Blog

Meet Greer McAllister (aka the Whisky Widow)

On the very first page of The Whisky Widow, the reader is introduced to feisty and fearless 31-year-old Greer Reed, nee MacAlister. Recently widowed from her estranged husband, William Reed, a despised English excise officer, she decides to leave her home of Edinburgh and the tavern she grew up in. Along with her daughter Fenella (Fen), she heads north to the port town of Montrose, the place where her husband last worked. Once she’s collected his outstanding wages, she’ll have the means to create a new and even better life for herself and Fen. Only, what she discovers in Montrose throws her best-laid plans into complete disarray. As the adage suggests, desperate times call for desperate measures and Greer finds herself in an untenable situation. Left with little choice, she takes up a position in the handsome but rather melancholy tacksman, Tamhas Gordon’s, household, in a Highland village called Glasglen (“Green Valley”). The name of the village or clachan to which Greer and Fen travel is nothing like the arcadia the name promises. Instead of the welcome she was hoping for, Greer and Fen find themselves in a community of hostile whisky smugglers. Here, whisky is made, drunk, traded, transported, and sold across the country – all illegally. The people of Glasglen live with the ever-present danger of excise officers invading, imposing outrageous fines and making violent arrests. Much to Greer’s chagrin, she learns that the threat of death also hangs over those involved in this illicit economy. As new arrivals, Greer and Fen are treated with suspicion, outright antagonism, and the incomers they are in every regard. Has Greer made the biggest mistake of her life leaving the relative comfort of the city? In trusting Tamhas Gordon? Afterall, he’s the man responsible for the village and the smuggling that’s the main source of livelihood. But Glasglen and its close-knit community of quirky souls didn’t account for the likes of Greer MacAlister – or Fen. There’s a reason Greer ran a successful tavern in a major city for years, and not only because she has a tongue like a tavern wench and no tolerance for unkindness – especially towards her daughter who happens to be deaf. The seasons pass, and Greer and Fen slowly learn to navigate their way in this strange place with its wondrous but hazardous landscape, the constant menace of the excise and the endless bickering and gossip. But when a murder occurs and arrests and imprisonment follow, the fate of Glasglen hangs in the balance. Greer is prepared to risk all to save not just the accused men from their dreadful fate, but the village too. But she needs to win the trust of those left behind, and as she’s learned from painful experience, Glasglenians don’t trust anyone, especially not the widow of a detested Sassenach excise officer. Read more about Greer in The Whisky Widow by Karen Brooks! From the bestselling award-winning author of The Good Wife of Bath comes this rollicking historical adventure that celebrates the art of whisky distilling, the defiant spirit of the Scottish Highlanders and a woman’s fearless quest. 1780 Scottish HighlandsIn every glass of whisky lies a small act of rebellion… When Greer MacAlister’s despised husband dies, she and her young daughter Fen find themselves in a remote whisky smuggling community in the heart of the Highlands. Here, illicit whisky making is a means of survival in a Scotland under occupation by the British, decades after the disastrous Battle of Culloden. The villagers are suspicious of the widow, but when Greer tricks excise officers away from their illegal stills with a courageous and daring act, they warm to her. But the excise men are out for revenge, smuggling is a dangerous business, and whisky – a drink that has long ignited passions, songs, stories and danger – is at the rebellious heart of it all. Greer and Fen have no choice but to fight for the life they want. This rollicking story of bravery, adventure, love and murder brings alive the Scottish Highlands of long ago. It is a poem to the art of whisky distilling and a world now lost to us, as well as a eulogy for those who were forced to leave it. Get the book here