A Strange Scottish Shore

July 3, 2017
Set in 1906, Gray’s winning sequel to 2016’s A Most Extraordinary Pursuit finds the charming and eminently sensible Emmeline Truelove boarding a train for Scotland at London’s King Cross Station. Emmeline’s employer, Max Haywood, Duke of Olympia, who’s an amateur archeologist, has urgently requested that she join him in the north of Scotland. Well into her journey, Emmeline has a vision of the late Queen Victoria, who warns her of a man on the train who has followed her from London. Another passenger, a handsome rake who has proposed to Emmeline, later confronts this man, who escapes by jumping off the train. The intrigue continues in Scotland, where Max and Emmeline examine a strange artifact found in a ruined castle—a suit of clothing that according to legend once belonged to a selkie. Sinister others, the two discover, want to get their hands on this artifact. Gray smoothly blends fantasy elements into the twisty plot, which builds to a shocking yet satisfying climax. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners.