PETER MAY
About Peter May
Born and raised in Scotland Peter has lived in France for more than 20 years and has dual French-British nationality.
Author of 31 books which have sold over 15 million copies in more than 40 countries, he is the recipient of national literary awards in the UK, France, Denmark and the USA
May was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published author at twenty-six. In his late twenties, he switched his creative talent to television and became one of Scotland's most prolific television dramatists. He garnered more than 1000 TV credits in 15 years as scriptwriter and script editor on prime-time British television drama. He is the creator of three major television drama series and presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland before quitting television to concentrate on his first love, writing novels.
His breakthrough novel was The Blackhouse. After being turned down by all the major UK publishers, the first of the The Lewis Trilogy - The Blackhouse - was published in France where it was hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French national newspaper L'Humanité and went on to win the French literature award the Prix Cezam.
The Blackhouse was published in English by award-winning publishing house, Quercus. It went on to become an international best seller, and won the US Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel at Bouchercon in Albany NY, in 2013.
In 2021 Peter won the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library. This award recognises the popularity of an author's body of work with readers and users of libraries. The judges committee is made up of librarians from across the country.
From the beginning...
Peter's childhood dream was to be a novelist. He wrote his first book aged four. You can see it here...
He spent his childhood writing and received his first - highly encouraging - rejection letter while still a teenager from Philip Ziegler (read the full story on
Peter's blog, here).
Scottish Young Journalist of the Year
Journalism seemed like a reasonable career choice for a writer, and no sooner was he in his first post than he won the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award at the age of 21.
But the pull of fiction continued, and every spare moment was spent on creative writing. His dedication was rewarded with the publication of his first novel at the age of 26. The novel was to become a major BBC television drama series and change the direction of his writing career.
One of Scotland's Most Prolific and Popular TV Dramatists
May left journalism and began writing television drama. By the age of 30 he had created two major TV series - The Standard and Squadron - for the British television network, the BBC. He went on to garner more than 1000 TV credits in fifteen years and became one of Scotland's most successful television writers, creating and writing prime-time drama serials for both BBC and ITV in the UK.
In his homeland, he guided the top-rated long-running drama, Take the High Road, as script editor and scriptwriter through its most successful era, when the show regularly topped the viewing charts in Scotland and achieved an audience of 6 million viewers across the UK.
In the 1990s, he co-created the ground-breaking Machair, the first ever major long-running drama serial in the Gaelic language, which he also produced. Machair was described by Kenneth Roy, the television critic of the broadsheet Scotland on Sunday as:
"quite simply the best thing to have happened to television in Scotland for a long time."
In spite of the fact that fewer than 2% of the Scottish population can speak Gaelic, the show - subtitled in English - achieved a 30% audience share and made it into the Top Ten of programmes viewed in Scotland.
Machair is still continuously broadcast on BBC Alba, gathering new generations of viewers more than 30 years after it was first broadcast.
Award-Winning China Thrillers
With the approach of the new millennium, May quit television to return to his first love, novels, and embarked on a series of thrillers which took him half-way across the world. He made annual trips to China, spending months at a time there, building an extraordinary network of contacts.
He gained unprecedented access to the homicide and forensic science sections of Beijing and Shanghai police forces and made a painstaking study of the methodology of Chinese detectives and pathologists.
His outstanding China Thrillers series of books, featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and Forensic patholigist from Chicago, Margaret Campbell are now published worldwide. The books have been short-listed in France for Elle Magazine's Best Crime Novel in 2005 and the Prix Polar International in 2008. In 2007 Snakehead won the Prix Intramuros, a prize judged by prisoners in French penitentiaries.
Member of Chinese Crime Writers Association
As a mark of their respect for his work, Chinese Crime Writers in the Beijing Chapter, made Peter an Honorary Member of The Chinese Crime Writers' Association. He is the only Westerner to receive such an honour.
Critical Acclaim for "cerebral" Enzo Files
His series of books, The Enzo Files, is set in France. Hailed by author Steve Berry as "intelligent... and ingenious", several reviewers have praised the cerebral nature of the cold case investigations tackled by the Scottish forensic scientist Enzo Macleod. Realism and humour also feature and the endearingly flawed hero has deen described as "a cross between James Bond and Inspector Clouseau".
Research and Factual Accuracy
May only writes about settings and locations that he has actually visited personally and continues to take his research seriously for the series set in France. Just as research for the China Thrillers meant trips to places such as the Shanghai police morgue and the American Ambassador's residence in Beijing, research for the Enzo Files has taken him from the Paris sewers to Michelin 3-star restaurants (he recently gained access to the kitchen of France's top chef, Michel Bras, to spend three days shadowing him in his work).
Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Dive Bouteille
The second in the Enzo Files series, The Critic, tells a story set in the world of French wine production. The research involved May picking grapes by hand, studying the process of wine-making from vine to marketing, and taking a formal wine tasting course. As a reward for his efforts, he was inducted as a Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Dive Bouteille de Gaillac in December 2007 in recognition of his knowledge and support of the wines of Gaillac.
Professional Private Eye
In search of a new setting for his 2010 thriller, Virtually Dead, May entered the virtual world of Second Life in 2007, creating his own avatar, Flick Faulds, to explore the metaverse. Faulds set up a detective agency to help May in his research, handling dozens of Second Life investigations for real (paying) clients. The cases ranged from stalking and "griefing", to fraud and infidelity, and enabled May to gather invaluable background and insights for his book.
Background to May's Lewis Trilogy
The Blackhouse is the first of three books set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
May's link to Lewis and the Gaidhealtachd is a personal one. For five years in the 1990s, May spent five months each year, in the Outer Hebrides during the making of the 99-episode story arc of Machair, the television drama which he co-created and storylined with his wife, writer Janice Hally. As producer of the drama serial, he was in charge of a 70-strong cast and crew living and working on the island.
The landscape and the life there had a profound effect on May and have provided the inspiration for his Lewis Trilogy, and his connections were renewed when he returned to research the new books.
The Blackhouse
"The Blackhouse is a crime novel of rare power and vision. It is a murder mystery that explores the shadows in our souls, set in a place where the past is ever near the surface, and life blurs into myth and history." (cover copy)
The Blackhouse was first published in France as L'Ile des Chasseurs d'Oiseaux after it was initially turned down by all the major British publishers. Hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French daily newspaper L'Humanité, it went on to be published all over Europe and was finally bought by British publishers Quercus who published it in February 2011 (Quercus was at that time, a young award-winning publishing house that had not existed when The Blackhouse was first presented to British publishers). The Blackhouse has now been published in more than forty countries all over the world.
The Blackhouse became a best-seller in UK hardback, paperback and e-book versions. It won the USA's Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel and one of the world's biggest adjudicated readers' prizes for literature, the Prix Cezam, in France.
The Lewis Trilogy
The Blackhouse characters' stories continued through The Lewis Man, and The Chessmen, forming what became known as The Lewis Trilogy. In 2024 The Black Loch was published, a follow-on to the trilogy featuring much-loved protagonist Fin Macleod.
Lockdown
Lockdown, a book about a murder investigation set in London while the city has been shut down by a global pandemic, was written in 2005 but was rejected by publishers who found the premise too far-fetched. In March 2020, as the people around the world were confined to their homes by COVID-19, Peter mentioned the book to his publisher in London. Jon Riley, presiding over a list of books that had been put on hold, with half of his publishing team on furlough, immediately asked for a PDF copy to read.
The next morning, Peter awoke to an e-mail from Jon and what followed was perhaps the fastest movement in history of a book through the publishing process. The editorial team were working from home and co-ordinating via zoom, and Lockdown was published on the 30th of April, only 5 weeks after the UK government enforced the shutdown of the country to try to contain the virus. Bookstores were closed, but people were still able to buy e-books, and supermarkets were able to sell books alongside all the other essential items.
Peter's extensive research had ensured that the book was eerily accurate in its portrayal of life under lockdown and the book gained attention for its vivid predictions despite having been written fifteen years before. Countries all over the world rushed to publish it and it quickly became an international best-seller.
At a time when people were dying, or unable to work and earn a living, when health services were stretched to breaking point, Peter felt it was wrong to profit from the book and so he took all the money from the advances and donated to a large variety of charities that were helping people who were suffering as a result of COVID-19.
STANDALONE BOOKS
Peter's recent works have been standalone books, single novels, not forming part of any series.
Entry Island was published in 2014. The story, which centres on a murder investigation involving a Canadian policeman in the Madeleine Islands, is set between present day Canada and Scotland at the time of the clearances. It won the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award and the UK ITV Specsavers Crime Thriller Club Best Read of the Year 2014.
Runaway, is the story of a group of friends from Glasgow, members of a band who ran away to London in the 1960s. The story is told in two timelines as the group retrace their steps as elderly men, in order to right a 50 year old wrong. Runaway was published in the UK in January 2015.
Coffin Road is an intriguing eco-thriller set in the Outer Hebrides and was published in the UK in January 2016.
I'll Keep You Safe is a standalone thriller set between France and the Outer Hebrides and was published in January 2018.
The Noble Path and The Man With No Face, two early books of Peter's, were re-published in 2019 by riverrun. The Man With No Face reached #2 in the UK best-seller charts.
A Silent Death, a standalone thriller set in Spain, and revealing the dark underside to the Costa de Sol, was published in 2020 by riverrun.
Lockdown, the book that predicted a global pandemic was published in 2020 by riverrun.
The Night Gate, though it could be considered one of the Enzo Files as it features Enzo Macleod, is really a standalone thriller set in two time periods. One story takes place in France 2020 during the global Covid pandemic and an interlinked story takes place in France during the World War II Nazi occupation. It was published in 2021 by riverrun.
A Winter Grave is a futuristic eco-thriller, set in 2051, in a Scotland ravaged by the effects of climate change. It was published in 2023 by riverrun.
The Black Loch involves Fin Macleod, the central character from the Lewis Trilogy, in a final murder investigation with very personal connections.
AWARDS
1973 Fraser Awardwinner of Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award
1996 17th International Celtic Film and Television Festival (international) Machair nominated for Best Drama Serial Award
2006 Elle Magazine, Grand Prix de Littérature (France) The Firemaker runner up in category Best Crime Novel
2007 Prix Intramuros (France) Snakehead winner at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac
2007 Prix International (France) Snakehead shortlisted at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac
2008 Prix International (France) Chinese Whispers shortlisted at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac
2010 Prix Ancres Noires (France) L'Île des chasseurs d'oiseaux (The Blackhouse) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs at the Les Ancres Noires book festival, Le Havre
2011 Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE (France) L'Île des chasseurs d'oiseaux (The Blackhouse) winner of the CEZAM Prix Litteraire Inter CE national French Literature Prize.
2012 Prix Ancres Noires (France) L'Homme de Lewis (The Lewis Man) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs at the Les Ancres Noires book festival, Le Havre
2012 Grand Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme (France) L'Homme de Lewis (The Lewis Man) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme, 10,000 Euro Readers' Prize of French daily newspaper.
2012 Prix International, Cognac Festival (France) L'Homme de Lewis won the Prix International at the Cognac Festival.
2013 Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel (USA) The Blackhouse shortlisted
2013 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK) The Lewis Man shortlisted
2013 Barry Award for Best Crime Novel (USA) The Blackhouse won the Barry Award for Best Novel of the Year at a ceremony at Bouchercon, Albany NY.
2014 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK) The Chessmen shortlisted
2014 Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year (UK) Entry Island won the Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in Stirling September 2014.
2014 Specsavers ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year. (UK) Entry Island won the Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year Award at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards ceremony in London, October 2014.
2015 Dagger in the Library (UK) Crime Writers' Association award for an author's body of work in British libraries shortlisted.
2015 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK) Entry Island shortlisted
2015 Trophée 813 (France) Entry Island (L'Île du Serment) won the Trophée 813 for "Best Foreign Crime Novel" awarded by the French magazine Review 813.
2021 CWA Dagger in the Library. (UK)Peter was winner of this award which recognises the popularity of an author's body of work with readers and users of libraries.
2024 The Palle Rosenkrantz Prize (Denmark) The award for best crime book of the year in Denmark was awarded to the Lewis Trilogy.
Peter May is married to writer Janice Hally and lives in South West France, they each have dual French and British nationality.
Author of 31 books which have sold over 15 million copies in more than 40 countries, he is the recipient of national literary awards in the UK, France, Denmark and the USA
May was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published author at twenty-six. In his late twenties, he switched his creative talent to television and became one of Scotland's most prolific television dramatists. He garnered more than 1000 TV credits in 15 years as scriptwriter and script editor on prime-time British television drama. He is the creator of three major television drama series and presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland before quitting television to concentrate on his first love, writing novels.
His breakthrough novel was The Blackhouse. After being turned down by all the major UK publishers, the first of the The Lewis Trilogy - The Blackhouse - was published in France where it was hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French national newspaper L'Humanité and went on to win the French literature award the Prix Cezam.
The Blackhouse was published in English by award-winning publishing house, Quercus. It went on to become an international best seller, and won the US Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel at Bouchercon in Albany NY, in 2013.
In 2021 Peter won the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library. This award recognises the popularity of an author's body of work with readers and users of libraries. The judges committee is made up of librarians from across the country.
From the beginning...
Peter's childhood dream was to be a novelist. He wrote his first book aged four. You can see it here...
He spent his childhood writing and received his first - highly encouraging - rejection letter while still a teenager from Philip Ziegler (read the full story on
Peter's blog, here).
Scottish Young Journalist of the Year
Journalism seemed like a reasonable career choice for a writer, and no sooner was he in his first post than he won the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award at the age of 21.
But the pull of fiction continued, and every spare moment was spent on creative writing. His dedication was rewarded with the publication of his first novel at the age of 26. The novel was to become a major BBC television drama series and change the direction of his writing career.
One of Scotland's Most Prolific and Popular TV Dramatists
May left journalism and began writing television drama. By the age of 30 he had created two major TV series - The Standard and Squadron - for the British television network, the BBC. He went on to garner more than 1000 TV credits in fifteen years and became one of Scotland's most successful television writers, creating and writing prime-time drama serials for both BBC and ITV in the UK.
In his homeland, he guided the top-rated long-running drama, Take the High Road, as script editor and scriptwriter through its most successful era, when the show regularly topped the viewing charts in Scotland and achieved an audience of 6 million viewers across the UK.
In the 1990s, he co-created the ground-breaking Machair, the first ever major long-running drama serial in the Gaelic language, which he also produced. Machair was described by Kenneth Roy, the television critic of the broadsheet Scotland on Sunday as:
"quite simply the best thing to have happened to television in Scotland for a long time."
In spite of the fact that fewer than 2% of the Scottish population can speak Gaelic, the show - subtitled in English - achieved a 30% audience share and made it into the Top Ten of programmes viewed in Scotland.
Machair is still continuously broadcast on BBC Alba, gathering new generations of viewers more than 30 years after it was first broadcast.
Award-Winning China Thrillers
With the approach of the new millennium, May quit television to return to his first love, novels, and embarked on a series of thrillers which took him half-way across the world. He made annual trips to China, spending months at a time there, building an extraordinary network of contacts.
He gained unprecedented access to the homicide and forensic science sections of Beijing and Shanghai police forces and made a painstaking study of the methodology of Chinese detectives and pathologists.
His outstanding China Thrillers series of books, featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and Forensic patholigist from Chicago, Margaret Campbell are now published worldwide. The books have been short-listed in France for Elle Magazine's Best Crime Novel in 2005 and the Prix Polar International in 2008. In 2007 Snakehead won the Prix Intramuros, a prize judged by prisoners in French penitentiaries.
Member of Chinese Crime Writers Association
As a mark of their respect for his work, Chinese Crime Writers in the Beijing Chapter, made Peter an Honorary Member of The Chinese Crime Writers' Association. He is the only Westerner to receive such an honour.
Critical Acclaim for "cerebral" Enzo Files
His series of books, The Enzo Files, is set in France. Hailed by author Steve Berry as "intelligent... and ingenious", several reviewers have praised the cerebral nature of the cold case investigations tackled by the Scottish forensic scientist Enzo Macleod. Realism and humour also feature and the endearingly flawed hero has deen described as "a cross between James Bond and Inspector Clouseau".
Research and Factual Accuracy
May only writes about settings and locations that he has actually visited personally and continues to take his research seriously for the series set in France. Just as research for the China Thrillers meant trips to places such as the Shanghai police morgue and the American Ambassador's residence in Beijing, research for the Enzo Files has taken him from the Paris sewers to Michelin 3-star restaurants (he recently gained access to the kitchen of France's top chef, Michel Bras, to spend three days shadowing him in his work).
Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Dive Bouteille
The second in the Enzo Files series, The Critic, tells a story set in the world of French wine production. The research involved May picking grapes by hand, studying the process of wine-making from vine to marketing, and taking a formal wine tasting course. As a reward for his efforts, he was inducted as a Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Dive Bouteille de Gaillac in December 2007 in recognition of his knowledge and support of the wines of Gaillac.
Professional Private Eye
In search of a new setting for his 2010 thriller, Virtually Dead, May entered the virtual world of Second Life in 2007, creating his own avatar, Flick Faulds, to explore the metaverse. Faulds set up a detective agency to help May in his research, handling dozens of Second Life investigations for real (paying) clients. The cases ranged from stalking and "griefing", to fraud and infidelity, and enabled May to gather invaluable background and insights for his book.
Background to May's Lewis Trilogy
The Blackhouse is the first of three books set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
May's link to Lewis and the Gaidhealtachd is a personal one. For five years in the 1990s, May spent five months each year, in the Outer Hebrides during the making of the 99-episode story arc of Machair, the television drama which he co-created and storylined with his wife, writer Janice Hally. As producer of the drama serial, he was in charge of a 70-strong cast and crew living and working on the island.
The landscape and the life there had a profound effect on May and have provided the inspiration for his Lewis Trilogy, and his connections were renewed when he returned to research the new books.
The Blackhouse
"The Blackhouse is a crime novel of rare power and vision. It is a murder mystery that explores the shadows in our souls, set in a place where the past is ever near the surface, and life blurs into myth and history." (cover copy)
The Blackhouse was first published in France as L'Ile des Chasseurs d'Oiseaux after it was initially turned down by all the major British publishers. Hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French daily newspaper L'Humanité, it went on to be published all over Europe and was finally bought by British publishers Quercus who published it in February 2011 (Quercus was at that time, a young award-winning publishing house that had not existed when The Blackhouse was first presented to British publishers). The Blackhouse has now been published in more than forty countries all over the world.
The Blackhouse became a best-seller in UK hardback, paperback and e-book versions. It won the USA's Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel and one of the world's biggest adjudicated readers' prizes for literature, the Prix Cezam, in France.
The Lewis Trilogy
The Blackhouse characters' stories continued through The Lewis Man, and The Chessmen, forming what became known as The Lewis Trilogy. In 2024 The Black Loch was published, a follow-on to the trilogy featuring much-loved protagonist Fin Macleod.
Lockdown
Lockdown, a book about a murder investigation set in London while the city has been shut down by a global pandemic, was written in 2005 but was rejected by publishers who found the premise too far-fetched. In March 2020, as the people around the world were confined to their homes by COVID-19, Peter mentioned the book to his publisher in London. Jon Riley, presiding over a list of books that had been put on hold, with half of his publishing team on furlough, immediately asked for a PDF copy to read.
The next morning, Peter awoke to an e-mail from Jon and what followed was perhaps the fastest movement in history of a book through the publishing process. The editorial team were working from home and co-ordinating via zoom, and Lockdown was published on the 30th of April, only 5 weeks after the UK government enforced the shutdown of the country to try to contain the virus. Bookstores were closed, but people were still able to buy e-books, and supermarkets were able to sell books alongside all the other essential items.
Peter's extensive research had ensured that the book was eerily accurate in its portrayal of life under lockdown and the book gained attention for its vivid predictions despite having been written fifteen years before. Countries all over the world rushed to publish it and it quickly became an international best-seller.
At a time when people were dying, or unable to work and earn a living, when health services were stretched to breaking point, Peter felt it was wrong to profit from the book and so he took all the money from the advances and donated to a large variety of charities that were helping people who were suffering as a result of COVID-19.
STANDALONE BOOKS
Peter's recent works have been standalone books, single novels, not forming part of any series.
Entry Island was published in 2014. The story, which centres on a murder investigation involving a Canadian policeman in the Madeleine Islands, is set between present day Canada and Scotland at the time of the clearances. It won the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award and the UK ITV Specsavers Crime Thriller Club Best Read of the Year 2014.
Runaway, is the story of a group of friends from Glasgow, members of a band who ran away to London in the 1960s. The story is told in two timelines as the group retrace their steps as elderly men, in order to right a 50 year old wrong. Runaway was published in the UK in January 2015.
Coffin Road is an intriguing eco-thriller set in the Outer Hebrides and was published in the UK in January 2016.
I'll Keep You Safe is a standalone thriller set between France and the Outer Hebrides and was published in January 2018.
The Noble Path and The Man With No Face, two early books of Peter's, were re-published in 2019 by riverrun. The Man With No Face reached #2 in the UK best-seller charts.
A Silent Death, a standalone thriller set in Spain, and revealing the dark underside to the Costa de Sol, was published in 2020 by riverrun.
Lockdown, the book that predicted a global pandemic was published in 2020 by riverrun.
The Night Gate, though it could be considered one of the Enzo Files as it features Enzo Macleod, is really a standalone thriller set in two time periods. One story takes place in France 2020 during the global Covid pandemic and an interlinked story takes place in France during the World War II Nazi occupation. It was published in 2021 by riverrun.
A Winter Grave is a futuristic eco-thriller, set in 2051, in a Scotland ravaged by the effects of climate change. It was published in 2023 by riverrun.
The Black Loch involves Fin Macleod, the central character from the Lewis Trilogy, in a final murder investigation with very personal connections.
AWARDS
1973 Fraser Award
1996 17th International Celtic Film and Television Festival (international) Machair nominated for Best Drama Serial Award
2006 Elle Magazine, Grand Prix de Littérature (France) The Firemaker runner up in category Best Crime Novel
2007 Prix Intramuros (France) Snakehead winner at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac
2007 Prix International (France) Snakehead shortlisted at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac
2008 Prix International (France) Chinese Whispers shortlisted at the Salon Polar & Co, Cognac
2010 Prix Ancres Noires (France) L'Île des chasseurs d'oiseaux (The Blackhouse) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs at the Les Ancres Noires book festival, Le Havre
2011 Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE (France) L'Île des chasseurs d'oiseaux (The Blackhouse) winner of the CEZAM Prix Litteraire Inter CE national French Literature Prize.
2012 Prix Ancres Noires (France) L'Homme de Lewis (The Lewis Man) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs at the Les Ancres Noires book festival, Le Havre
2012 Grand Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme (France) L'Homme de Lewis (The Lewis Man) winner of the Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme, 10,000 Euro Readers' Prize of French daily newspaper.
2012 Prix International, Cognac Festival (France) L'Homme de Lewis won the Prix International at the Cognac Festival.
2013 Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel (USA) The Blackhouse shortlisted
2013 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK) The Lewis Man shortlisted
2013 Barry Award for Best Crime Novel (USA) The Blackhouse won the Barry Award for Best Novel of the Year at a ceremony at Bouchercon, Albany NY.
2014 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK) The Chessmen shortlisted
2014 Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year (UK) Entry Island won the Deanstons Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in Stirling September 2014.
2014 Specsavers ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year. (UK) Entry Island won the Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year Award at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards ceremony in London, October 2014.
2015 Dagger in the Library (UK) Crime Writers' Association award for an author's body of work in British libraries shortlisted.
2015 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (UK) Entry Island shortlisted
2015 Trophée 813 (France) Entry Island (L'Île du Serment) won the Trophée 813 for "Best Foreign Crime Novel" awarded by the French magazine Review 813.
2021 CWA Dagger in the Library. (UK)Peter was winner of this award which recognises the popularity of an author's body of work with readers and users of libraries.
2024 The Palle Rosenkrantz Prize (Denmark) The award for best crime book of the year in Denmark was awarded to the Lewis Trilogy.
Peter May is married to writer Janice Hally and lives in South West France, they each have dual French and British nationality.
