The Bookseller of Inverness: a gripping historical thriller from the double prizewinning author

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Culloden, and its aftermath are very much part of the Highland consciousness, and for me, to embark on a novel around them was to go where angels fear to tread. Her first book, 'The Redemption of Alexander Seaton' was short-listed for both the Saltire first book award and the CWA Historical Dagger; she has won the Historical Dagger twice - in 2015 for 'The Seeker' and in 2019 for 'Destroying Angel'. The Bookseller of Inverness is a gripping historical thriller set in Inverness in the wake of the 1746 battle of Culloden from twice CWA award-winning author S. This marvellous book is an awesome retelling about the hope and determination of another Jacobite rising within the Highland clans in Scotland who're supporting this cause of action. The Highlanders of the past, the ghosts of Culloden, had been real, flesh and blood characters with cares and intrigues and sorrows and laughter of their own.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Storytelling is brilliant, all characters are very believable and lifelike in their dealings with life and danger in general, and the atmosphere of hostility and hatred in and around Inverness are superbly described and pictured by the author. As regards the tale itself, the points of reference are the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745, aimed at restoring to the Stuart family the throne lost by the flight of James II in 1688.

Even with my relative boredom with the Jacobite era, I felt much more at home there than amongst Cromwell’s cronies! At the beginning of the book you'll find a wonderful map of Inverness and its surroundings in AD1752, followed by an Introductory Note and a Main Character List.

I was swept up by aliens, who took me for a lovely ride in their balloon-shaped ship over North America when suddenly we were blasted out of the sky somewhere over Alaska. Hector is the most enjoyable character – a kind of adventurer, good-looking and charming and with an eye for the ladies, who have an eye for him too! Excellent historical fiction dealing with Bonnie Prince Charlie's attempts to retake the throne in 1745 and its years-long aftermath. She paints a memorable and densely textured picture of post-Culloden Inverness and its surroundings. The story has all the elements - intrigue, twists and a touch of romance - and MacLean weaves fact and fiction together wonderfully to produce a highly enjoyable read.Her standalone Jacobite thriller, 'The Bookseller of Inverness' was voted Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2023. and it’s tough starting again with a new cast, but I have to judge this novel on its merits, of which there are many, especially the depth of characterisation, historical detail and Literature quality of prose. As I was getting the porpy’s box ready for his hibernation, I inadvertently fell in, and have just woken up. I have an entirely irrational aversion to novels with titles that follow ‘The [Profession] of [Place]’ formula after there were so many of them and the one I read wasn’t very good!

A fabulous read from this author , quite history laden but that was right up my street , and the storyline brought it alive for me . The murder coincides with the reappearance of Iain’s father Hector, a prominent Jacobite who fled Scotland years earlier but still hasn’t given up hope of seeing a Stuart king on the throne once more. There is also a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between castles and other Highland locations, showing the MacGillivrays always in peril and forever having close shaves with the redcoats.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Although he’s been an absent father for most of Iain’s life, they still have a strong bond of love, and Hector’s arrival stirs Iain back to life from the kind of dull stagnation he has felt since the defeat at Culloden.

But MacLean's Bookseller of Inverness has the right whiff of nostalgia, tragedy, and post war devastation. Iain MacGillivray himself is an engaging character with an interesting past; I enjoyed getting to know him and reading about the work he and his assistants put into collecting, restoring and selling – or lending – books to the people of Inverness. Howver, the next morning, when Iain comes to open the door, he finds the stranger dead, his throat cut and a sword lying beside the body. Many were put onto prison ships to be taken to England for trial and execution, or transported to indentured servitude in North America or the Caribbean. To this end, Hector MacGillivray plies back and forth between Scotland and France where the Jacobite King-in-waiting (Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie) resides in exile.I didn't enjoy this quite so much as MacLean's Civil War sequence, simply because I never fell in love with the Stewarts, even as a child. Out’ for Charles Edward Stuart, Prince or Young Pretender depending which side is naming him, Iain was badly wounded in the battle that brought the 1745 Jacobite rebellion to its bloody end, but he was luckier than the many hundreds of men who perished during the battle or in the reprisals that followed it. I enjoyed this one too, although I do wish more authors would focus on other periods of Scottish history apart from the Jacobites. The Prologue starts in London in 1716, quickly shifting to the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in 1746.