Lord John Grey has not asked many questions about the circumstances surrounding his father's death 17 years ago. His family's honor was challenged with assumptions that John's father was a Jacobite agent and it has, at times, seemed best to let the situation lie. But suddenly, John and his brother, Hal, find a single page from their father's diary -- a diary that was supposedly burned -- and it seems that someone is threatening John's life.
Hal still doesn't want to take his younger brother into his confidence, and John becomes frustrated as he strives to find out if his father truly was as bad as he was portrayed.
John certainly understands leading a double life. A soldier and excellent bladesman, John's private life would shock his family, friends and society. And it would definitely get him executed. But there is a chance he may find love at last -- and maybe the answer to secrets that will destroy or save his family.
Ms. Gabaldon reaches inside the reader and sifts through all possible emotions -- from the flirtatious simplicity of first desire to the intricately woven emotions that abound in all families. Honestly, I couldn't decide whether I loved it or hated it -- but I know I had to read it. You must too.
In her much-anticipated new novel, the New York Times
bestselling author of the Outlander saga brings back one
of her most compelling characters: Lord John Greyβsoldier,
gentleman, and no mean hand with a blade. Here Diana
Gabaldon brilliantly weaves together the strands of Lord
Johnβs secret and public livesβa shattering family
mystery, a love affair with potentially disastrous
consequences, and a war that stretches from the Old World
to the New. . . .In 1758, in the heart of the
Seven Yearsβ War, Britain fights by the side of Prussia in
the Rhineland. For Lord John and his titled brother Hal,
the battlefield will be a welcome respite from the
torturous mystery that burns poisonously in their familyβs
history. Seventeen years earlier, Lord Johnβs late father,
the Duke of Pardloe, was found dead, a pistol in his hand
and accusations of his role as a Jacobite agent staining
forever a familyβs honor. Now unlaid ghosts from
the past are stirring. Lord Johnβs brother has
mysteriously received a page of their late fatherβs
missing diary. Someone is taunting the Grey family with
secrets from the grave, but Hal, with secrets of his own,
refuses to pursue the matter and orders his brother to do
likewise. Frustrated, John turns to a man who has been
both his prisoner and his confessor: the Scottish Jacobite
James Fraser.Fraser can tell many secretsβand withhold
many others. But war, a forbidden affair, and Fraserβs own
secrets will complicate Lord Johnβs quest. Until James
Fraser yields the missing piece of an astounding puzzleβ
and Lord John, caught between his courage and his
conscience, must decide whether his familyβs honor is
worth his life.
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