Great review. I started this today but had no idea that this was book # 2...I clearly wasn't paying attention when buying this. It seems to work well as a standalone so far.
I've been a fan of May's ever since I read "The Blackhouse". Tremendous sense of place, and sparse but very expressive writing -- hardly a word out of place. I hope you'll continue enjoying this (and I hope it keeps working as a standalone / "out of order" read).