Dark deeds in the Highlands

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 19

Dark deeds in the Highlands

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil. By Reay Tan nah ill. Penguin, 1986. 634 pp. $10.95 (paperback).

(Reviewed by

Margaret Quigley)

"Here’s a large chunk of Scottish Gothic,” read the Literary Editor’s note with this book, and as a succinct and telling description of “The World, The Flesh, and The Devil,” it could hardly be bettered. Set mainly in Scotland in the early fifteenth-century, during the troubled reign of James I, this second novel by the author of the bestselling “A Dark and Distant Shore” again has a strong and talented woman as the main character, and again concerns the castle of Kinveil in the Scottish highlands. Ninian Drummond, bom and brought up in Avignon, is married at

17 to a minor Scottish nobleman and travels back to her native land where she becomes entangled in the struggle between her father and she becomes entangled in the struggle between her father and his enemy Gavin Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow and Chancellor of Scotland. It sounds rather like Mills and Boon in medieval plaid — “tied by blood on one side and by an overwhelming and forbidden love on the other” reads the blurb. However, the historical background is accurate, the interweaving of historical and fictional characters and incidents is skilfully done, and the book moves swiftly and entertainingly enough to hold the attention if one reads very fast and without much pause for thought The somewhat lurid title bears little connection with the plot and should not put off readers who like light historical fiction. I read conscientiously to the last sentence despite the fact that this thick paperback was badly bound and pages tumbled about me like autumn leaves as I hurried pn.