Archive for the ‘Scottish Highlands’ Tag
As in her subsequent novel, Wild Dark Shore (reviewed here earlier this year) , Charlotte McConaghy integrates climate change and intrigue but this time it’s Once there Were Wolves. Both works also include challenging romantic relationships.
Inte Flynn, a biologist, is part of a group charged with reintroducing 14 wolves to the Scottish Highlands. The locals are not happy with the possibility of their livestock becoming prey and have little interest in hearing what value the wolves have for the environment. This leads to distrust between the scientists and residents.
It’s not long before a man is murdered, which many attribute to the wolves. Inte has her doubts. While she works to disprove the townspeople’s fears she becomes romantically involved with the local police chief. Both are mysterious about their pasts.
Inte has brought her twin sister, Aggie, with her to Scotland and their past slowly unfolds, with the novel’s main focus remaining on the town’s reaction to the wolves and the murder. There’s heartache in each element of the narrative, particularly involving Aggie.
McConaghy’s pacing, the alternating chapters of past and present events make this an engaging work. It’s a tense, beautiful and haunting story about different types of relationships, the environment and what it means to trust. The landscape is sorrowful and richly described. This is historical fiction with the potential to serve as a wake-up call regarding our environment.
Once There Were Wolves
Four bookmarks
Flatiron Books, 2021
256 pages
The who-dun-it and who-was-it-dun-to formula crafted by Lucy Foley in The Guest List resurfaces in The Hunting Party. Although effective, I hope she doesn’t use the same approach in subsequent works. It’s clever, but enough is, well , enough.
It’s evident from the beginning that the victim and the murderer are among the handful of narrators. There are other characters, but only in supporting roles: spouses, two other couples, two additional guests and a third employee. What’s learned about them is from the narrators’ perspectives. The setting is an upscale lodge in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands in a blinding blizzard, plays a major role in the plot.
A group of old friends gathers on New Year’s Eve as they have since their days together at Oxford. They’re now in the early 30s and have established themselves in the world. Miranda is the spoiled, party girl used to the finer things; Katie, an attorney, is her childhood friend; Emma, is relatively new to the group and is the trip organizer; Heather manages the lodge; and Doug is the gamekeeper. Through these narratives, their histories and personalities come to light.
Time is also key as it moves back and forth from December 30 to January 2. This pattern is similar not only to The Guest List, but Foley’s other novels.
Despite following the same blueprint, this mystery is engaging. Chapters become shorter the closer the reader gets to the reveal. In the process it becomes a rapid page turner.
The Hunting Party
Three-and-a-half bookmarks
William Morrow, 2019
328 pages, plus reading group guide and more
