When Greer MacAlister learns her estranged husband has died during the course of his work, she travels to Montrose in Scotland with her young daughter Fen (who is deaf) to claim the widow's payment that is rightfully hers. Her husband was an excise man, and Greer plans to make a new start for Fen and herself using his final pay. However, it turns out that her husband was less than honest, leaving Greer not only penniless with nowhere to go, but suddenly at the mercy of the loc als who immediately turn against her.
Needing a place to go quickly, she attaches herself to a man named Tam Gordon who offers her a job as his housekeeper in the tiny Highland village of Glasglen. Here, the locals, including Tam's eldest daughter, are very distrustful of Greer for many reasons, not least of which is that they believe that the previous housekeeper betrayed them to the excise. It certainly doesn't help that Greer is originally English, that she doesn't speak Gaelic and that she communicates with her daughter using finger talking, a form of early sign language.
Like so many villages in the Highlands, Glasglen is a town clinging to survival in any way that it can. One of the way that they make ends meet is through the production of whisky and then illegally smuggling it, all the while trying to evade the dreaded excise men and soldiers.
With Tam often out smuggling, Greer is left to hold the fort, and very gradually begins to earn the trust of a few of the locals. Soon, she is learning all about the art of making whisky and, in turn, she and Fen are teaching the locals finger talking, which comes in very handy for hidden communications. She also gets caught up in the lives of the locals, including a mystery of a missing woman.
For all that Tam leads the smuggling operations, at heart he is an honourable man who recognises that Greer is a woman who has faced adversity but still keeps her head high, who is resourceful and who he feels will be an asset to his household and the village.
This book is set in the 1680's which is a time where the whole of Scotland was occupied by the English, and so many people were leaving behind their homes to start again in countries like America because it was no longer possible to survive. The English were tightening the screws on whisky making, so that even the production of whisky for personal use become dangerous and illegal.
Reading this book gave us a fascinating insight into the role of women in whisky making through the ages, which is a subject that the author is clearly passionate about, and is a fairly hidden aspect of history as so much women's history is.
Last year I was in Scotland and this book took me back there to the Highlands, and made me wish we could go back. We didn't actually visit a distillery when we were there, although we did buy this very cool little globe shaped bottle of whisky.
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Karen Brooks is an Australian author I have known about for a while now, and I do own a couple of her other books. Having finally tried one of her books I can't help but wonder why haven't I read any of them previously. Given that this was such an outstanding read which I was fully engrossed in, I plan to read more of her books sooner rather than later.
The Whisky Widow has a gorgeous cover and inside is fascinating history and an absorbing story. Highly recommend!
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews, with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story and with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host.
Rating 5/5
Saturday - Out for dinner
Sunday - Nothing
Monday - Baked Prawn Nasi Goreng
Tuesday - Chicken Stir Fry
Wednesday - Egg Curry (new)
Thursday - Away
Friday - Away
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