The Vanished Days

Written by Susanna Kearsley

Narrated by Robert Ian Mackenzie

I HAVE BEEN PERSUADED NOW TO TAKE MY PEN IN HAND AND TELL THE STORY
AS IT SHOULD BE TOLD …
In the autumn of 1707, old enemies from the Scottish Highlands to the
Borderlands are finding common ground as they join to protest the new Union
with England. An invasion is imminent as many plot to bring the exiled young
Jacobite king back to Scotland to reclaim his throne, and in Edinburgh, the streets
are filled with discontent and danger.
Queen Anne, seeking to calm the situation, has sent money up from London for
Scots who took part eight years earlier in the ill-fated Darien expedition that left
Scotland all but bankrupt. A young widow comes forward to collect her husband’s
portion of this money, but her claim is dubious. The man assigned to investigate
now has to determine if she’s telling the truth, or if his own troublesome feelings
are blinding and misleading him. It’s not only a matter of justice, but of lost love
and a nation betrayed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705049952

Susanna Kearsley

New York Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestselling author Susanna Kearsley is a former museum curator who loves restoring the lost voices of real people to the page, often in twin-stranded stories that interweave present and past. Her award-winning novels have been published in translation in more than 25 countries. She lives near Toronto.

Reviews for The Vanished Days

[Amy Hagberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

First off, a disclaimer. I am a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, which has likely influenced my review of The Vanished Days, another sweeping historical saga set in Scotland. If only one of the main characters wasn’t named Jamie and there wasn’t a Jacobite tie-in.

The Vanished Days had a completely different voice. I enjoyed the first-person narrative, and the author handily balanced dual timelines, but my mind often wandered. Then wham! A delightful twisty ending. As with most reads, I alternated between the eBook and the audio version. Narrator Robert Ian Mackenzie is extraordinarily talented (his Scottish brogue… be still my heart), but in this case, I recommend reading the book to better follow the intricate plot. For more reviews visit amyhagberg.com.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story jumps around at various points between 1685 and 1707 during the time of the Jacobite Rebellion. At question is whether a widow was really married to a man killed during the Darien expedition. It is up to Sgt. Adam Williamson to find whether her claim is true or not. The finding could prove dangerous to the widow or to the man's daughter Lily. The way the story was told by skipping around within the time period did not work well, and I found myself nearly abandoning the book several times. I did enjoy the setting--both time period and location--but the story seemed disjointed because of its telling. This appears to be the third book of a Scottish series by the author but was not advertised as such. I did not read earlier installments. I did not feel I'd missed anything by failing to read those stories.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the third book in Ms. Kearsley's Scottish series, though each can be read as a stand-alone novel. This is also my favorite of the three books and that's saying something because I love this author's books. I think it's partly just the story and partly because this one is not a dual timeline between past and present as the other two books but the story of Lily Aitcheson. There are flashbacks to Lily's childhood and young womanhood, but they are presented as a memoir.Lily is a lower class than the Moray and Graeme children she plays with as a child, but her life is intertwined with theirs. Now grown, she needs to prove her marriage to Jamie Graeme who died during the Darien expedition. Adam Williamson is appointed to investigate her claim. As always with this author, the writing is exquisite. There is a scene where young Lily runs out to bring her soldier father his sword and no spoilers, but that scene just slew me. My heart broke as Robin Moray tells her to look away. The historical details are interesting and integrate into the story impeccably. Lily's story has some twists and turns, some sad moments, and some very satisfying moments, but it will stay with me. This is a book to reread over and over.

[kimkimkim-7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Having read most of Susanna Kearsley’s books I admit to being an admirer of her research - In this book she exhibits her scholarship and remembers the Scottish souls who set sail for Darien. That was an ugly tale which she touches on here and there while incorporating the fight for the monarchy and ascent to the throne of England by William and Mary and the unwanted and reviled union with Scotland amidst the many attempts of the Jacobites to bring exiled young King Jamie back to rule.The history unspools around the story of Lily Aitcheson and the investigators who are looking into her monetary claim for wages as a surviving spouse of one of those who attempted the journey. This intricate tale brilliantly weaves together insidious politics where a man may be imprisoned and tortured on another’s whim, the every day struggle of the common man and woman to provide shelter and food, the back and forth of which religion is in command at any given time and the punishment for following one’s beliefs when they are out of fashion. It is an historical story of Scotland at the turn of the eighteenth century - but beside a heavy focus on its politics, truly the center of attention is a romance amidst great mystery, all the while dancing around how clever a woman had to be to avoid the blatant gender abuse of the time, acknowledging how easily a woman could be ruined.While one man thinks of the vanished days as those that are lost and can never be relived nor regained, another man acknowledges that without the living of them, despite the darkness and pain, there would be no recognition when the light shone and happiness prevailed. One is a tale of a man who felt he had lost while the other knew he had won all. I loved them equally.I admit to being confused on occasion and I am not sure whether it was my failing or that there was so much information and so many characters within the story. I am rounding up for the extraordinary research and a well told tale. Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a copy.

[ellenh_28 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was an interesting and long, extremely well researched book of Scotland in the 1700's. Lot's of political intrigue, social mores, and history, sometimes hard to keep track of it all, but still a very good read. Although this is #3 in a series, I jumped in here instead of the other two and did fine. If you're into Outlander, this would be good.

[tamidale · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love reading stories set in Scotland and this one was rich in history and intrigue. This is quite a long tale, so readers should be prepared to settle in and be immersed in the history of Scottish politics, social mores and a complicated mystery.The story centers around a young widow who makes a claim on her deceased husband’s wages, only to have it contested. Adam Williamson and a man named Gilroy are sent to investigate her claim in order to see if she is the true heir and if the marriage was valid.Adam narrates the story, but can readers be sure he is objective? Gilroy accuses him of being attracted to the widow in question and Adam has a difficult time denying that attraction.In the end, there was a big twist that I certainly did not anticipate, which makes me want to read this book all over again. Susanna Kearsley did a wonderful job with this book. I have The Winter Sea on my shelves, so now I can’t wait to read it and revisit some of these characters.Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebook Landmark for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.

[ang709 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've learned that when I pick up one of Susanna Kearsley's books, I should expect an immersive experience, and this book certainly met those expectations in it's depictions of 17th/18th century Scotland. Besides the settings, the characters were well developed too, as was the story. The story moved me and at times brought me to tears. It also kept me in suspense with it's twists and turns through a game of cat and mouse. I also appreciated the author's extensive notes at the end.I recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or who just wants to be transported to another time and place.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story in this book is related to other historical novels that Kearsley has written set in the late 1600s and early 1700s in England and Scotland. They concern the lead-up to the 1708 Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, an attempt by the Scots to negate the Union of 1707 between England and Scotland and bring the exiled Catholic King James VIII back from France to take the Scottish throne. There is a great deal of background imparted about the history and politics of the time, because it also forms the backdrop for the main story, which has to do with the life of Lily Aitcheson. The book begins in 1707 in Edinburgh, when the narrator, Sergeant Adam Williamson, is staying at the house of his friend and commander Lieutenant Turnbull. Their relationship stemmed from their time together working and fighting for the Scottish colony at Darien. [The Gulf of Darien was the site of the Scottish colony of New Caledonia on the Isthmus of Panama, established in the late 1690s. The plan was for the colony to provide an overland transportation service connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, thus obviating the need to sail all the way around South America. The scheme failed for a number of reasons. In this book, it is suggested that the English government worked to subvert it, less the company take away business from their East India Company.]When Adam showed up at Turnbull’s door, Turnbull was away, and Adam was at the same time struck with one of his periodic bouts of malaria, contracted in Panama. Turnbull’s wife Helen insisted he stay, even after he recovered. Adam agreed to complete an assignment for Turnbull brought over by Gilroy, a clerk of Lord Grange. The men were tasked with investigating a claim for wages from the African Company owed to spouses of men lost in the Darien adventure.Adam was immediately enamored with the claimant, Lily Aitcheson, who said she was the widow of James Graeme, lost at sea on the way to Darien. Her proof is questionable however, and so Turnbull and ergo Adam were requested to help Gilroy investigate. In the course of doing so, we learn Lily’s life story.Meanwhile, Helen is trying to fix Adam up with an eligible young lady, but Adam is clearly smitten with Lily. He can relate to the Platonic claim that every person has one matching half, and must search the world for the one person who completes us. We readers know Adam feels he has found that in Lily. But would Lily feel the same about him?Evaluation: Underlying much of the story is a theme about the mistreatment of women, and how difficult it was then - much more so than now, to have any means of resistance or redress. We also learn a great deal about the complicated machinations of men in power in this time period over who would rule Scotland and how the conflict among competing religions might be sorted out. Both the personal and political interrelationships were confusing and at the end I felt like I could benefit from starting over again at the beginning, but I didn’t mind doing that; it is a good story, with a number of surprising twists at the end.

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Something of a companion story to The Winter Sea, with the main story set at the same time and touching on cousins of a major character there. Unusually for Kearsley, this does not have a modern storyline but moves between 1707, with flashbacks to 1685 and forward, and a frame set some decades later. It also has no hint of a paranormal element. I missed the modern storyline at first but was soon drawn in by the compelling characters and engrossing narrative full of twists and turns.Highly recommended.