DRAGONFLY IN AMBER

An engaging time-travel romance, the second of a trilogy (after Outlander, 1991), that animates the people and politics of a pivotal period in history—while turning up the heat between an appealing modern heroine and a magnetic romantic hero. It's now 1968, and Claire Beauchamp Randall has returned to Inverness, Scotland, with her daughter, Brianna. This is Claire's first visit back since she and husband Frank visited 22 years before—when she walked through a Druid stone circle into the middle of the 18th century. Now, Frank is dead, and Claire hopes to learn what happened to the second great love of her life—gallant Jamie Fraser, laird of Lallybroch whom she married during her journey into the past. She's also looking for a way to tell Brianna who her real father is. Framed by these dilemmas, the bulk of the story consists of the second installment of Claire and Jamie's adventures. Escaping the English death sentence passed against Jamie, they flee to prerevolutionary Paris, where they secretly work at foiling Bonnie Prince Charlie's efforts to regain the Scottish throne. But this espionage is only the beginning. Two rapes, Claire's near-fatal miscarriage, Jamie's attempted murder by one enemy and his tormented and volatile feud with another, the evil "Black Jack'' Randall, are only part of the action that keeps things lively. Then the inevitable war breaks out in Scotland, and Claire and Jamie are in the thick of it—until the English draw too near and Jamie sends Claire back through the stone circle to save their unborn baby. At the close, Claire is relieved to learn that bighearted, ingenious Jamie—who will surely go on to the final installment—has survived. A most entertaining mix of history and fantasy whose author, like its heroine, exhibits a winning combination of vivid imagination and good common sense.