Narrated by Steve Worsley

Maggie Craig’s Storm Over Scotland series continues with book three, Storm Tossed Moon, another superbly crafted instalment in this absorbing saga of political intrigue and star-crossed romance set in mid-eighteenth century Scotland. These books absolutely have to be read in order, so if you’re new to the series, you need to start with book one, Gathering Storm. Because of the overarching plotlines, there are spoilers for the earlier books in the series in this review.

Around a month before the events of this book take place, Captain Robert Catto was summoned back to Scotland from his regiment in Europe to command the Edinburgh Town Guard – although his true mission is to infliltrate the ranks of the city’s Jacobites and discover if any of them present a real threat. He’s taken his duty to keep the peace in the city seriously, but has also quietly presented himself as a potential Jacobite sympathiser where appropriate, listening and gathering information but not crossing any real lines. Until, that was, he met Christian – Kirsty – the daughter of the local surgeon-apothecary and known Jacobite, Patrick Rankeillor, and fell in love with her. Of course, Robert has no intention of switching sides and working to help the Jacobite’s aim of restoring a Stuart monarch to the British throne, but his desire to protect Kirsty from her misguided espousal of a doomed cause means he’s sorely conflicted and walking an even narrower tightrope than ever.

The story picks up immediately after the events of Dance to the Storm, on the morning of the first of January 1744. Just a week earlier, a member of the Pretender’s (Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie) inner circle had escaped from Edinburgh, aided by Patrick Rankeillor and others – including Kirsty – and a furious Robert (furious at their stupidity as much as anything else) now has to tell father and daughter that they’re under house arrest for the foreseeable future, all the while frantically trying to work out how he can keep them both from being hanged for treason.

As she’s escorting Robert out of the house, Kirsty quietly asks if he’d like to see Geordie before he goes. Geordie, a young boy who worked in the kitchens of the barracks and of whom Robert has grown fond, and his friend, Joshua, a black slave in the household of the Liddell family, are now hiding out at the Rankeillors’ having escaped great cruetly at the hands of Cosmo Liddell and his vicious sister, Charlotte. Geordie was beaten to within an inch of his life while Joshua was forced to watch, and although the latter appears to have been unhurt on this occasion, Robert and Kirsty are determined to keep both boys safe – which means keeping Joshua out of the Liddell’s clutches. The problem is that as a slave, Joshua is property – and by keeping him hidden, Robert and Kirsty have effectively stolen him. Robert knows the Liddells won’t let this go; a wealthy family of Jacobites, Cosmo and his friend, Arthur Menzies, are already questioning where Robert’s loyalties really lie, and he is keen to get both boys out of the city as soon as possible.

I believe Storm Over Scotland was originally conceived as a trilogy, but it’s become a quartet with the upcoming fourth book, On the Wings of the Storm, now listed as the final instalment. When a series is as good as this one, I certainly have no complaints about it being extended – but while the underlying themes of intrigue and danger are as every bit as present as in the previous books, the pacing – in the first half, especially – feels a little more leisurely, with the plot focusing on Robert’s efforts to find a way to get the boys out of Edinburgh while he’s also trying to keep Kirsty safe, do his job as Captain of the Town Guard AND as a spy for the Lord President, while hiding some potentially ruinous information about his past, keeping the Liddells at bay, and his relationship with Kirsty a secret. It’s no wonder he’s often irascible and short-tempered!

The romance comes to the fore here as well (again, not complaining!); so far, it’s been fairly understated, consisting of a lot of of longing looks, warm words and glancing touches, Robert and Kirsty trying to resist falling for someone with views so diametrically opposed to their own. But the heart wants what the heart wants; they admitted to their feelings at the end of Dance to the Storm and, in this book, are ready to take their relationship to the next level. It’s going to take no little amount of subterfuge for them to be able to snatch even a handful of hours together, and even though they know their love affair can’t last – Scotland is edging ever closer to civil war and they’re on opposite sides – they understand the importance of taking what happiness they can while they can.

Storm Tossed Moon is another compelling listen, an intelligent and well-written story featuring complex, three-dimensional protagonists and a nicely rounded-out secondary cast who all feel and act like people of their time. Robert Catto continues to be the stand-out character, the lynch-pin around which the story revolves, although the tale is related from both his and Kirsty’s perspectives. I like him a lot – he’s handsome, clever, charismatic and deeply kind, although he hides his more compassionate side beneath an outer shell of harsh professionalism and ruthless efficiency that very few people are ever able to penetrate. Kirsty is just as stubborn and opinionated as he is, which, on the one hand, makes them perfect for each other, but on the other, has led to several confrontations about her disregard for her own safety. Kirsty has a habit of making unwise decisions, mostly due to her almost blind devotion to her father; that seems to have abated in this book, although I can see her being faced with some difficult choices in the final book of the quartet.

Maggie Craig’s research is always impeccable, and she very skilfully and seamlessly weaves her fictional characters and events into the tapestry of historical fact, her meticulous attention to detail making the listener feel as though they have truly been transported back in time to the snowy back streets and humble dwellings of Edinburgh and the mansions of its wealthier inhabitants. There’s only one thing that didn’t work for me, and that’s the ending, which is somewhat anticlimactic.

Steve Worsley has returned to the narrator’s chair for this third instalment in the series, and he once again delivers an excellent performance. His voice is easy on the ear and he differentiates effectively between a fairly large cast, assigning clear and easily identifiable character voices to the principals and major secondary players. Mr. Worsley is a native Scot, so the various accents, dialects and colloquial expressions present no problem for him (although I suspect some listeners might find the latter hard to catch at times) and his portrayal of Robert, who speaks with a cultured English accent as a result of having spend so much time away from his homeland, is superb. He really captures the various facets of his character; his determination, his quick temper, and the softer side he only really shows to Kirsty and Geordie. It’s an excellent performance although I find myself levelling one identical criticism to one I made of the previous book which is that Mr. Worsley’s female voices can be too close in range to the male ones. Kirsty, in particular, can be difficult to identify aurally in conversations where there are more than two people involved, or where she’s not speaking to her father or Robert.

But that didn’t impact my understanding of the story or my enjoyment of the audiobook, and I have no hesitation in recommending Storm Tossed Moon – and the Storm Over Scotland series – to fans of well-written and excellently researched historicals.

Breakdown of Grade: Narration: A- ; Story: B+

Running time: 8 hours 29 minutes