Instead of a gritty widow, our hero is a boy just about 13 years old whose mother dies. That gift for character is on full display in Ridgerunner, a book that begins some 10 years later and overlaps in certain characters. Each character is so vivid we hate to leave them behind…until the next eccentric looms into view and holds our attention. She crosses paths with a sad widow and her two amusingly protective servants, a hermit-like mountain man, a preacher who wallops the hell out of his mine worker parishioners to knock some sense into them and on and on.

Every time she catches her breath and meets up with someone new, we think, OK, this is where she’ll stay. Our hero is constantly on the move, yet Adamson is gifted enough to upend expectations. It’s pure adventure from start to finish, bursting with excitement and wary romance amidst the backdrop of the 1905 Canadian wilderness. It features a “self-made widow” on the run from her dead husband’s two vengeful brothers. She really broke through with her first novel, a 2007 western called The Outlander. You have to love anyone who pens a biography of the abundantly talented Anderson, especially when they title it “Mulder, It’s Me.” If you’re waving the flag of fandom, wave it high! Her talents remain intact.Īdamson is a Canadian author with books of poetry, a short story collection and a “fan-commissioned biography” of actor Gillian Anderson to her credit. If the new book, Ridgerunner, falters, it’s because of a choice she made, not a rush to print. Author Gil Adamson took 14 years to follow up her debut novel.

The outlander by gil adamson