to support the Glasgow unit sent to solve this horrific crime. She now has to face her past - and fears the case might uncover old secrets that she'd rather forget.

Andrew Raymond’s novel is oozing with atmosphere. A proper Tartan Noir has to star Scotland as a separate character, its presence dominating the narrative, and The Long Isle does this perfectly. The sweeping and desolate landscape is both ominous and desperately beautiful, idyllic and foreboding. We really feel the isolation of the community, and that’s where this novel really shines - the feeling that we are now in a place playing by its own rules, and with its own sense of justice. The use of language and dialect always feels organic and real, never forced or stereotypical.

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The particularly symbolic and brutal way the priest is killed is especially startling, and is a gripping way to start the book. There’s nothing like a memorable method of murder to keep a reader on the edge of their seat, and this one is one for the ages.

The Long Isle sets up a group of characters who are believable and recognisable without being clichéd. Perhaps more importantly, they are a group that we can be excited to spend more time with, not just throughout this book, but in the upcoming series. They act and speak in a way that real humans act and speak, which can sometimes feels like a rarity in thriller and mystery novels.

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The whodunnit reveal at the end might not be the most surprising twist, but it makes sense in the context of the narrative, and doesn’t feel like the author has made a random selection from the main characters just to befuddle the reader.

It is always instantly noticeable when a criminal has been revealed as somebody it would have been impossible for the reader to guess, when really the main goal of a mystery should be that the reader has the chance to work it out - that’s the joy of it.

Andrew Raymond may not be reinventing the wheel, but The Long Isle does what it sets out to do, and once I’d started reading it was genuinely difficult to put down.

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