Cast Iron by Peter May

Today it’s over to Mandie for her review of Cast Iron by Peter May, part of the Enzo MacLeod series. Mandie has been really enjoying reading the series, and this brings her journey to a close as she read and reviewed book seven, The Night Gate, last year. You can read her review here. Here’s what the book is all about:

About the Book

A decade-old body exposed by a heat wave drives the explosive next chapter in the Enzo Files

THE GIRL IN THE LAKE

In 1989, a killer dumped the body of twenty-year-old Lucie Martin into a picturesque lake in the West of France. Fourteen years later, during a summer heatwave, a drought exposed her remains.

THE MAN ON THE CASE

No one was ever convicted of her murder. But now, forensic expert Enzo Macleod is reviewing this stone-cold case – the toughest of those he has been challenged to solve.

THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET

Yet when Enzo finds a flaw in the original evidence surrounding Lucie’s murder, he opens a Pandora’s box that not only raises old ghosts but endangers his entire family.

Mandie’s Thoughts

Cast Iron is the 6th book in the Enzo Files series and after starting with book 7 I have loved catching up with all of the cases that Enzo Macleod has worked on and this one is his most challenging and dangerous one to date. Enzo is now on the 6th out of 7 cold case files he has been challenged to solve. Lucie Martin disappeared one day only for her body to be found in a lake fourteen years later. Long believed to be a victim of convicted killer Régis Blanc but with no one ever able to prove it, Enzo has his work cut out trying to find the evidence to prove what happened one way or the other. 

Throughout the series there has been a threat to Enzo’s life as clearly someone does not want him solving the cases and this threat now extends to his family as his daughter Sofie and her boyfriend are kidnapped. Although Enzo is not aware of thisthe reader is able to follow what happens to them throughout the book. This is not the only personal issue he has to deal with as he is again tussling with the Catherine the mother of his young son and also Dominique Chazal who had helped him on a previous case. It was also good to see Nicole one of his best students back helping him with the case as her background checks prove invaluable. 

There are definitely times when you get the feeling that Enzo managed to make his life far more complicated than it needs to be both personally and professionally and he does have a way of getting under peoples skin not always for the good. What originally started as a bet between friends does seem to have become more about getting to the truth than proving his initial boasts correct. 

There were certainly a lot of different twists and turns in this book, and it is the first one that I have read that I would say you really need to have read the previous books to understand some of the links to previous cases that once again rear their heads in Enzo’s investigations. I think this was the best one by far with characters proving their strengths and weaknesses as they have developed over time with a few surprises along the way. As for the ending well it was not something that I was expecting but it also gives the series closure that possibly at the time was what Peter May wanted… thankfully though for fans of Enzo Macleod he clearly changed his mind.

About the Author

Peter May has written several standalone novels and three series: the critically acclaimed Enzo Files, featuring Scottish forensic scientist Enzo Macleod, set in France; the Lewis Trilogy (The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man, and The Chessmen), all three volumes of which were internationally bestselling novels; and the award-winning China Thrillers, featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell.

One of Scotland’s most prolific television dramatists, May garnered more than 1,000 credits over a decade and a half spent as scriptwriter and editor on prime-time British television. Before quitting TV to concentrate on writing novels, he was the creator of three major series, two of which were the highest rated in Scotland. May lives and writes in France.