April 1, 2001
Set during the Jacobite rebellion of the mid-1740s, Canham's latest (after Swept Away) details the events leading up to and following the battle at Culloden, where the English battled Bonnie Prince Charles's rebel Scots. Although Angus Moy has vowed that he wouldn't lead his people in their rebellion against England, his spirited wife, Anne, defies him by joining the rebels and becoming the colonel of his clan. Regardless of the obvious physical intimacy the two share, Anne's loyalties rest firmly with Scotland while Angus remains faithful to the crown for reasons he won't reveal. Due to their conflicting allegiances, Anne and Angus are estranged for a large part of the narrative, and readers may become confused as to who the hero is when Anne's handsome and able clansman, John MacGillivray, joins her crusade. Through lush and earthy prose, Canham depicts the simplicity of Highland life and the brutality of war with vivid accuracy, and infuses her characters with vitality. Readers who think that the setting of a novel should function merely as decorative wallpaper may be disappointed by the amount of space Canham devotes to historical events, but those who long to immerse themselves in another time and culture will appreciate this meticulously detailed tale.