Okay, I lie. I only got halfway through this. I tried so hard - and I never, ever abandon books once I get halfway. I put it down, read other stuff, came back to it, then found other things to read...This book should have worked. On paper it sounds awesome - but on 450+ pieces of paper bound together it just didn't work. I mean, I love the absolute pants off history. So here was an Australian author who'd rocked the Tudors writing about the mysteries of a Scottish island and its secret history.This is about a remote Scottish island (uh huh, great, got me already. One of the books I cheated with was a memoir about a Scottish lighthouse keeper.) This Scottish island had a long and interesting pre-Norman history (again, I love this stuff - and not just because I have a thing for Neil Oliver documentaries. And Neil Oliver.) Unlike the main "character" who's MEANT TO BE A PHD CANDIDATE IN FREAKING ARCHAEOLOGY, with my lay-understanding of what went on prior to 1066 and all that gleaned from popular reading and Neil Oliver I already knew that Picts/Celts, Christian missionaries and Vikings regularly crossed paths in the Scottish islands, and not always to great success. The main "character" is Australian Freya Dane who suddenly receives word that her estranged father she hadn't seen in years had passed on and left her with his place on the island. The circumstances of his death are iffy (and therefore need her investigation) and what he was working on at the time of his death was also iffy (and therefore need her investigation and multiple flashbacks to the old times of the island).So twinned with "Aussie girl trying to make friends with the cast of Hamish Macbeth" plot is the story of the island at the time when the Christians had set up a monastery a few years before and weren't making great friends with the locals, only to have the Vikings come and mess stuff up. Central to this are the characters of Signy the Pict and Bear the young Viking left behind, who develop a friendship that pits them against the religious monks and nuns who believe they are destined to join the Christian fold.I know. This sounds AWESOME. What could go wrong?The main "character"Yes, I'm using quote marks because she doesn't really have one. Freya is a blank slate reacting to things, rather than having any underlying traits. She certainly doesn't think or behave like an academic, and her response to her father's death is pretty superficial.She's also really surprised and shocked to discover Christian, Pictish and Viking artifacts on the same island. She must have somehow studied using the only textbooks about archaeology that DON'T include at least Skara Brae. We're obviously quite dim here in Australia.Then there's Dan - the moody, unpleasant, gruff, damaged, imposing, quiet guy who is more than eager to talk, help with shopping, cook dinner while two women sit outside drinking, do some amateur archaeological digging and sleep on the couch. The psychic flashbacksPlease. Revealing the story of what had happened on the island as artifacts are discovered is fine. Having a psychic flashback whenever Freya and Dan touch is an okay idea, but had to be better formed, or it's just a bit lame, really.The dialogueI don't think Graeme-Evans has spent much time with Scottish people. I don't mean she should have written their dialogue in Scottish brogue, which is usually pretty disastrous (I remember even Ruth Park's 'Playing Beatie Bow' had accents hurt my teeth to read), rather their phrasing and grammar are completely different to Australian language. The worst part was a chapter of conversation between Dan and his father, Walter. Not only did it suddenly break into a third narrating character (the rest of the book is mainly Freya and Signy) but it not only didn't sound like two very familiar Scottish men talking to each other, it didn't even sound like two Australian men, or real in any way. Much of the dialogue just felt very fake and forced.Likewise, let's play a quick game. You're the leader of a dark age Viking raid, and a young lad you brought with you hasn't returned from the carnage. What are you most likely to say?a) Something alluding to him being "too green" or seeing "too few summers" for the raidb) Something alluding to Valhalla, or how he is now resting with the gods (thereby referring to something not only central to Norse mythology but also juxtaposing the religious sentiment with the murderous sacrilege of destroying a monastery and its inhabitants.)c) "Just classic inexperience" (the actual quote)RomanceAnother book I cheated and read was about five people who've survived the zombie apocalypse, in which there was just one man and one woman of viable breeding age left. Their relationship was still more surprising and less obvious than what happens in this book.The part where I abandoned it was a couple of chapters after a sex scene that was so bad it made me want to become an anchorite nun in the Hebrides rather than face doing something similar myself.The premiseAn island that locals know of but have never bothered to investigate through either reluctance or naivety, requiring adventurous experts from the other side of the world to come and put things to rights....This is the stuff of the old colonialist fantasies. But if it's a Scottish islands being explored by Aussies then that's fine.So I did try to finish this - I thought I could at the very least be carried along with the concept of the ancient history of the island. The book reminded me a lot of Geraldine Brooks' "People of the Book" which had the alternating chapters of rich history and a young woman trying to investigate it in the presence - and, like this book, it was the modern-day sections that let the story down. However, I have many promises to keep, and many books to read before I sleep (and many books to read before I sleep), and I'd finally come to the point where I just had to throw my hands in the air on this. An intriguing historical fiction. Characters were inherently interesting but perhaps not fully developed. The structure of the novel irritated me a little, it was written in chapters that alternated between the past and present- Freya's life (present) and Signy's (past). Dual time narratives used extensively a number of years back. While this worked on an organisational level, it was at times jarring. I found that I wanted to remain in the present day with Freya Dane and her archaeological research. While Signy's story had to be told, the constant switching distracted from the narrative. As a holiday read this novel is perfect.
