The Last MacKlenna by Katherine Lowry Logan
I’m in love with a fictitious character by the name of Dr. Elliott Fraser. Not since Rhett Butler have I found a character so endearing, so arrogant, so loving, so annoying – a truly complex man who is given to the reader bit by bit until by book’s end you want to cry because the story is over.
The Last MacKlenna is the prequel to The Ruby Brooch and I must say I don’t usually give much thought to prequels. But this one took me by surprise – grabbing me by the collar and throwing the book at me (figuratively). Meredith Montgomery meets Elliott Fraser over the Christmas holiday when each of them escapes from their busy worlds and stay at a B&B in Scotland – one in search of her ancestry and the other there for various reasons. For Elliott it is love at first sight although he mistakes his love for lust. Meredith – a young widow and head of a California winery that’s been in her family for generations – see Elliott has a holiday fling, perhaps her last as she has recently been diagnosed with a return of the breast cancer that she beat five years earlier.
What ensues is a cat and mouse game between the two that takes us from Scotland, to Kentucky, to California and back again as we try to keep up with these two corporate jet-setters.
The Last MacKlenna is a love story, a murder mystery, a bit of history, and a throw back to another time and place that will keep the reader guessing until the final pages whether or not its true love for Meredith and Elliott. I couldn’t wait to finish the story yet didn’t want the story to end. I’m looking forward to The Sapphire Brooch.
If you like Scotland, men in kilts, and whiskey then this book is for you – and even if you don’t you’ll learn to love them after you read this book.
