I loved this historical drama about Captain John Lecroix who in 1809 is brought back wounded from the Napoleonic wars in Spain. Instead of returning to his regiment he flees to Bristol, Glasgow and ultimately the Hebrides. On his trail are two soldiers under secret orders - and one of them, Calley, is particularly nasty and actually scared me. The two stories come together right at the end (which was a little rushed for me). I loved the ambiguous ending.
Beautifully written, especially the descriptions of place - both cities and landscape.

This was a weird one.

The villains felt threatening, the mystery was gripping and the descriptions of rugged Scottish islands set the haunting mood well. The slow reveals of John's past during the war kept the tension, and the crimes committed were incredibly grim and difficult to read about, especially as a woman. I'm unsure how accurate the historical stuff was but as someone who doesn't know much about the Napoleonic wars, it was very interesting to learn about.

It was a good read, though I did feel like there was a lack of connection to the characters, I didn't care for the romance and that quite often the book did get tedious. There were also subplots that didn't really go anywhere (like the eye operation), and the plot twist and reveal at the end felt rushed in favor of quite dragged out descriptions of John's travels.

~Odd. An odd night. Carrying some dying soldier back to an empty house.~

~Strange duty killing men whose names you do not know.~

~He did not dare to question what he was doing. Start to question it and he might find himself gazing through a tear in the skin of the world.~

~He should try to set her mind at ease, though he had no real sense of how to do it and was aching with tiredness. Why had he not stayed in a hotel or a lodging house? Family always saw too much.~

~Tea, the proper making of it, the knowledgeable enjoyment, was, like British sea power, a mystery a foreigner could only gaze upon, awed and confused, an idiot at High Mass.~

~He wanted to build a city in her head.~

~Do drowned men have headstones?~

~Was love, once given, always possessed? A gift, a quality, you could scatter over your head like sacred ashes when you had need of it?~

Such a beautifully written historical novel. The language is transporting and the plot just intricate enough to keep you engaged without being simply a "page-turner". Miller has written a rich story about a man--John Lacroix--who loses his spiritual way after his tour as a soldier in the Napoleonic wars. He finds refuge by fleeing to the Hebrides and after encountering an array of fabulous characters settles uneasily in with a very strange family, two sisters and a brother. Their lives are like a concentrated dose of nineteenth-century cultural history complete with collecting folk songs and amateur archaeology while belonging to a utopian group.
Meanwhile, John is being pursued by two utterly arresting characters, one detestable, who mean to visit justice on John for war crimes he may or may not have committed.
The book is a journey of a soul, an anti-war fable, a love story, and so much more. Brilliant.

I expected to like this one much better than I did, but I somehow never really felt what was going on in the book. That may have been deliberate.

An exploration of guilt and trying to out run it. The interwoven stories of the hunted and hunter as infused with the distress and distraction of the individuals. They get further and further north into the Scottish islands before the culmination of their chase.

Best way I can describe this book is "meh." Nothing especially compelling: the plot was slow and dragging, it didn't really build up to much at all; something in the cadence of the writing irritated me - the sentences always felt stunted somehow? - and I am not going to remember much of it in a week. Probably what I get for choosing a book based on a pretty cover.

Solid, satisfying, traditional historical fiction. I felt immersed in the period, and totally absorbed by the story. The pacing was perfect, with a slow but steadily increasing tension. I deducted one star for the ending, which felt a bit rushed and had some minor implausibles

Spoiler

John and Emily expect that the emigrant ship will have room for them and will take them despite the fact that they have no money, or certainly not enough for transport? And they will be able to start a new life in Canada with only the clothes on their backs? Or do we assume that when they arrive in Canada john will sell the family home and they'll live on credit until then? I guess we can assume that he is the sole owner of the estate and his sisters have no stake in it? I'm getting in the weeds here, but the book had no implausibles up to this point, so these little holes feel big.

. The IMDB database shows that a miniseries is in some early stage of development. It would make a fine six- parter as long as it doesn't go too heavy on the love story, which is well-handled in the book - it's no bodice-ripper.