THE FIERY CROSS by Diana Gabaldon

THE FIERY CROSS
By Diana Gabaldon
Bantam Dell/Random House
ISBN 9780440221661
Paperback, 1443 pages, $7.99
Genre: Historical Romance

In the fifth installment of the Outlander series, time-traveler Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser and her eighteenth century husband, Jamie, have established their homestead on Fraser’s Ridge in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Grumblings among colonists against British tyranny have begun, and Jamie and Claire are resigned to the fact that the American Revolution will take place and there is nothing they can to do stop it. Although Jamie sympathizes with the colonists, his allegiance, for the time being, lies with William Tryon, Governor of North Carolina, who gave Jamie a land grant of 5000 acres in North Carolina, although Jamie is Catholic and this was forbidden at the time. When Governor Tryon appoints Jamie Colonel and asks he put down a forthcoming rebellion by the colonists (called Regulators) at Alamance, Jamie follows Highland tradition and calls together his fellow clansmen by burning a large cross, referred to as the Fiery Cross. Accompanied by Claire (acting as field surgeon) and Roger Wakefield, Jamie’s son-in-law, they journey to Alamance, where a brief but brutal skirmish takes place.

This installment addresses interesting issues of the eighteenth century, including everyday mundane activities, medicinal herbs and treatments, Highland superstitions, and a wide array of characters, savory and otherwise, made all the more intriguing by the time period. The love story between Claire and Jamie, is, as always, in the forefront and continues forward as they age with each book. Recommended.

Review of THE BLACKSMITH'S DAUGHTER by Suzanne Adair

THE BLACKSMITH’S DAUGHTER
by Suzanne Adair
Whittler’s Bench Press
Wilmington, NC 28406
www.dramtreebooks.com
ISBN: 9780978526535
Paperback, 354 pages, $19.95
Genre: Historical fiction

The second book in Suzanne Adair’s Revolutionary War series features Betsy Sheridan, daughter to Sophie Barton, the main character in her first book, PAPER WOMAN. Seventeen-year-old Betsy is pregnant and married to Clark Sheridan, a successful cobbler and avowed Loyalist. Although Betsy is a neutral, her parents have been branded spies by the British and are in hiding. When Betsy finds a coded message in one of Clark’s boots and witnesses a mysterious meeting between her husband and a Spaniard, she begins to suspect he, too, may be a spy for the rebels. But Betsy is loyal to Clark and holds her tongue. Shortly thereafter, their house is burned to the ground and her husband disappears. Betsy, aware that the British now suspect her of treason, intends to find Clark with the help of his apprentice Tom Alexander before joining her parents. Not far behind is Lieutenant Dunstan Fairfax, who wants nothing more than to find Sophie Barton, and he’ll do anything, including murder, to get to her.

THE BLACKSMITH’S DAUGHTER is a rollicking adventure from beginning to end. Adair holds the reader enthralled with constant action, spine-tingling suspense, and superb characterization, all wrapped within historical fact. She conveys the tense conflict between the Loyalists and Rebels, and the danger of being either one, in an exceptional and thought-provoking manner. This is one book the reader will not want to put down.