The vanished days
In the autumn of 1707, old enemies from the Highlands to the Borders are finding common ground as they join to protest the new Union with England, the French are preparing to launch an invasion to carry the young exiled Jacobite king back to Scotland to reclaim his throne, and in Edinburgh the streets are filled with discontent and danger. Queen Anne's commissioners have begun settling the losses and wages owed to those Scots who took part in the disastrous Darien expedition eight years earlier. When young widow Lily Aitcheson comes forward to collect her husband's wages, her claim is challenged. Adam Williamson, one of the men who's assigned to investigate Lily's case, has only days to decide if she's honest... or whether he's being used as a pawn in a treacherous game. Told in two timelines that interweave the troubled weeks in Edinburgh in 1707 with the tales of a woman who lived through the Killing Times, a revolution, and Scotland's loss of a colony in the Americas, this is a story of intrigue, adventure, endurance, romance... and the courage to hope.
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- ISBN: 9781501116582
- Physical Description 528 pages : map, genealogical table ; 22 cm
- Publisher [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2022.
Additional Information
BookList Review
The Vanished Days
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Personal and political tumult collide in Kearsley's romantic, sweeping latest (after Bellewether, 2018). In 1707 in Scotland, Lily Graeme, a young widow, comes forward to claim her husband's benefits, but there are questions about the validity of their marriage. Adam Williamson, in Edinburgh to visit a friend, falls into the investigation and immediately upon meeting Lily loses the ability to be impartial. As the investigation deepens, the narrative alternates scenes from Lily's idyllic childhood as a friend to neighbor James Graeme with her more difficult adolescence as she is betrayed by the adults around her. Meanwhile, Adam's queries put him between those who support Scotland's union with England and the Jacobites, those who don't. The Vanished Days exhibits Kearsley's ability to deftly balance dual time lines to great dramatic effect, right up to the twist of an ending. As befits the time period she's writing about, the story can get heavy with politics, reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. Though it is connected to The Winter Sea (2008), this book stands on its own and will find an eager audience among fans of romantic historical fiction. \
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