The Raiders

The long time I took to read this book doesn't mean I wasn't enjoying it. This is a book to savor, not to hurry though when there's no time to read and you're actually doing something else also at the same time. Not the book to keep one eye open over while attempting to use it as relaxation material to go to sleep with. Not the book to curl up with on a rainy night with growls of thunder, as there are some spooky bits.

It's character-driven, while the plot meanders a bit. Actually, the raiders are larger-than-life bugaboos that probably never existed, but it's an interesting look at the Scotch culture in the early 1700s. There is a nod to the legend of the demon dogs, which is explained later in the book but is plenty spooky in a couple spots. The narrator, Patrick Heron, laird of the island Rathan, is sometimes dense and sometimes sharp, sometimes gifted with a truly tongue-in-cheek dry wit and humor (see some of my status updates for a couple quotes.) He spars with the fair May Mischief and has for a friend the silent and inexplicable Silver Sand, an aging man who is often a loner but is always at his side in a pinch, along with the trusty canine Quharrie, a huge dog.

Though the plot has some odd pacing issues, truly each character springs off the page, larger than life. Patrick learns to be a man in the course of the story and learns to value those things that matter most.

Also, a man's testimony is given near the end: he was once one of the evil raiders, yet his whole life is changed by converting, meeting Jesus—comparing himself to Saul of Tarsus.

Just another example of another excellent Crockett tale!