the scottish prisoner: book review
By annemarie on December 14, 2011 | Filed Under twitlitbookclub
For lovers of Diana Gabaldon and her best-selling series of Outlander and Lord John novels you’ll be pleased to learn that her latest offering The Scottish Prisoner (just in time for Christmas) reunites her two heroes Jamie Fraser and John Grey to deal with yet another Jacobite plot in 1760. Readers should be warned at the outset however that this is not an Outlander novel – Jamie’s wife Claire does not feature – nor is it solely a Lord John vehicle.
The story is set during part of Jamie’s twenty “lost years” when he was held prisoner by the English after the uprising (hence the book’s title). Working as a labourer on a farm in the Lake District, Jamie is doing his best not to think about his separation from Claire and his unborn child when he is approached by his former comrade Tobias Quinn and encouraged to help the Cause. Wisely Jamie wants nothing to do with it but before he knows it he’s being carted off to London to assist Lord John and his brother Hal who are in pursuit of a corrupt army officer. They are in possession of a number of inflammatory letters some of which are in the tongue called “Erse” – the language spoken by Scottish Highlanders – and soon Jamie and Lord John are unwilling partners traveling to Ireland in search of a holy relic and traitors to the crown.
Once again Gabaldon seduces her readers with lush descriptions of Georgian England and well researched details. Lovers of historic fiction should enjoy the effort. The pace moves relatively quickly with one or two climactic scenes. However, despite being over 500 pages, this is not in the vein of her sweeping Outlander sagas. In fact, if it has been a while since you last read a Lord John novel you may struggle to remember previous characters who are referred to continually. You may also want to reread Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager just to refresh your memory since Jamie’s time in both Ardsmuir prison and France are also routinely touched upon. All in all, this book helps cement the solidity of Gabaldon’s main protagonists and continues to make them believable. A definite must read for fans of Jamie and John.
