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Peter May

This page lists novels and non-fiction by Peter May.

Cover images are, when possible, of an early edition and a more recent digital or paperback edition.



This page is divided into two sections.

By Peter May:
- novels, story collections
- non-fiction

 

Peter May: Novels

The Reporter

Peter May

Corgi

1978

"The headline screamed the news of the latest in a string of North Sea disasters, this one was unusual only in that nobody had died. The Government claimed they were simply unfortunate 'accidents'; but to Colin Anderson, investigative reporter for The Standard, the 'accidents' turned out to be leads to one of the biggest international sabotage stories of all time - a hell-raising exclusive that was to endanger not only his life but the life of Janis Sinclair, his attractive young research assistant who'd somehow ingratiated herself into both his work and his feelings."
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Fallen Hero

Adapted by Peter May from the Granada TV series by Brian Finch

New English Library

1979

"All his life he had been a star; now he was nothing."
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Hidden Faces

Peter May

Piatkus Books

1981

Possibly subsequently published as The Man With No Face.

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The Man With No Face

Peter May

St Martin's Press

1982

Possibly originally published as Hidden Faces.

"There are two men on their way to Brussels from the UK: Neil Bannerman, an iconoclastic journalist on Scotland's Daily Standard whose irate editor wants him out of the way, and Kale—a professional assassin. Expecting to find only a difficult, dreary political investigation in Belgium, Bannerman has barely settled in when tragedy strikes. His host, a fellow journalist, along with a British Cabinet Minister, are discovered dead in the Minister's elegant Brussels townhouse. Apparently they have shot each other. But the dead journalist's young autistic daughter, Tania, was hidden in a closet during the killings, and when she draws a chilling picture of a third party—a man with no face—Bannerman suddenly finds himself a reluctant participant in a desperate murder investigation."
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The Noble Path

Peter May

Piatkus

1992

"Discredited British Army officer Jack Elliot is a man with nothing left to lose - or to live for. For him, life is cheap and death expensive: He kills now for money. So when Ang Yuon, a wealthy Cambodian refugee, asks him to cross Thailand to rescue his wife and children from the Khmer Rouge, Elliot demands a large price. This time he expects, even hopes, to die. But two things curse him with a reason to live - the enormous suffering of the Cambodian people and the appearance of his estranged daughter, Lisa. On the day of her mother's death, Lisa learns that there is more to her father's past than the picture of the heroic soldier killed in battle her mother had painted for her. So Lisa sets out in search of Elliot and follows him as far as Bangkok, where she falls foul of his Thai associates, Tuk Than and La Mère Grace, ruthless people whose business interests encompass girls as well as guns."
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The Firemaker

Peter May

Hodder & Stoughton

1999

A "China Thriller" novel featuring Margaret Campbell and Li Yan.

"A grotesquely burned corpse found in a city park is a troubling mystery for Beijing detective Li Yan. Yan, devoted to his career as a means of restoring the respect his family lost during the Cultural Revolution, needs outside help if he is to break the case. The unidentified cadaver in turn provides a welcome distraction for forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell. Campbell, married to her work and having left America and her broken past behind, throws herself into the investigation, and before long uncovers a bizarre anomaly. An unlikely partnership develops between Li and Campbell as they follow the resulting lead. A fiery and volatile chemistry ignites: exposing not only their individual demons, but an even greater evil - a conspiracy that threatens their lives, as well as those of millions of others."
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The Fourth Sacrifice

Peter May

Hodder & Stoughton

2000

A "China Thriller" novel featuring Margaret Campbell and Li Yan.

"The Chinese police have once more been forced to enlist the services of American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell: this time to investigate a series of four horrific ritual executions that have taken place in Beijing. Detective Li Yan is determined to discover just how one of the victims in particular, an American diplomat, became caught up in the slaying. And he is arguably even more determined to have nothing to do with Campbell. The polarity that once attracted Yan and Campbell eventually pulls them back into partnership. Yet the closer they are drawn to the truth, the nearer they come to a killer prepared to use extreme force to conceal it."
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The Killing Room

Peter May

Hodder & Stoughton

2001

A "China Thriller" novel featuring Margaret Campbell and Li Yan.

"When a mass grave containing eighteen mutilated female corpses is discovered in Shanghai, detective Li Yan is sent from Beijing to establish if the bodies are linked to an unsolved murder in the capital. Here, Li will be working with Mei Ling, deputy head of Shanghai's serious crime squad. Mei Ling is a formidable woman: a fact that is not lost on Li's on-off lover, forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell. But when Campbell, vulnerable and still grieving the loss of her father, learns that the victims were subjected to 'live' autopsies, she knows the case is bigger than her pride. Li, Campbell and Mei Ling are now entering the arena of a sickening nemesis, and opening a door behind which lies each of their very worst nightmares."
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Snakehead

Peter May

Hodder & Stoughton

2002

A "China Thriller" novel featuring Margaret Campbell and Li Yan.

"A vehicle crammed with dozens of dead Chinese immigrants is found in southern Texas. Pathologist Margaret Campbell must put aside her horror, and find out why. Detective Li Yan - an even more unwelcome memory for Campbell - has arrived stateside to investigate a link in the case to a lucrative trade in illegal labourers. Li and Campbell will soon find that the crime scene hides another secret: a biological time bomb linking traffickers, politicians and migrants in Beijing, Washington and Texas - posing multiple countries one, very singular, threat."
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The Runner

Peter May

Hodder & Stoughton

2003

A "China Thriller" novel featuring Margaret Campbell and Li Yan.

"A prodigious Chinese swimmer kills himself on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. Days later, a champion weightlifter suffers a fatal heart attack prior to competition. Detective Li Yan senses a conspiracy surrounding the fatalities, and finds a female athlete willing to talk. But she will only trust one person: Li's fiancée, Margaret Campbell. Then Campbell's contact herself vanishes, the gun is fired on a race against time. And Li must now outrun, and outwit, an enemy bent on pushing him beyond endurance."
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Chinese Whispers

Peter May

Hodder & Stoughton

2004

A "China Thriller" novel featuring Margaret Campbell and Li Yan.

"His victims are young, beautiful and coldly mutilated. He calls himself the Beijing Ripper. Li Yan, head of Beijing's serious crime squad, must stop him. Just as pathologist Margaret Campbell finds an insight into the killer's cruel signature, Li receives a letter from the killer, betraying his cruel intentions. There's no way Li can misinterpret the Ripper's motives: he wants to tear Li and Campbell's lives apart, and write the darkest chapter in Beijing's history."
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Extraordinary People

Peter May

Poisoned Pen Press (?) / Quercus (?)

2006

An Enzo MacLeod novel. Published in the US as Dry Bones.

"As midnight strikes, a man desperately seeking sanctuary flees into a church. The next day, his sudden disappearance will make him famous throughout France. Forensic expert Enzo Macleod takes a wager to solve the seven most notorious French murders, armed with modern technology and a total disregard for the justice system. Deep in the catacombs below the city, he unearths dark clues deliberately set - and as he draws closer to the killer, discovers that he is to be the next victim."
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The Critic

Peter May

Poisoned Pen Press (?) / Quercus (?)

2007

An Enzo MacLeod novel. Published in US as A Vintage Corpse.

"Gil Petty, America's most celebrated wine critic, is found strung up in a vineyard, dressed in the ceremonial robes of the Order of the Divine Bottle and pickled in wine. For forensic expert Enzo Macleod, the key to this unsolved murder lies in decoding Petty's mysterious reviews - which could make or break a vineyard's reputation. Enzo finds that beneath the tranquil façade of French viticulture lurks a back-stabbing community riddled with rivalry - and someone who is ready to stop him even if they have to kill again."
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Blacklight Blue

Peter May

Poisoned Pen Press (?) / Quercus (?)

2008

An Enzo MacLeod novel.

"Diagnosed with a terminal illness, Enzo Macleod is running out of time to crack the most confounding of unsolved French murders. His daughter is nearly killed, Enzo is mugged - and then he is arrested. Someone is trying to destroy his character. Someone is framing him for murder. Killers from the past will stop at nothing to halt Enzo, who must use all his forensic skills to solve the case - before they succeed."
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Virtually Dead

Peter May

Poisoned Pen Press

2010

"Crime-scene photographer Michael Kapinsky is a man whose first life is in a mess. But his second life is about to get a whole lot messier. Staggering under the financial burden left by his recently deceased wife, Michael struggles to come to terms with her death - until his psychologist persuades him to enter a virtual world called Second Life to participate in a new kind of group therapy. Once there, his persona, Chas Chesnokov, discovers that victims whose crime scenes Michael has attended in the wealthy Southern California resort of Newport Beach have had their avatars clinically executed in the virtual world. Co-opted into the Twist of Fate Detective Agency, Chas embarks on an investigation with an exotic dancer and escort girl. They uncover a series of killings and a financial scam that is netting the murderer millions of dollars. And when Michael is tempted by money that mysteriously appears in Chas's Second Life account, both his real and his virtual lives are in danger."
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The Ghost Marriage

Peter May

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2010

A "China Thriller" novella featuring Margaret Campbell and Li Yan. Only published electronically.

"It has been a whirlwind few years for Li Yan and Margaret Campbell. Nowadays, both are busy juggling their huge professional workloads - Li as the newly promoted chief of Beijing's serious crime squad, and Campbell as lecturer at the University of Public Security - with the day-to-day raising of their young son, Li Jon. When a desperate mother appeals to Campbell's own maternal instincts, Li agrees to look into the disappearance of a 17-year-old Beijing girl, Jiang Meilin. Yet Li's investigation soon turns from a favour into a full-scale murder enquiry. And when he receives an anonymous note he learns Jiang Meilin's death is tied to a dangerous underground trade, and a dark marital rite from China's past."
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Freeze Frame

Peter May

Poisoned Pen Press (?) / Quercus (?)

2010

An Enzo MacLeod novel.

"This tiny isle off the coast of Brittany is the scene of a murder left shrouded in mystery and grief. Adam Killian's study has been left intact since his death - the perfect state for Enzo Macleod's forensic investigation. Killian's daughter-in-law is still hoping; the first suspect is still hiding; and the treacherous island itself still has a revelation for Enzo."
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Blowback

Peter May

Poisoned Pen Press (?) / Quercus (?)

2011

An Enzo MacLeod novel.

"Footprints in the snow lead to the murder scene of Marc Fraysse, France's most celebrated chef - brutally shot before he could make the revelation of his career. 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. The Fraysse family history is as twisted as Enzo's own. And in his pursuit of truth, the depths of deceit threaten to consume Enzo - and that which he cherishes most."
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The Blackhouse

Peter May

Quercus

2011

Book one of the Lewis trilogy featuring Detective Inspector Fin MacLeod.

"A brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith. Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past. Something lurks within the close-knit island community. Something sinister. As Fin investigates, old skeletons begin to surface, and soon he, the hunter, becomes the hunted."
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The Lewis Man

Peter May

Quercus

2012

Book two of the Lewis trilogy featuring Detective Inspector Fin MacLeod.

"An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child. When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery."
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The Chessmen

Peter May

Quercus

2013

Book three of the Lewis trilogy featuring Detective Inspector Fin MacLeod.

"Fin Macleod, now head of security on a privately owned Lewis estate, is charged with investigating a spate of illegal game-hunting taking place on the island. This mission reunites him with Whistler Macaskill - a local poacher, Fin's teenage intimate, and possessor of a long-buried secret. But when this reunion takes a violent, sinister turn and Fin puts together the fractured pieces of the past, he realizes that revealing the truth could destroy the future."
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Entry Island

Peter May

Quercus

2014

"When Detective Sime Mackenzie is sent from Montreal to investigate a murder on the remote Entry Island, 850 miles from the Canadian mainland, he leaves behind him a life of sleeplessness and regret. But what had initially seemed an open-and-shut case takes on a disturbing dimension when he meets the prime suspect, the victim's wife, and is convinced that he knows her - even though they have never met. And when his insomnia becomes punctuated by dreams of a distant Scottish past in another century, this murder in the Gulf of St. Lawrence leads him down a path he could never have foreseen, forcing him to face a conflict between his professional duty and his personal destiny."
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Runaway

Peter May

Quercus

2015

"Glasgow, 1965. Jack Mackay dares not imagine a life of predictability and routine. The headstrong seventeen-year-old has one thing on his mind - London - and successfully convinces his four friends, and fellow band mates, to join him in abandoning their homes to pursue a goal of musical stardom. Glasgow, 2015. Jack Mackay dares not look back on a life of failure and mediocrity. The heavy-hearted sixty-seven-year old is still haunted by the cruel fate that befell him and his friends some fifty years before, and how he did and did not act when it mattered most - a memory he has run from all his adult life. London, 2015. A man lies dead in a bedsit. His killer looks on, remorseless. What started with five teenagers five decades before will now be finished."
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Coffin Road

Peter May

Quercus

2016

"A man stands bewildered on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris. He cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his identity is a folded map of a path named the Coffin Road. He does not know where this search will take him. A detective from Lewis sits aboard a boat, filled with doubt. DS George Gunn knows that a bludgeoned corpse has been discovered on a remote rock twenty miles offshore. He does not know if he has what it takes to uncover how and why. A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her scientist father's suicide. Two years on, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would wilfully abandon her. She does not yet know his secret. Coffin Road follows three perilous journeys towards one shocking truth - and the realisation that ignorance can kill us."
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Cast Iron

Peter May

Riverrun / Quercus

2017

An Enzo MacLeod novel.

"In 1989, a killer dumped the body of twenty-year-old Lucie Martin into a picturesque lake in the West of France. Fourteen years later, during a summer heatwave, a drought exposed her remains - bleached bones amid the scorched mud and slime. No one was ever convicted of her murder. But now, forensic expert Enzo Macleod is reviewing this stone-cold case - the toughest of those he has been challenged to solve. Yet when Enzo finds a flaw in the original evidence surrounding Lucie's murder, he opens a Pandora's box that not only raises old ghosts but endangers his entire family."
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I'll Keep You Safe

Peter May

Riverrun

2018

"Niamh and Ruairidh Macfarlane co-own the Hebridean company Ranish Tweed. On a business trip to Paris to promote their luxury brand, Niamh learns of Ruairidh's affair, and then looks on as he and his lover are killed by a car bomb. She returns home to Lewis, bereft. Niamh begins to look back on her life with Ruairidh, desperate to identify anyone who may have held a grudge against him. The French police, meanwhile, have ruled out terrorism, and ruled in murder - and sent Detective Sylvie Braque to shadow their prime suspect: Niamh. As one woman works back through her memories, and the other moves forward with her investigation, the two draw ever closer to a deadly enemy with their own, murderous, designs."
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Peter May: Non-fiction

Hebrides

Peter May

Photographs: David Wilson

Quercus

2013

A photographic companion to The Lewis Trilogy.

"The landscape of the Outer Hebrides, with its stark cliffs, ghostly mists and lonely beaches, has become a definitive character of Peter May's Lewis trilogy. In Hebrides, readers will accompany him on an odyssey in prose and images, through a history of the Vikings' 'Long Island' and his own deep personal connection with the islands that influenced his bestselling work. Travelling as if alongside his protagonist Fin Macleod, he describes the island life - as bewitching as it is treacherous - his encounter with the bird-hunters of Sula Sgeir, the savage seas of Ness and the churches of Eriskay. With extracts from the trilogy and specially commissioned photographs, this book places his writing and characters within the land that gave them form."
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Last updated January 2019