Jessica Stirling Books In Order

The Spoiled Earth

Set in 19th century Scotland, this reissue of the author’s first novel introduces the Stalker family, whose dramatic story was continued in ‘The Hiring Fair’ and ‘The Dark Pasture’.

The Hiring Fair

In the Colliery at Blacklaw, the dangerous work has taken the lives of many men in the desolate days of the 1870’s. But the Stalkers dream of a better future. In Edinburgh, Drew begins his studies of law, while Mirrin takes to the road after her bitter experience with Houston Lamont, owner of the Colliery. And for the Stalkers who remained in Blacklaw, life was changing too…

The Dark Pasture

17 years have passed since the close events described in The Hiring Fair. In Blacklaw, the depression has brought poverty to the town. In Edinburgh, Drew Stalker has fulfilled his promise, climbing high in Edinburgh society. Only scandal can bring him down now, which threatens to happen when Neil Stalker is accused of murder…

The Asking Price

Imprisoned in a false ‘marriage’ and trapped in Glasgow’s mean streets, Kirsty and Craig Nicholson are drifting apart, held together only by their son, Bobby. Kirsty finds herself drawn more and more to David Lockhart, the young minister who cares for her deeply. But David is bound to return to China and only his love for Kirsty keeps him in Scotland. Craig, now a committed policeman, is incensed by the behaviour of his family when they fall under the influence of a rich and generous patron, and seeks solace in the arms of a street woman from the burgh’s dark slums. His growing obsession with her threatens not only Kirsty, but the future of his family too…

The Wise Child

Audio Cassette, Chivers Audio Books

The Welcome Light

Only love for their son holds Kirsty and Craig Nicholson’s stormy marriage together. But when a crippling disease strikes the child, Craig’s adamant male pride turns to tenderness and concern, and Kirsty, drained by worry and overwork, seeks comfort in the arms of her new business partner. Only a series of near tragic events brings Kirsty to a final, unexpected confrontation and a decision where her heart really lies.

Shadows on the Shore

Once, Frederick Striker betrayed, then abandoned Clare Quinn. Now, she is no longer a guileless, impressionable innocent but a well to do widow, mother of a young daughter whom she must protect from his predatory charm. Their deadly game of passion and deceit will inevitably bring ruin to one of them…

The Island Wife

A 19th century family saga about two headstrong sisters who fall in love with the same man. Both Innis and Biddy Campbell fall in love with Michael, but their rivalry will expose a terrible secret that leads to heartache and tragedy.

The Wind from the Hills

Innis and Biddy Campbell have married well Innis to the handsome shepherd Michael Tarrant, Biddy to rich Austin Baverstock. But Biddy is now a widow, while Innis, now the mother of three young children, has found that marriage is not the idyll she expected. Then into their lives, come two men.

The Strawberry Season

Since the dawn of time, the Isle of Mull, off the Scottish coast, has had to fend off ferocious winds and a ravenous ocean intent on swallowing the island whole. Roughened by ceaseless storms and chill, Mull remained a quiet community, set in its ways, with almost no fodder for town gossip, as the nineteenth century drew to a close. Until, that is, new blood moved in, setting the local Campbell sisters, Innis and Biddy, against each other in all out war for the love of the same newcomer, Michael Tarrant. But just as the passage of time changes slightly the cragged hills of Mull, so does it soften hearts to reconciliation: the two sisters realize their bond is too thick for a man to sever. For Innis, marriage to Michael Tarrant turned out far from idyllic: he fled to seek life outside Mull, leaving Innis to raise their children. Biddy, too, has married, but still yearns for the happiness that has always slipped through her fingers. Although it has taken sixteen years for life to return to a semblance of what it was before the Tarrants arrived, something is still amiss. Then a pregnant woman’s arrival on the island turns any countryside serenity on its head. Loathed by some, loved by others, and feared as an ill omen by still others, this Fay Ludlow embodies the changes due to fall upon Mull. The winds of change at her back will bring with them ghosts of a past buried too soon. AUTHORBIO: Jessica Stirling has always lived in Scotland, where her Isle of Mull trilogy takes place. The Strawberry Season is the last of the three installments, after The Island Wife and The Wind from the Hills, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Romantic Novelists Association Prize. A beloved and successful writer, she thrilled readers with her bestselling first trilogy, The Spoiled Earth, The Hiring Fair, and The Dark Pasture.

The Piper’s Tune

Lindsay Franklin has just left her Glasgow school and finds her role as a marriageable young lady more than agreeable. But her life changes when her charming Irish cousin Forbes comes to Glasgow to join the family shipbuilding business.

Shamrock Green

The marriage of Sylvie and Gowry McCulloch was not made in heaven and has gone through difficult times. Settled now in Dublin, they have a daughter, Maeve, whom they both love dearly. Sylvie presides over the respectable Shamrock Hotel while Gowry is a driver for Flanagan’s bus company. When Francis Hagarty explodes into their lives, however, everything changes. Fran is a journalist and gunrunner and hides a shipment of smuggled arms in the Shamrock. Gowry discovers it and, sensing danger, is furious. But Sylvie has already fallen in love with Fran and is soon swept into an illicit affair. Trapped in a tangle of subversion that he has resisted all his life, Gowry is forced to flee Dublin and becomes caught up in the war in Europe. As Gowry struggles to survive the horrors of trench warfare in France and Sylvie and precocious daughter Maeve are drawn into the Easter Uprising at home, the family’s future hinges on heartbreaking choices, any one of which may lead to tragedy for all of them.

The Captive Heart

World War I ended well for the Franklins, prosperous Clydeside shipbuilders. But trouble is brewing behind their respectable facade. Maeve McCulloch has arrived from Ireland, to the dismay of her aunt Lindsay. Maeve’s mother caused nothing but grief and heartache for Lindsay and it seems that Maeve may do the same. Meanwhile, Lindsay’s husband has been swept off his feet by wealthy, manipulative Stella Pickering. And Lindsay herself is torn when handsome navy hero Geoffrey Paget unexpectedly walks back into her life. Then the slump of the 1920s begins to bite in Glasgow and troubles both financial and personal invade all their lives.

The Penny Wedding

Portraying one family’s hardships during the 1930s Depression in Glasgow, the story of the Burnsides tells of young Alison’s difficult choice between love and marriage and a medical career. By the author of Lantern for the Dark.

The Marrying Kind

Poverty and the Depression of the 1930s have hit Glasgow hard and the future of Alison Burnside’s family is no longer looking certain and secure.

The Workhouse Girl

Robert Montague, a preacher with an adventurous past, is a perfect catch for any girl. Cuthbert Armitage thinks so, and sets his daughters, Cassie and Pippa, into competition over the minister. But Robert is not all he seems to be, as Cassie discovers after their wedding. Robert is a man with many secrets. Trapped in a dangerous Victorian marriage, can Cassie find anyone to help her?

Prized Possessions

Lizzie Conway has clawed her way out of the Gorbals slum despite the debt left by her husband. She would do anything to protect Polly, Babs and Rosie. But now they are grown up and Lizzie’s strength and determination cannot protect her girls from falling in love with men as feckless as their father…

Sisters Three

There are four Conway women: indomitable Lizzie, who endures despite everythign that life in Glasgow can throw at her, and Lizzie’s three daughters, each one combining Lizzie’s iron will with her own ambitions and desires. Now, as the 1930s draw to a close and war threatens, each sister struggles with her life and loves. Polly lives in luxury as the wife of the overprotective Dominic Manone, while Babs has her hands full with her demanding brood and her fast talking husband. Only Rosie seems to have found peace in Shelby’s Bookshop…
until a young policeman comes around. While Polly seeks distraction in a dangerous affair, her husband is drawn into a venture involving a sinister go between, a beautiful and amoral blond, and an unimaginable fortune. As the web of suspicion and deceit tightens around Dominic, Polly finds herself threatened from all sides until she is finally forced to make difficult choices about her sisters, her husband, and her own unfulfilled desires. Set against the vibrant streets of Glasgow on the brink of war, Sisters Three is Jessica Stirling’s most exciting and passionate romance to date.

Wives at War

As Glasgow waits for enemy bombers to reach Clydeside and the German invasion to begin, Lizzie Conway’s daughters throw themselves wholeheartedly into the war effort and eagerly accept their roles as working wives in Jessica Stirling’s enthralling new novel set in the darkest days of the Second World War.

With her husband in the army, mother of four Babs sends three of her darlings to the country and goes back to work long hours in an office. Her comfortable routine is disrupted, however, when a charming American news photographer insinuates himself into her life, an American who may not be all that he seems.

Rosie’s job as a skilled factory worker is marred by the taunts of her cruel and snobbish coworkers. Eager to start a family but fearful that she might pass her deafness to her children, she blames her ambitious policeman husband for her desperate unhappiness and risks not only her marriage but her future because of it.

Wealthy and self assured, Polly continues to manage her husband’s shady empire, trying to forget that her children have been stolen from her and now live with their father in New York. But Dominic explodes back into her life with a plot that involves the Italian resistance, the OSS, and spiriting a fortune out of Scotland. When the bombs begin to fall, Polly is forced to choose between loyalty and betrayal, and to face up to what truly matters.

One True Love

Susanne Thorne is an orphan of means, one reason why Bette Hollander carries the young English girl off to her home in far away Scotland. Bette would be more than happy for Susanne to fall in love with her handsome, headstrong son Louis, for marriage to the little heiress would repay old debts and restore the Hollander family’s fortunes. But love cannot be delivered to order and as Susanne grows up and proves to have a mind of her own, Bette’s plans for a match made in heaven seem fated to end in disaster.

Blessings in Disguise

Victorian Glasgow comes to life in this story of greed, ambition, and true love against all odds.

The Fields of Fortune

On the brink of a disastrous marriage, Nicola Templeton finally rebels and flees to seek refuge with her sister. Charlotte’s own runaway marriage has already turned their father into an implacable foe and it seems that Nicola too may be cut off from her share of the family estate if she does not bow to his will. Soon, however, Nicola is drawn into the web of city life and is courted by Grant s dashing young brother, Gillon. Innocent country girl or not, she is not dazzled by Gillon s wit or deceived by his promises, for Gillon is penniless, if no less ambitious than his brother. Meanwhile, incensed by his daughters ingratitude, Lord Craigiehall has plans of his own for the future of his estates. These plans involve him with the notorious society hostess Lady Valerie Oliphant, as well as a pretty little actress whose wiles are more than equal to his own.

A Kiss and a Promise

Servant girl Betsy McBride thinks she has as much right as any girl to Tom Brodie, the most dashing young man in the district. When her master asks her to help out the Brodie family she jumps at the chance to get a bit closer to him. She doesn t realize that Tom Brodie thinks the only way to save his family’s fortune or at least their farm is to dazzle his landlord s daughter. There is heartbreak on the horizon unless Tom s down to earth brother Henry can catch Betsy s attention.

The Paradise Waltz

Christine is the local schoolteacher far too pretty to be stuck out in the country with only the elderly Brigadier and her scottie for company. Alan is an eminent surgeon with sadness in his past, far too young to be content with the life of a single gentleman with a large, empty country residence. The Brigadier thinks they would make a perfect couple but other suitors have their eyes on both Alan and Christine.