And Some Reviews

 

8 April 2019

Amazon UK

‘Whitey’

7 April 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

 

May 2018

HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY (On-line)

A review by Catherine Kullmann

The Wolf of Dalriada
BY ELIZABETH GATES

Confused by the frequent changes of location, date and point of view, it took some time for me to come to grips with this episodic novel of derring-do and villainy set in Western Scotland in 1793.

Amid echoes of Culloden and Glencoe, the Highland clearances are underway in Argyll. Powerful men and schemers, both Scottish and English, jockey for position and control in Dalriada where Malcolm Craig Lowrie must fend off overt and subtle attacks as he strives to protect his people, preserve his lands and defend his honour. When fate brings his cousin’s bride, Emma, into the orbit of the mysterious Lady Robinson, a new sequence of events begins that will change everything.

Gates steers the reader through her intricate plot with a steady hand. She describes a society that is more feudal than modern, where might is right and the rule of law—any law—has a tenuous hold at best; an impression that is reinforced by reports from France of the beginning of the reign of terror and the execution of the queen. The scene-setting is excellent, whether of an uneasy midsummer’s ball, a daring ride or a sleazy, quayside inn, and the characters are well-drawn and well-defined. As the villains’ nets tighten around their quarries, we never lose hope that our hero will manage to foil their plots and gain his lady.

Sara Beatty (Reviewer) has just reviewed The Wolf of Dalriada.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Full Text:
This is a long over due review. I’ve had this book for like 3 months now, and it has got to get checked off my to do list. 

Generally I’m am never so unsure of a book as I am with this one. It was really good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think that it was my type of book persay. I selected to review this book because I am a fan of some of the things it features. Like history and politics. That being said I wasn’t let down. The writing was amazing, the character development and the setting were as well. 

I really do believe that Gates did a great job here with The Wolf of Dalriada. I also think that it’s not the book’s fault I wasn’t thrilled entirely with it. I read this completely when I was going through a rough patch, and that may or may not have to do with my feelings towards it. My feelings being sort of neutral in this case. 

I’m going to give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It was brilliantly written just not for me at the time.

Links:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1878590165
https://sarabeattywrites.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/book-review-the-wolf-of-dalriada-by-elizabeth-gates/

*****
May 26th 2017

A 4*  Discovering Diamonds Review of THE WOLF OF DALRIADA by Elizabeth Gates

Amazon UK £8.99
Amazon US $5
Amazon CA n/a

Family Drama / Adventure
1793
France / Scotland

“It is 1793… As Europe watches the French Revolution’s bloody progress, uneasy Scottish landowners struggle to secure their wealth and power. And, in Dalriada – the ancient Kingdom of Scotland – fractured truths, torn loyalties and bloody atrocities are rife. Can anyone ride the maelstrom of these dangerous times? Only, it seems, Malcolm Craig Lowrie – the legendary Wolf of Dalriada.

In remote Argyll, people cry out to the young laird for protection against the evil of the Clearances. And there is also a beautiful Frenchwoman – staked as a child on the turn of a card – now living in thrall to her debauched captor, Sir William Robinson. But can the Wolf of Dalriada safeguard his people? Can the Wolf defeat enemies who, like the spirit of Argyll’s Corryvrecken Whirlpool, threaten to engulf them all?”

Part political intrigue, part romance, part mysticism, this debut novel, The Wolf of Dalriada, explores the upheaval of the period of the French Revolution and it is refreshing to see life in this era from the different perspective of Scotland rather than the more usual London/Paris Scarlet Pimpernel-type romantic adventure.

Perhaps a little clichéd in places with the baddies being bad and the goodies being good, and the occasional stumble with the flow of the writing where intrigue is key over action, but some of the scenery and ‘backdrop’ to the story is very nicely described so lovers of Scotland will appreciate this aspect. There could be some polishing to this debut novel, but the author has talent and a good technical editor could help bring out that talent to make Ms Gates an author to definitely watch in the future.

An entertaining tale.

© Ellen Hill

 *****
19th January 2017
Peggy Slater rated The Wolf of Dalriada  ***** on Goodreads
It was amazing
I loved this book! It’s set in late 18th century Scotland at the beginning of the French Revolution. The female protagonist, Adele, is French who was lost in a card game to Sir William Robinson by her father and then taken to Scotland by Robinson. The male protagonist, Malcolm Craig Lowrie, is a Scottish laird who is embroiled in a political struggle over control over his lands with the Duke of Argyll. There is so much political intrigue and subterfuge that I couldn’t put the book down! The author does an excellent job capturing the struggles of the people of Scotland against the English, and what was going on in France. The strength of the main characters facing seemingly impossible odds makes this an enjoyable read. I’m happy to hear that there will be more in the series, as the book ending left a lot of loose ends.
***
On Promoting Crime Fiction by Lizzie Hayes (9th January 2017)

‘The Wolf of Dalriada’ by Elizabeth Gates

Published by Matador,
28 November 2016.
ISBN: 978-1-785899904 (PB)

This romantic historical adventure, in a genre stretching back to writers such as John Buchan, Margaret Irvine, and Sir Walter Scott, is set in Argyllshire on the west coast of Scotland in the late eighteenth century at a time when the French Revolution was causing turmoil throughout Europe. It begins, however, some years before with a chance meeting between Malcolm Craig Lowrie, a young clan chief, then in exile, and the beautiful child Adele (or Adelaide) de Fontenoy at the court of the French queen Marie Antoinette. She befriends him; he never forgets her nor she him, although they do not meet again for 10 years. By that time she has been living with the elderly and corrupt English lawyer, Sir William Robinson, to whom Adele’s equally corrupt father had sold her in exchange for a gambling debt when she was a child. Since then, he has kept Adele in virtual isolation in his grand mansion in Argyllshire, Robinson Hall, apart from her priest, Father John Macdonald. She has so far violently repulsed Robinson’s advances. Now there is an unexpected visitor: Lady Emma Bamburgh who is fleeing from Malcolm Craig Lowrie whom she believes has murdered his cousin James Craig Lowrie whom she was about to marry. Emma, believing that Malcolm will murder her next, seeks refuge with Robinson who is an old friend of her father’s, the Earl of Bamburgh. Malcolm, ten years after his fateful encounter with Adele, is still a wanted man but is determined to protect his clansmen from the oppression of the Duke of Argyll, chief of the mighty Clan Campbell with whom Robinson is anxious to form a relationship profitable to himself. Malcolm’s ruthless vengeance for his people’s wrongs has earned him the name of The Wolf of Dalriada. Meanwhile the French Revolution has broken out and Adele fears that her father and her sister Gabrielle are in deadly danger. Will Malcolm and Adele find each other and fulfil their love? Will Robinson’s plans to marry Adele and to earn the favour of the Duke come to fruition? And what will happen to the Lady Emma?

Dalriada was a real kingdom in the first millennium AD which at its height ruled over much of the West Highlands and a portion of what is now Northern Ireland. Although it had come to an end by about 800 AD, no doubt the name lingered in legend in Argyll for centuries. The author uses it as a starting point for this, her first novel, which is a stirring historical romance which she tackles with immense gusto and a truly imaginative recreation of the period and the location.

Reviewer: Radmila May

Radmila May was born in the U.S. but has lived in the U.K. since she was seven apart from seven years in The Hague. She read law at university but did not go into practice. Instead she worked for many years for a firm of law publishers and still does occasional work for them including taking part in a substantial revision and updating of her late husband’s legal practitioners’ work on Criminal Evidence published late 2015. She has also contributed short stories with a distinctly criminal flavour to two of the Oxford Stories anthologies published by Oxpens Press – a third story is to be published shortly in another Oxford Stories anthology – and is now concentrating on her own writing.

SOME REVIEWS ON AMAZON . . .
 20 December 2016
Sir Walter Scott, move over! Here is a page-turner of an historic novel as Scottish as whisky. It concerns two young lassies, one French, one English, as they negotiate the perils of eighteenth-century life amid greed, lust, politics and revolution. A rich cavalcade of characters appear, some repellant, others heroic, and some simply comical (I particularly enjoyed the burgesses of Oban). I await the sequel with eagerness.
***
on 28 November 2016
Book release today!! Although I don’t usually read historical fiction I was encouraged to read this and am so glad I did. It took me to a new genre, mixing history and geography in a new way for me. I was fully drawn in to following the characters’ lives though I hadn’t expected to be. A great page-turner read and now I’m hooked, ready for the next book in the series, please.
 ***
on 21 November 2016
Incredible debut novel from an exceptionally vivid and engaging storyteller. With echoes of Virgils Aeneas in his portrayal, the eponymous anti-hero “The Wolf”, a man carved out of the Highland earth and sculpted by duty, experience and torment, is an remarkably intriguing character. Waiting with baited breath for part two….
***
on 20 November 2016
Historical fiction set in Scotland but with an outlook that covers England and Revolutionary France. The story has as many twists and turns as the Highland paths the heroes and villains traverse. Bring on the second book!
***
on 21 October 2016
An elegantly written tale of romance in eighteenth century Scotland.
***
on 17 October 2016
This book has everything for the lover of historical fiction. Moving between the French Revolution and the troubled history of 18th century Scotland Gates traces the fortunes of the laird of Dalriada and the beautiful French woman Adele, trapped in a loveless marriage by the deceits of her father. Lovely evocative writing full of drama and romance, you won’t want to put this down.