A Dark and Distant Shore (Paperback)

The book revolves around Vilia Cameron, daughter and only child of Theo Cameron, the Laird of Kinveil, a remote castle in the Scottish highlands. It is Vilia's love of and obsession with this castle, the home of all her forebears that, once lost due to her father's inability to manage its finances, is the driving force in her life and at the core of all her happiness and unhappiness.

While Vilia Cameron and her obsession with Kinveil are the focal point of the novel, another family, the Telfers, plays a large part. When Mungo Telfer, a rich merchant sees Kinveil, steeped with over five hundred years of Scottish history, he falls in love with it. Knowing that Theo Cameron, the current Laird of Kinveil, is financially strapped, Mungo Telfer makes him an offer that he cannot refuse, and so the castle is sold to the highest bidder. That was the day that would live in infamy in the mind of seven year old Vilia Cameron. It is a day that she would never forget, as her beloved home slipped away from her. Yet, curiously enough, Mungo Telfer and Vilia were to form a bond that day that would forever bind the Camerons and the Telfers throughout their lives.

Vilia's desire to have Kinveil in her possession would brook no interference. It was to be hers at all costs. This single, ruthless ambition of hers would drive her throughout her entire life and impact greatly on her life, as well as on the lives of her children and all those whose lives were to become intertwined with hers. Beautiful and driven, she would eventually embark upon a forbidden love that was to never be, as it was supplanted by this driving, burning ambition to be mistress in her childhood home. Her ambition would one day come to fruition, but it would end up costing her more than she could ever have imagined.

This is a well-researched work of historical fiction, in which nineteenth century Scotland comes to life in the author's capable hands, as do its characters, infused with the social mores and beliefs of the era. The book is also interspersed with notable historical events of the day. Of particular interest is the Sepoy rebellion in India, which is told from the perspective of a young woman who finds herself in India through Vilia's clever, though somewhat diabolical, behind the scene machinations. While some of the sub-plots that help move the story along may, at times, strain the reader's credulity, the overall story is one that carries the reader along to its finale. It is one that those who enjoy historical fiction will particularly appreciate, as will those who simply enjoy a good story.

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