LoveReading Says
This historical thriller perfectly blends action with heart and mind ensuring an absolutely stunning read. Six years after the Battle of Culloden, left with wounds both seen and hidden, Iain works as a bookseller in Inverness. His world explodes into schemes, conspiracy and revenge when a stranger is found murdered in his shop. I first met S. G. Maclean’s writing in the award-winning and truly captivating Captain Damian Seeker novels (do start with The Seeker). She writes with an evocative pen, enabling the reader to sink into the time and place with ease. She also creates characters with an incredible sense of purpose, bringing them to vivid life. So I was thrilled to read The Bookseller of Inverness set in 1752 covering the later attempts to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. The Introductory Note immerses you in time before you start to read, and the Author’s Note confirms the great deal of meticulous research that has obviously taken place. There is an incredible sense of place and time here, the descriptions and detailing ensured my imagination sparked into being. The combination of fact and fiction is pitch-perfect and left me wanting to know more about the Jacobites. While wonderfully action-packed, the wounds of war create a deliberate thoughtfulness to this read. The characters are beautifully realised, with the women sitting with as much strength of character as the men. This just had to be chosen as both a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Pick of the Month. The Bookseller of Inverness is a convincing blast of historical fiction, full of intrigue, action, and fabulous storytelling.
Liz Robinson
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The Bookseller of Inverness Synopsis
After Culloden, Iain MacGillivray was left for dead on Drummossie Moor. Wounded, his face brutally slashed, he survived only by pretending to be dead as the Redcoats patrolled the corpses of his Jacobite comrades.
Six years later, with the clan chiefs routed and the Highlands subsumed into the British state, Iain lives a quiet life, working as a bookseller in Inverness. One day, after helping several of his regular customers, he notices a stranger lurking in the upper gallery of his shop, poring over his collection. But the man refuses to say what he's searching for and only leaves when Iain closes for the night.
The next morning Iain opens up shop and finds the stranger dead, his throat cut, and the murder weapon laid out in front of him - a sword with a white cockade on its hilt, the emblem of the Jacobites. With no sign of the killer, Iain wonders whether the stranger discovered what he was looking for - and whether he paid for it with his life. He soon finds himself embroiled in a web of deceit and a series of old scores to be settled in the ashes of war.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781529414219 |
| Publication date: |
2nd March 2023 |
| Author: |
S. G. MacLean |
| Publisher: |
Quercus Publishing |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
397 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Historical Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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S. G. MacLean Press Reviews
Delivers everything you could possibly want from a historical crime novel, and then gives you a bit more on top. The Jacobites are a perennially fascinating subject, the ultimate forlorn hope of history, and MacLean provides a fresh and intriguing slant on it, clearly based on rock-solid research. She paints a memorable and densely textured picture of post-Culloden Inverness and its surroundings. She's on home ground here, and it shows. Her best yet - Andrew Taylor
The Bookseller of Inverness is everything you could ask for from a historical thriller - gripping, immersive and filled with intriguing characters. S.G. MacLean can make any period sing with life. If you've not read her before, this is the perfect place to start - Antonia Hodgson
S. G. MacLean just goes from strength to strength. The Bookseller of Inverness is an intricately wrought, compulsively page-turning tale of intrigue set in a post-Rebellion Scotland so perfectly conjured and so convincing that you can smell the heather and taste the blood - Craig Russell
Well-written and well-plotted, MacLean is gifted with a writing style that blends literary storytelling with a fast-paced mystery - Scottish Field
This is an expertly plotted crime thriller built around the complexities of Jacobite histories: Walter Scott meets tartan noir - The Times
With its superbly realised scenes and spirited narration, this slice of historical fiction takes you on a wild ride - The Times Audio Book of the Week
An excellent work of historical fiction: rooted in fact ... with the imagined characters and situations seamlessly stitched into recorded reality - Literary Review
A gripping and thought-provoking novel. Highly recommended - Historical Novel Review
A twisting, absorbing plot - Sunday Times
A triumphant return to Scotland for S. G. MacLean - Historia
About S. G. MacLean
S. G. MacLean has a PhD in history from Aberdeen University, specializing in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Scottish history. She lives in Conon Bridge, Scotland with her husband and four children. The Devil's Recruit, her fourth novel, follows three highly acclaimed historical thrillers, The Redemption of Alexander Seaton, A Game of Sorrows and Crucible.
More About S. G. MacLean
