I really wanted to like this book as a big fan of the China thrillers by the author Peter May. Maybe I read too much or there are too many similar storylines out there but this book just reminded me of too many others to be truly great. The amnesia and feeling out of place when you don't know who you are has been done brilliantly in the past few years with Final Minute and Before I go to sleep being standouts so the opening of Coffin Road and a man washed up on a Scottish Hebrides beach seemed more of the same.
Coffin Road is the story of Neal Maclean, washed up on a freezing beach with little recollection if anything apart from his taste in coffee, whisky and the name if his dog. With 'friends' Jon and Sally determined to find out who he is and what happened to him, his confusion grows as his suspicions of their actions and intentions increases.
Being told in the first person by an unreliable narrator does help ratch up the tension here, with the reader as confused by events and who is who as the character, however that also tends to leave the book as a once read only rather than a repeat as the ending and big reveal is all the more memorable. I did enjoy this book but don't think it is May's best work, although the characters were well written and the novel was gripping it just wasn't for me this time.
Thanks to www.realreaders.co.uk for the advance copy, Coffin Road is out in January 2016
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