The Isle of Lewis is the most harshly beautiful place in Scotland where the difficulty of existence seems outweighed only by peoples fear of God But older pagan values lurk beneath the veneer of faith When a brutal murder on the island bears the hallmarks of a similar slaying in Edinburgh police detective Fin Macleod is dispatched to investigate But since he himself was raised on Lewis the investigation also represents a journey into his past Each year the islands men perform the hunting of the gugas a savage custom which they cling to even more fiercely in the face of modern demands For Fin the hunt recalls a horrific tragedy which after all this time may have begun to demand another sacrifice
