The Vanishing by Susanna Kearsley
What a terrific novel! I fell completely into the world of 1680s Scotland, where Sergeant Adam Williamson is assigned to investigate the validity of a marriage claim on behalf of his superior, Lieutenant Turnbull. Lily Aitcheson has claimed that she is the widow of Jamie Graeme, the son of an aristocratic Scottish family, who had died while in service related to the Darien Settlement. As he investigates, Adam tries to stay objective. Still, he gets drawn into the complexities of Lily's life and the intrigue around the Jacobite uprising, the dissolution of the Scottish parliament and the misuse of the Equivalent Fund. I enjoy dual time period books and the transitions between the two periods (the 1680s and 1707) were smooth and precise. I also appreciated the historical descriptions of religious, political and social tensions and the illustration of social classes and life in Edinburgh during that period. Not just for women like Lily but also for the military life experienced by Ada...