Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

by Diana Gabaldon

Delacorte Press; 494 pp. $25

It is always great fun to return to the world Diana Gabaldon initiated by “Outlander.” This is another engrossing tale about Lord John Grey, the younger son of the deceased Duke of Pardloe(—He Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken—sort of like Lord ‘whatsis’ from Harry Potter. (I can’t help myself. Your pardon, dear readers!)

You see, there is a dark mystery surrounding the death of Lord John’s father, seventeen years earlier. His father ostensibly committed suicide under unusual circumstances and if that was not bad enough, he was also stained by the onerous shadow of being a “Jacobite” sympathizer (A supporter of James II, a Catholic and a pretender to the throne of England). Lord John’s older brother Hal so distances himself from his dead father, he styles himself the Earl of Melton, not the Duke of Pardloe.

A wonderful “who-done-it” combined with great detail and the minutia of life in mid 18^th Century England; Gabaldon spins this tale out with great finesse, as usual.

A fascinating trail of clues weaves in and out of this story as Lord John and his brother Hal prepare to go overseas and join the Prussians in fighting The Seven Years War. Pages from one of the Duke of Pardloe’s missing journals, vicious attacks on Lord John’s person, and most interestingly, the tangled connections several disparate people have to the event. Including, oh yes, Jamie Fraser, who at this point in the tale is still a groom at Helwater and still a prisoner on parole after the Battle of Culloden.

And Lord John, bless him, still has very strong feelings for Mr. Fraser, which makes their meeting all the more intense, even though Lord John is currently involved with Percy Wainright, his brand new brother by marriage. They are not only involved, but are also part of the same group of soldiers being sent to the Rhineland to bolster the forces of Frederick II of Prussia.

During their time in the Rhineland, Lord John not only catches his lover Percy in flagrante delicto with a Prussian soldier, he is severely wounded during an engagement with the French.

All hell breaks loose. And the tension of the tale ratchets up several notches. Lord John is torn between his love for Percy and the fact, as his commanding officer he might have to denounce him in court…and not only bring down Percy but his family’s honor, the honor he has been struggling to reinstate by unraveling the mystery of his father’s death.

And honor is the heart of this novel.

A wonderful addition to Ms Gabaldon’s oeuvre. - Sue Martin