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Entry Island may be small and remote but it does have its own murder-mystery—a novel called simply Entry Island, written by Peter May (published 2014, ISBN 978-1-62365-663-8). The murder and most of the action take place on the island, with other scenes set in Montreal, the rest of of the Magdalens, in Gould/Lingwick in Québec's Eastern Townships, and in the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

The plot delivers a decent enough murder mystery, complete with that cliche of the cop with the broken marriage, and generally well written. But many chapters are filled with a series of historical flashbacks, in which the writing is distinctly more simple, as if written by a child. I'm sure this was the author's intent, but I found myself a bit bored by these chapters and itching to return to the actual story. These sections seemed intent on educating the reader about the Highland Clearances; I had the feeling the author had research material left over from his earlier series based on the Isle of Lewis and was determined to use it!

The book attracted me because of its setting, so I should not really complain about the detail of the name dropping and adherence to reality. Several times I have driven past that police station in Cap-aux-Meules that featured prominently, and have even eaten lunch in the same cafe in Havre-Aubert where an important meeting was set. But the experience became surreal when the action suddenly jumped to the hamlet of Gould, and more specifically the small auberge where we had stayed and eaten a couple of years ago while visiting a farming friend in Lingwick.

To add a little nit-picking criticism, the author is obviously a careful and detailed researcher of his venues, as I can confirm having been to many of them myself. But he really should have had a Quebecker do some proof reading to avoid a few spelling and usage errors that I found grated on me.

But yes, I did enjoy reading the book. There were original aspects to the plot, but having read all The Lewis Trilogy (The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man, The Chessmen), the author's earlier books, I felt this one was a bit "knocked out" and didn't have quite the same spark. And although it was fun as the plot weaved through the many places I've personally visited, I didn't really learn much about Entry Island itself. Just as the book wove multiple stories, so there were multiple endings—but I did feel let down by the solution to the murder.

Here's a of Peter May talking about Entry Island.