This anthology contains a lot of other stories, but the only one I read was the Lord John Grey story, "Lord John and the Plague of Zombies", by Diana Gabaldon.Lord John Grey is a secondary character from the Outlander series and a primary character in his own series of books.In this short story, Colonel Lord John (LJ) has been sent with his army unit to Jamaica to suppress a slave rebellion. The Jamaican governor, Warren, is desperate for military help to put the slaves back in their place. LJ isn't big on slaves, but he's used to their place in society, and he expects everyone to treat them as he does, with respect and gratitude. Except Warren, it seems, has angered someone, and brought down the paranormal - an Obeah or African priest who deals in spirits and zombies. Warren raped a young slave woman and brought down a heap of trouble upon himself. There's been killing around, supposedly due to the slave rebellion, but LJ suspects it has more to do with Warren.When LJ has a night-time brush with a zombie, he almost becomes a believer. Except the evidence seems to point to someone trying to scare him. Then Warren is found dead in his room, apparently murdered and chomped on by zombies. LJ, ever vigilant, pursues the truth underneath all the fear, mysticism, and abuse.And what a truth it is! Revenge, retribution, justice. And snakes!-------------This story seems to take place sometime after LJ was on his Canadian adventure (and met the Native American Manoke), and before his time as governor of Jamaica in the third Outlander book, "Voyager". The confusing part of the story to me was when LJ met Mrs. Abernathy (aka Geillis Duncan) and was told the tale of how Mr. Abernathy died. I thought that in "Voyager", Mr. A was said to have died recently... and from a fever, although the doctor and others suspected that Mrs. A had killed him with poison - quite believable to both Claire and Jamie, knowing Geillis' past. But in this story, Mr. A was supposedly killed as part of the slave rebellion... but a rebellion that LJ realized was simply staged. In fact, LJ suspected Mrs. A of killing Mr. A and staging her slave rebellion... And I found it all quite confusing and not in keeping with what we learned in "Voyager".But it's a good story. As usual, LJ has his own way of finding things out about people, and of overlapping Jamie and the Outlander series by bumping into people that Claire and Jamie knew or would meet. We always get another side to the story.
