That first novel, set in 1903, followed 19-year-old Mary Bolton, referred to as “the widow,” on the run from the vengeful twin brothers of the husband she had just murdered. The new book is not just a follow-up to The Outlander it’s a sequel – though it can be read independently. The trade publication Quill & Quire praised Adamson’s “sly wit and deep insight into her characters,” and noted her prose “packs a significant punch and draws the reader into the novel’s world with a startling immediacy.” During a recent interview with Adamson on Facebook Live, Kingston WritersFest artistic director Barbara Bell said Ridgerunner was “sure to raise another global hurrah from critics and readers.”

This one’s really not that good – I couldn’t get into it, I got bored,’ or whatever.” Open this photo in gallery:

“It would hurt me, I think, if my publisher or readers were to say, ‘I really liked the first one. She was speaking on a Zoom call from the attic office of her house, a cozy, cottagey semi-detached in the east end of Toronto. “Oh yeah, it was terrible,” says Adamson, referring to the uncertainty that hung over her during the 10 years she spent writing Ridgerunner, which came out last month. But when the hubbub dies away and you finally set your mind to writing again, as Gil Adamson did a couple of years after the 2007 publication of her gothic Western The Outlander, you can understand how that success might make you gun-shy. It’s not always obvious that there’s a downside when your first novel comes out of nowhere and wins the hearts of readers and a cluster of awards and nominations, and runs up the bestseller chart.

The outlander by gil adamson