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sadie_slater's review
4.0
The Rough Collier is the fifth of Pat McIntosh's mysteries set in fifteenth-century Scotland. In this one, Gil Cunningham and his wife Alys are staying at his mother's house in the Lanarkshire countryside when a body is discovered buried in a peat-bog, sparking an accusation of witchcraft against a local woman and leading Gil to begin an investigation into the identity of the corpse and the whereabouts of another man who has been missing for five weeks. I really like Gil and Alys and enjoyed seeing how their relationship has developed after five months of marriage, and the mystery was entertaining enough even if I had spotted the murderer by the end of chapter 2 and found Gil and Alys's continuing failure to suspect them somewhat frustrating.
graculus's review
3.0
It was once again a pleasure to return to this series of books, featuring lawyer and reluctant detective Gil Cunningham in book 5 of a consistently excellent series set in the unusual surroundings of medieval Scotland.
In 'The Rough Collier' Gil and his new wife are visiting Gil's mother when he's called to investigate a body that has been dug up from a local peat bog. The village priest is certain it's a missing man from the nearby colliery but Gil isn't so sure, particularly when the explanation given for how deep the body was found involves the use of witchcraft!
Sure enough, not only is there the mystery around the corpse itself to solve, hampered as much as helped by the curiosity of the local folk for this unexpected entertainment, there also proves to be a mystery around the missing collier as well. This time around, as before, both Gil and Alys play their part in solving both mysteries, even if some things don't work out quite how everyone had hoped...
Another enjoyable outing, which makes me look forward to the next book in the series - '[b:The Stolen Voice|6202655|The Stolen Voice (Gilbert Cunningham, #6)|Pat McIntosh|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266569954s/6202655.jpg|6383155]' - these books continue to be ones I'd recommend to anyone who likes historical detectives and is a little bored with the current overload of Elizabethan-focussed plots.
In 'The Rough Collier' Gil and his new wife are visiting Gil's mother when he's called to investigate a body that has been dug up from a local peat bog. The village priest is certain it's a missing man from the nearby colliery but Gil isn't so sure, particularly when the explanation given for how deep the body was found involves the use of witchcraft!
Sure enough, not only is there the mystery around the corpse itself to solve, hampered as much as helped by the curiosity of the local folk for this unexpected entertainment, there also proves to be a mystery around the missing collier as well. This time around, as before, both Gil and Alys play their part in solving both mysteries, even if some things don't work out quite how everyone had hoped...
Another enjoyable outing, which makes me look forward to the next book in the series - '[b:The Stolen Voice|6202655|The Stolen Voice (Gilbert Cunningham, #6)|Pat McIntosh|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266569954s/6202655.jpg|6383155]' - these books continue to be ones I'd recommend to anyone who likes historical detectives and is a little bored with the current overload of Elizabethan-focussed plots.
singinglight's review
3.0
Another Gil Cunningham mystery, this one perhaps a shade less impressive/interesting than the others.
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