All the Wrong Questions
young adult mystery
Series · crime fiction
Lewis Trilogy
The Lewis Trilogy series by Peter May has 4 books and is best read in publication order, starting with The Blackhouse (2011).
- Books
- 4 books
- First published
- 2011
- Status
- ongoing
- Last checked
Start here: The Blackhouse (2011) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Blackhouse
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Blackhouse - Book 2:
The Lewis Man
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Lewis Man - Book 3:
The Chessmen
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Chessmen - Book 4:
The Black Loch
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Black Loch
About the Lewis Trilogy series
Fin Macleod is a Lewis-born detective who left the Isle of Lewis at eighteen and swore he'd never go back. The trilogy that made Peter May's name in English-language crime fiction keeps pulling him back anyway: first as a homicide detective sent to investigate a killing that echoes a death from his own childhood, then into his own fractured family history, then into a murder tangled up with the island's Gaelic-speaking elite. Across the three books the mystery plot and Fin's personal reckoning with the island he fled run in constant parallel, and the Outer Hebrides -- its weather, its crofting communities, its unforgiving cliffs and its long folk memory -- is as much a character as anyone investigating a body.
May wrote all three books before finding a British publisher; French readers discovered the trilogy first; when The Blackhouse finally appeared in English in 2011 it became the breakout success that turned May, until then a solid mid-list crime writer, into an international bestseller. Ten years after The Chessmen closed the story, May returned to Fin and the island with The Black Loch (2024), bringing back the same character in late middle age for a fourth investigation.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Lewis Trilogy still a trilogy?
It was written and marketed as a self-contained trilogy from 2011-2013, but Peter May returned to the same character, Fin Macleod, with a fourth book, The Black Loch, in 2024.
What order should I read the Lewis books in?
Publication order: The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man, The Chessmen, then The Black Loch.
Do I need to have read the original trilogy before The Black Loch?
Yes, it's best to -- The Black Loch assumes familiarity with Fin's history and the events of the earlier three books.
Where is the series set?
Mainly the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, with Fin's Edinburgh-era policing career as backstory.
If you like the Lewis Trilogy series
Reading order last verified .