I completed The Blackhouse in the wee small hours and yet again I am a little bit sleep deprived but it was only because I could not put it down. I have this horrific mentality that I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NOW, not tomorrow, NOW. Do you put a book down when you only have 50 pages to read as you are tired and it will still be there in the morning to finish? Or are you like me, where I sit glued to the text and cannot wait to find out what happens at the end so I read on and listen to the gentle snores of my family around me? Either way, I must learn to leave well alone otherwise I cannot function in the morning. Reading is not important in the morning in our house – certainly not from a wee person’s perspective anyway. The way the scooter lights up and the tricks that I can do or look at my skills with this football and did you know that the moon is brightest when the sun shines on it? – yes, boys, that’s all very well but GET YOUR SHOES ON for the love of god.

I can’t remember exactly what I was thinking when I decided to do this challenge but anywhere here I am, fifth book starting today and my head is buzzing.  The little brain bees working overtime in my skull are now going into overdrive and my Little Black Notebook is rapidly filling up with ideas and thoughts on everything I have read so far.

The Blackhouse by Peter May is a dark and stormy book with every detail of Island life very much coming to the fore and sitting itself down with a thump on your comfy chair of a lazy Sunday morning. One minute you are in disbelief at the way of life held so dear to the locals from the Western isles, the next you are flung into a raging torrent of loyalty, courage and deception. The story starts of detailing what can only be described as a gruesome murder on a sleepy village on the Isle of Lewis. You are taken on a journey to the last habitable island before the dark Atlantic Ocean goes for miles and miles all around you and for most of the characters in the book, the last place on earth they want to be. The author sends you from the past to the present and back again, however it doesn’t distract you from the story itself. It is an endearing quality of the book and one that bodes well as the author could easily get lost in its twists and turns.

The climax of the book confronts a friendship that has been through more than the average human being will ever have to cope with in a lifetime and you are completely unaware of the hidden gem that finally comes to light at the end. Great book though, I have the next instalment in the trilogy The Lewis Man but that will need to be kept for another rainy day.

Only 12 books to go…http://greatbigjar.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/the-15-book-challenge/

Next up: ‘Rush of Blood’ by Mark Billingham…