Historical Fiction

I plowed through the Lord John books because I love the Outlander series. I did pick up a little background on Lord John and got to know him a little better, but over all, these stories don't stack up to the quality of the Outlander books. ( )

If one can keep the Lord John sequence in order...you will find these stories more compelling than the Outlander series. Shorter is sweeter with Gabaldon! As good as her "bulges" are...I treasure her "shorts" for their whit, action and nuanced story lines. ( )

I really loved the character of John Grey in Voyager, so I thought I’d start Diana Gabaldon’s spin-off series while waiting for The Drums of Autumn on audio. I tend to split the time I spend on her books listening to the audio (the reader for the Claire-Jamie books is one of the best audio book readers I’ve heard) and reading them, and this one was no different. I had another book started, but I found myself picking this up between work commutes instead.
I don’t recommend reading this novella collection first, though, since the first novella is the only one that chronologically precedes Lord John and the Private Matter, the first full-length novel (well, full-length by normal human standards, if not by Ms. Gabaldon’s own). I got far enough in this collection to just go for it and finish, but I was really regretting not having read Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by the time I got to the third, and last, novella.
I’ll be jumping right into the first novel, as I really enjoyed this collection. Lord John’s sense of humor, his relationship with his valet Tom Byrd and his friend Harry Quarry, and how they help him in his sleuthing, made for a wonderful read.
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Three mystery novellas featuring Lord John, the third of which was new to me. Although they are meant to be stand-alones, there are quite a few references which would go over the head of someone unfamiliar with either the other Lord John novels and stories or the wider Outlander universe. ( )