The Scottish Prisoner: A Novel {Lord John Grey}

The Scottish Prisoner is not part of the main Outlander series. However it does fit perfectly after Voyager in that you learn more about Lord John Grey and the relationship he and Jamie has. Jamie is in this particular novel as he is the prisoner.  So far it is the only book in the Lord John Grey series that I have read.

About the Book

London, 1760. For Jamie Fraser, paroled prisoner-of-war, life is coming apart at the seams. In the remote Lake District, where he’s close enough to the son he cannot claim as his own, Jamie’s quiet existence is interrupted first by dreams of his lost wife, then by the appearance of an erstwhile comrade still fighting to rally the Irish. But Jamie has sworn off politics, fighting, and war. Until Lord John Grey shows up with a summons that will take him away from everything he loves—again. Lord John is in possession of explosive documents that expose a damning case of corruption against a British officer. But they also hint at a more insidious danger. Soon Lord John and Jamie are unwilling companions on the road to Ireland, a country whose dark castles hold dreadful secrets, and whose bogs hide the bones of the dead.

 My Thoughts

I really liked The Scottish Prisoner because you get to learn more about Jamie during the years he was separated from Claire. This book really shows the beginning of where Jamie began to change. His ideals and morals are a bit loser after this book. If you read the first three of the Outlander series you will notice that by Voyager Jamie is very different. Even in his language, he swears a whole lot more in that book than he did in the first. You also get to see how lonely Jamie is.

“He touched the rough crucifix that lay against his chest and whispered to the moving air, “Lord, that she might be safe, she and my children.” Then turned his cheek to her reaching hand and touched her through the veils of time.”

Another that you get to see and learn is how much his son truly means to him. You learn it as he discovers it for himself. He loves his child with Claire even though he has no idea if it’s a boy or girl, has never laid eyes on it. Is never expecting to see Claire or their child in his life yet  loves it without question. His son was a product of a young girl’s blackmail and Jamie feels responsible for what happened and carries the weight of it always. He can’t claim his son as his own and that also weighs heavily on him.

“To this point, he could not really have said that he loved William. Feel the terror of responsibility for him, yes. Carry thought of him like a gem in his pocket, certainly, reaching now and then to touch it, marveling. But now he felt the perfection of the tiny bones of William’s spine through his clothes, smooth as marbles under his fingers, smelled the scent of him, rich with the incense of innocence and the faint tang of shit and clean linen. And thought his heart would break with love.”

One thing I always seem to forget is how much younger than Jamie Lord John is. I don’t know if it is his Englishiness or what but he always seems older to me. It is in this book that the friendship between Jamie and John truly takes hold despite their pasts and that John’s guardianship over Jamie’s son begins.