Paul Brandon: Swim the Moon

Tor (Trade paperback), ISBN 0-312-87793-5

Richard Brennan tries to escape the weight of his wife’s accidental death by moving halfway around the world. But six years after arriving in Australia, his father’s funeral draws him back to his native Scotland. Being back stirs up memories of Bethy, and he ultimately decides to move back to the family property on the sea in the north of Scotland to deal with the past. The solitude of winter and his fiddle playing soothe his soul.

One night, out on the beach, he spies a beautiful young woman. Her ethereal singing captivates him. But when he tries to speak to her, she races away. They slowly grow to know one another. First she leaves him gifts inside his cottage, then he leaves her gifts outside his door. Finally, one night he pursues her during a thunderstorm when she runs away. Thus his friendship with Ailish begins. It soon turns to obsession for him.

While in town one day, he looks at the records of his father’s death and finds a mystery there – a birth certificate for a half-brother of Richard’s father. This becomes the second mystery about his family, for his father apparently took up with a much younger and beautiful woman in the months before he drowned.

Richard and Ailish’s relationship takes a big step forward after he goes ice fishing and falls through the ice. She saves him and takes him back to his cottage, tending to him and spending the night wrapped around him to keep him warm. Within days, their relationship becomes both sexual and a deeply loving one.

But Richard’s ancestors come to haunt them. The ghost of the family patriarch, Padraig, haunts the property, startling Richard on more than one occasion. And an old man in town, MacKay, warns Richard about Ailish. MacKay also holds information about Liam, Richard’s half-uncle. But Richard’s obsession with the mysterious Ailish blinds him to all warnings, which could bring dire consequences for the couple.

Paul Brandon writes a wonderful, angsty romance. He skillfully blends Scottish folk legends into the plot deftly. His descriptions of the bleak but beautiful rural areas draws the reader to the place, firmly creating it in the mind. Though the ending becomes a bit predictable as it draws closer, a few surprises still lurk for the reader.

Jen Foote

Jen Foote recently moved to central Florida, where she is a copy editor and page designer at a small daily newspaper. She is ecstatic to live an hour away from the ocean.