A Sterkarm Kiss

The sequel to The Sterkarm Handshake, Price’s outstanding time slip novel in which people from the 21st century can return to the 16th, A Sterkarm Kiss tantalises the reader by bringing the protagonists together again, albeit in a different time frame, yet leaving the resolution to this tale of treachery, colonialist plundering and love for the next, as yet unpublished volume in this trilogy. As ever, Price’s 16th-century reiver country is superbly well evoked – from the unpolluted landscape to the smells and mud of the Sterkarm’s Bedesdale Tower. More problematic are the gruesome events that unfold as 21st-side anthropologist, Andrea, witnesses the atrocities unleashed by the blood feud between the Sterkarm and Grannam families who are unwittingly manipulated by the cynical company who own the time travel machine. The political marriage brokered by the company between Per Sterkarm and Joan Grannam which will bring ‘peace’ to the region ends in sabotage and betrayal with Per cutting his teenage bride’s throat. After a retaliatory raid, the heads of Grannams dangle from Sterkarm saddles.

Yet, the most shocking thing for this 21st-side reader is that this novel serves as a metaphor for our times – the depravities committed in the name of ‘freedom’ are familiar to all of us from our television screens and newspapers. The impact of first world weapons on the 16th century evokes contemporary conflicts. Price has written a bold, sophisticated, demanding novel that commands our attention.