I got shivers when I opened this book, simply thrilled to have it in my hands. I didn’t know beforehand that the book is part of the Lord John Grey series and was expecting it to feel similar to Voyager, since it’s set in relatively the same timeframe. I’ve never gotten as much enjoyment out of the Lord John Grey series as I have the original Outlander novels, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy The Scottish Prisoner. It’s an excellent book, but because of my individual preference I got more of a kick out of the bonus material at the back of the book. Gabaldon includes a preview of sections from the next Outlander novel, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood.

The Scottish Prisoner makes frequent references to events and conversations that happened in Voyager or the Lord John Grey series. I haven’t read all the books in the latter series and it’s been almost a year since I reread Voyager, so I felt a bit lost at times. Occasionally Gabaldon will quickly summarize an event from another book, but most references are simply cryptic and vague. The narration heavily relies on the reader’s ability to remember the details of other books. Definitely give those books a reread before attempting The Scottish Prisoner, or at least keep them close at hand to look things up.

The book was edited by two people on two continents, and the difficulties inherent to that situation occasionally show. There are a few awkward sentences throughout The Scottish Prisoner, such as:

“He wished passionately that he was one of those women, had a right still to engage in the ordinariness of life” (430).

The Scottish Prisoner is, essentially, a military mystery in the style of the Lord John Grey series. And like all of Gabaldon’s novels, it’s quite an adventurous and entertaining plot. What starts out as a scheme to court-martial a corrupt Major later turns into a much larger beast–-a Jacobite plot, for starters. Gabaldon writes extremely well and the plot was consistently interesting, but it was difficult to feel satisfied at the end. In order to dovetail with Voyager, Jamie ends up right back in the same place he was at the end of the book with just a few minor variations in his situation. He came full circle but was prevented from moving very far forward.

While not the best in the series, The Scottish Prisoner is a wonderful addition to Gabaldon’s body of work. It’s entertaining and definitely worth the time to read.