Book Review: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

Okay, so I volunteer two hours per week at our little small town library and while there I read lots of books by many different authors. The other day, I picked up this book by Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils, which turned out to be three short stories, but it was marked as historical mystery so that was fine with me. It takes place in the 1700’s when Britain was allied with the Prussians against the French and Austrians in the Seven Year war. So I am reading it, and I get to like page 20 or so and there is this line that reads something like, “He noticed the man’s piercing blue eyes and he knew that he had seen them before. Then it came to him where, it was at the Lavender House.” I was thinking, well that sounds rather gay. Oh my! It was true, this protagonist, Lord John, was gay. So, I read the entire three stories rapaciously for gay sex, and there wasn’t any. But the stories were compelling, the character intriguing, and all in all it was quite fun to read.

I got onto Amazon quickly to see what other books about this character there were (and most importantly if any books had gay sex in them). Low and behold, there was one; Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade had gay sex in it. The customer reviews were highly entertaining. Apparently her devoted readers did not approve at all, some calling the gay sex “gratuitous”. You see, she was a New York Times best selling author with her Outlander series prior to developing this minor character. The following day, I raced back to the library to see if they had BOTB and they did! Needless to say I took it home and read it forthwith.

What can I say, I loved it! Ms. Gabaldon is a wonderful writer. She deftly executes military action scenes that had me on the edge of my seat as well as lovingly depicts erotic rendezvous between Lord John and his paramour. Her character development is exquisite, especially that of Lord John. In this book, Lord John attempts to solve the mystery of who assassinated his father, the Duke of Pardloe, who was killed seventeen years ago and is forced to deal with another perilous situation regarding with his own sexuality. This book is most interesting because it supposes (based on research) what life would be like for homosexuals back in the 1700’s and in the military. Lord John and the Hand of Devils is worth reading too, because it determines the cause of a military accident in which Lord John was seriously injured in BOTB.

I am hooked. I now plan to read the first book about Lord John, Lord John and the Private Matter and then perhaps the entire Outlander series. I highly recommend BOTB to anyone looking for an entertaining historical mystery with homoerotic passages.