The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon

When I started this book, I quickly became annoyed at the Scottishisms in the writing - not in the dialogue, but the way they cropped up in the descriptive text. They felt rare and out of place and smacked of shouting "look at me! I've done my research!"

Eventually, I stopped noticing them. But there is a bit of the self-conscious researcher about this book. It's well written, interesting, and mostly the details don't overwhelm the story, but on occasion, that line is skirted.

This is also the first Diana Gabaldon I've read, which may be an odd place to start, given the fervour of the following of her Outlander books. (Screw you, spellcheck, I'm Canadian, we spell it fervour.) Based on this, I will probably go on to read those books, but I'm not in any particular hurry. It made me interested, without making me eager.

Also, for a book that started out with desperate masturbation, and went on to a sex scene shortly thereafter, the rest of the 500 pages were remarkably devoid of sexy times. After that beginning, I was looking forward to it being more of a bodice-ripper. Or...what's the male equivalent of a bodice?

At any rate, the first 50 pages notwithstanding, this is more a political intrigue, following Jamie Fraser and Lord John Grey on their quest to bring a military monster to court-martial, and then later, to foil a Jacobite plot.

They travel to Ireland, find their quarry, find themselves hunted, return to England, and fight a duel. The narrative sometimes lacked urgency, but it was entertaining to read.