Detective Inspector Georgina “George” Lennox is still on the mend eight months after nearly dying in an on-the-job accident in Glasgow, Scotland. And as Laura McCluskey’s eerie, gothic-tinged debut mystery, The Wolf Tree, opens, the impetuous, recently promoted 28-year-old is eager to ditch desk duty and get back out in the field with her partner, veteran DI Richie Stewart.
Their superintendent is open to the idea, but wants George to start with an open-and-shut case: Confirm the manner of death for 18-year-old Alan Ferguson, presumed to have died by suicide on Eilean Eadar, a remote island in the North Atlantic Ocean. “[N]othing happens out there,” the superintendent says. “Those islands are medieval time capsules with a population of relics.”
Postmistress Kathy McKinnon effusively welcomes the detectives to Eilean Eadar for their five-day stay, but the other 206 residents aren’t so friendly. Hostile stares and whispers abound, as do evasive answers to straightforward questions, which sets George’s instincts pinging. If everyone’s as close-knit as they claim, united by enduring the challenges of life on a barren island forgotten by the mainland, why not help the DIs put Alan to rest?
George is also intrigued by the island’s dark history: In 1919, three lighthouse keepers went missing and the case was never resolved—a state of affairs about which the islanders seem strangely sanguine. And while a few locals eventually soften toward the detectives, George’s unease remains, exacerbated by the darkness that blankets the island every afternoon, making excursions creepy and treacherous. Her persistent insomnia and migraines aren’t helping either, especially since it’s getting harder to hide them (and the pills she’s taking) from a concerned Richie.
And then there are the howling sounds she hears at night, her growing conviction there’s much more to Alan’s sad story and a massive approaching storm that boosts The Wolf Tree’s escalating tension to even greater heights. Thanks to McCluskey’s expert melding of modern crime procedural and ancient folklore, suspenseful slow burns and intense high-stakes action, fans of stories set in closed communities with something to hide will revel in this assured and absorbing debut.
