A Winter Grave: a chilling new mystery set in the Scottish highlands

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I am not often moved to blog about things I read in the tabloid press, but I was incensed by this ignorant, poorly researched piece of trash “journalism” perpetrated by a pompous columnist called Richard Godwin in a rag called the London Evening Standard. I have one event in London and a short Scottish tour where I will talk about the book and sign copies.

May had a platform, but struggled to write about climate without sounding preachy. He says: “Ultimately I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t write directly about it. It’s not my genre.”In A Silent Death I wanted to create a character who went against the grain of the classic hero. Not in the sense that he would be a drunk or a junkie or imbued with unpleasant characteristics or a questionable morality. But someone who was too damned clever for his own good. Planning to write A Winter Grave, I thought 30 years would pass in no time. What would it be like politically here? So I thought ‘Let’s assume Scotland has become independent!’ and I would have a bit of fun, and see what an independent Scotland looks like. Which I did!”

The Isle of Harris was calling me. It was the perfect place. And what better opportunity would I have to realise my vision for that opening scene of the man staggering to his feet, drenched an confused, than in one of the most dramatic and beautiful locations in the world? Since retirement, one has developed a hobby of studying languages and taking university degrees in a whole range of arcane subjects, like quantum physics, and astronomy. The other has found part-time employment in an industry which makes use of his astonishing ability to absorb and remember facts.A few years down the line and bee colonies have been disappearing in greater numbers all over the world. There are many reasons: changes in farming methods which have destroyed their natural foraging habitat; disease, often spread by unregulated transportation of bees around the world; the changing climate. But above all, a body of scientific evidence that points towards the use of a new breed of pesticides called neonicotinoids. A Silent Death will be published in January 2020, and before its publication, I thought I would share some of the research and development that went into the writing of the book. I wrote no new book in 2021. Instead, I took time out to write music and make use of a new studio I created above my garage. But Brodie’s also got his own reason to want to go there with just one chance to try to heal a family rift. And Peter also puts his character under severe pressure personally in a way he has never written about before. Brodie has reasons that make him likely to see the world differently than he ever would have done before.

I decided to explore this illness through the character of a middle-aged woman, Ana, delving into her experience through a first person narration. Although not the principal character, she is central to the story. We discover that she was afflicted in early childhood with hearing problems, then diagnosed with Usher Syndrome in her teens, when she developed “night blindness”, which is often a precursor to vision loss caused by a disease known as retinitis pigmentosa, or RP. We accompany her on her nightmare journey into complete hearing loss and total blindness, and through her limited senses learn first hand about the book’s main antagonist when he takes her hostage. When master of ceremonies Barry Forshaw announced the winner, he quoted Sue Wilkinson, the chair of the 2021 committee who said: ‘Peter May infuses his books with a real sense of place, whether it be China, France or the Hebrides. His books are tense, atmospheric and complex but always utterly absorbing.’ In the summer, I travelled to Lewis with a French film crew to make a documentary about The Lewis Trilogy which will be broadcast in France in January 2014. George was a much-loved personality in the Lewis Trilogy, with his humour, his compassion and his strong moral code. A warm-hearted and decent man, he always felt the need to do the right thing, even if that meant he had to interpret the rules in a very flexible way to accommodate his actions.The hard cover edition of I’ll Keep You Safe came out last week in the USA and Canada, so readers in North America are no longer having to wait a whole year for the latest book. It is hoped that in the future, the publication dates of the English language editions will be simultaneous worldwide. George”, with all his warmth and wisdom and wry wit, was a pleasure to be with, and I’m sure that readers will enjoy catching up once more with the character that he inspired.

Effectively I had decided that I was finished, that I was retiring. People said to me ‘Writers can’t retire, you’ll always want to write!’,” Peter laughed. They are the Flannan Isles, made famous at the start of the 20th century when three lighthouse keepers stationed on one of the seven islands disappeared without trace or explanation.Much of this other side of southern Spain was revealed to me during an interview with the chief of police in a hill town which is the administrative centre for a length of coastline that stretches east and west along the south coast, and north towards its mountainous interior. He happily introduced me to his handgun and holster, before taking me on a detailed tour of the police station. There were interview rooms and detectives’ offices, a gun room, and an evidence room where he laid out a huge array of lethal weapons seized during recent raids on local drugs gangs. Parts of the town, it seemed, were virtually no-go areas for the police. Derelict buildings – in fact, housing developments unfinished since the financial collapse of 2007/8 – had been taken over to become the headquarters of such gangs. I chose the year 2051. It’s the year I would turn 100 if I were to survive, though I don’t expect to be around then. I wouldn’t want to be if all my predictions turn out to be accurate,” Peter laughed. And one of those Rolls Royce workers, Stuart Barrie, renowned over the years for his poetry, has written a poem in my honour, which I found very touching. Here it is: Peter – originally a journalist who became a scriptwriter, then producer of the Gaelic drama Machair, before embracing fiction – turned down contract offers for another book. Writer Peter May, returned with a new thriller embracing the challenge of setting it in the near future. I feel privileged to have experienced Beijing and China as it had once been, and to have borne witness to its metamorphosis. The China Thrillers could hardly have been set at a time of greater change. And so I view the books now almost as modern historical documents. They tell us not only about the evolution in the relationship between Deputy Section Chief Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell, but bear testament to one of the most astonishing cultural transformations in recent history.