Jessica Stirling is as accomplished at setting a scene as anyone writing today. From the opening chapter of this beautifully crafted sequel to Lantern for the Dark, Stirling seizes our attention while enveloping us in the sights, smells, and sounds of eighteenth-century Scotland.Shadows on the Shore is a novel of stunning detail, a rare work of historical fiction that succeeds in creating a genuine dramatic tension between the social and political upheaval of the eighteenth-century and the personal, psychological, and sexual plottings of its complex and devious characters.Thirteen years have passed since Frederick Striker abandoned Clare Kelso, leaving her to face, alone, the trial for their son's murder. Now a much stronger Clare must contend once again with that scheming rake, while attempting to fit together the puzzle of Frederick's relationship with the two other strangers who put ashore on the rocky coast of Ladybrook that stormy night - an Irish lass of striking beauty and an eccentric French scientist who has apparently allied himself with Striker.Shadows on the Shore is a masterful and thoroughly absorbing novel of near-Dickensian scope. Read Less