Shadows on the Shore

The proverbial dark and stormy night on the Scottish coast in 1802 is the first scene of this well-told historical romance, which again features Clare Kelso Quinn, last encountered in Lantern for the Dark . The storm heralds the return of the unscrupulous but irresistibly charming Frederick Striker. This rogue has loved and betrayed Clare, and in this highly readable tale Clare, now the widowed mistress of Headrick House, exacts her revenge. The plot also involves a villain who covets her holdings, a mild-mannered doctor who desires her hand, an elderly woman who uses witchy powers benignly and an eccentric French inventor surprisingly transported to Scotland. Gory details are provided by an outbreak of syphilis, deformed stillborn Siamese twins and a disastrous stampede out of the kirk. The narrative keeps the reader guessing; flashes of dry wit and humorous characterizations (one of Clare's employees is ``bumptious as a beadle'') again indicate that Stirling is a deft practitioner of the genre. (Mar.)