The Lost Lover (The Wild Isle Series, 3)
Summer 1929. Flora MacQueen, the most beautiful of the small group of friends who have grown up on the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda, has always dreamt of life on the mainland. So when a mutual attraction springs up between her and a summer visitor, the wealthy businessman and explorer James Callaghan, her future seems secure. But personal tragedy and those of her closest friends Effie and Mhairi, coupled with the evacuation of St Kilda and an unsolved murder, mean that although Flora can leave the island and forge a new and very different life for herself, there are unbreakable ties pulling her back to her past and her former community.
This is the third part of a projected four-part series of interlinked novels centring on (fictional) events leading up to and immediately after the historical evacuation of St Kilda. Although this book could conceivably be read first, the author depends so much on the reader’s prior knowledge of her characters, their interrelationships and their old-fashioned way of life that it would be better to start with the first novel, The Last Summer. Indeed, it’s difficult to comment on the plot without spoilers (including pointing out that something that appears initially to be a mistake turns out to be an integral part of the plot).
On the whole, the atmosphere of 1929-30 and the culture shock experienced by all the islanders in mainland Scotland and, in Flora’s case, Paris, are well evoked with only the occasional word or phrase (e.g. ‘running interference’) that feels anachronistic. This novel provides new insights into some of the secondary characters from the previous books, and the stage is set at the end for the denouement that must surely follow in the last book of the series. I’m looking forward to it.
