Hello everyone!
HOWEVER, considering the way Diana Gabaldon herself looks at her second, off-shot series, it's still better than an actual novella would be, you know?
Every once in a while I'll go back and read some of the shorter stories the author's written, because while I do thoroughly enjoy her longer novels (and by longer I mean, as long as the day you're going through is with their thousands of pages), sometimes it's nice to be able to read through something in an afternoon.
No way this happens with, say, Voyager!
And I've been on an Outlander, or more specifically Scotland kick lately, thanks for Sam and Graham, so I mean.
If you're like me and you want to have a look at some other adventures that are just as fun but don't take as much out of the reader - read no further!
Lord John Grey is back. And he has a Haunted Solider to deal with.
Links to several previous Lord John Grey works from the series which I've read and reviewed can be found at the bottom of the page - for obvious reasons. I've really enjoyed the lot of them and hope you will, too!
Grey returns with PTSD this time, because if you read these short stories chronologically, you'll see that in Brotherhood of the Blade, he ends up too close to an exploding cannon which sticks shrapnel into him that may or may not kill him because the doctors can't get a piece out from too close to his heart.
As you do.
He's also brought before a board of inquiry about said explosion, and it isn't too long before he figures out the trio on the panel (I'd call them celebrity judges, but even Len Goodman has a better attitude than these idiots) want to pin the entire thing on him if possible, mostly because one of them really hates his brother and constantly feuds with him.
So John stomps off in indignation, gets lost in the place where the cannons are actually made, and notices something strange is going on with regards to the Tom Pilchard cannon that exploded.
He also gets the chance to see the ghost of an artillery man while he's at it, because he's just that lucky.
Curious and suspicious, Grey launches into not one, but TWO investigations at the same time - one is the cannon, but the other is into the disappearance of a young girl who apparently ran away with one of the other gun crew members.
Taking a break, as they say, or pretending to, he heads down to visit his half-brother who owns a powder mill, which ties in neatly to the first plot actually because if the powder for the explosives is too fine, it's much more volatile and at risk of going boom before whoever's handling it is ready. Once in the country, he discovers that might be the reason Tom Pilchard blew, but also that the girl's family wants nothing to do with her, while the man's want her baby if she had one.
Oh and also, there's a second suitor who's hounding her steps. That, too.
Learning all this, Grey and his valet return to London where they're slowly starting to piece things together as they hunt down jewellery the girl might have sold to keep herself afloat, and in the end it turns out he's too late to save her as she dies - but her child does in fact land in his arms (by way of him being confronted by the other suitor, who leaves said child with him in a bag before blowing himself up, being a powder expert and all).
He also, more importantly, finds clues as to what's going on with the cannon inquiry - aka he's told the copper alloy used for the cannons is somehow lower quality, almost as if it were watered down, and that it means more holes in the casts which then mean that, even when covered, the probability of it falling apart is HUGE. Tom Pilchard wasn't the first or only one at that and there's already a quiet inquiry into it.
Grey discovers that it isn't some nefarious outside source behind this, either - it's just the Royal Navy swiping from the army, because idiots, I suppose.
Either way, he gets threatened by someone in the shadowy reaches of the government, tells them to cheerfully go to hell, and manages to get them to drop the charges against him but charge the actual culprit so that he can go free.
Oh, and, also, the sliver of cannon stuck in his chest comes poking through to daylight during the fiasco of finding the poor baby, which finally sets him free from the danger of whether or not he'll die if he takes the wrong breath.
Thus vindicated and acquitted, back on his feet and with time to spare, Grey packs up to join the regiment and his brother again, because he will be a soldier until the day he dies.
And it's lucky for us, because only he manages to land himself in the situations he does, to our erstwhile amusement!
Short, to the point, with a detective story thrown in during the 18th century, not to mention Grey's sexuality which is also a point of danger, Lord John Grey and the Haunted Soldier is actually a clever play on words because the actual ghost only shows up the one time - the 'haunted soldier' in this one could either be Grey himself, haunted by his experiences, or the second suitor of the poor girl who basically let her starve thinking she'll come begging at his door so that he could eventually have her.
The intrigue has just enough suspense in it to keep it interesting, and of course Grey's personality shines right through. Gabaldon really hit the nail on the head with this character.
I REALLY hope we get an Outlander spin-off with David Berry!
xx
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment