Finding Fraser: A Novel by K. C. Dyer

Finding Fraser: A Novel.  K. C. Dyer. Penguin Group (USA). February 2016. 368 pp.  ISBN#: 9780399584374.

Emma Sheridan has read Diana Gabaldon’s novel, Outlander, multiple times and finds its main character, James Alexander Malcolm MacKensie Fraser or Jamie, more endearing with each read. Now thirty years old and fired from her job, Emma sets out to Scotland to find a real live Jamie.  Her practical sister thinks Emma has gone bonkers.  Emma has decided to record her adventures on an internet blog and gets enthusiastic support from Japanese readers also obsessed with the fictional Jamie in the world-wide popular novel. 

Emma’s journey is partly crazy, partly endearing and partly comic as she checks out numerous men on her travels.  On the trip we read beautiful descriptions of the gorgeous scenery she encounters in between hair-raising scenes of having her money and computer stolen, having weird Outlander fans highlighting sexual conquests, and so much more.

At a certain point, the plot gets downright silly but is saved when Emma actually finds Mr. Right by abandoning her idealistic, naïve demands and reaches out to someone whose kindness invites reciprocal care in a crisis.  While Emma may not be totally converted to reality, we do have hope by the end of this story that she knows herself so much better and is therefore more accessible to a realistic love.

Interesting play on the Outlander story, a tongue-in-cheek look at the fantasy behind the story which is fine for a great escape read (and which has been transformed in movie version) but a bit harried and chaotic when put into the 21^st century.