A burnt-out detective returns home to the Outer Hebrides to investigate a gruesome murder that is either the work of an Edinburgh killer or a copycat. The story is told in alternate chapters, those from the present time in third person and the ones describing the past in first person. The present-day murder brings up painful memories of the past, including a death that occurred on a wind-swept rock where the islanders annually harvest hundreds of seabirds in a complex traditional slaughter. An evocative story, though I found some of the plot a bit implausible once I'd put the book down.