‘The Bookseller of Inverness’ by S.G.Maclean

Published by Quercus,
4 August 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-52941-417-2 (HB)

1752, six years after Culloden, and former Jacobite Iain MacGillivray leads a quiet life, keeping his bookshop – until a stranger is murdered in his shop one night. What book was he searching for ... and what secrets did it hold?

History is taught differently in different countries ... I was astonished to discover that my English husband had never learned about Culloden in school. It was the last battle on British soil, followed by atrocities towards the wounded, hanging or jail and transportation for the captured, and savage repression and widespread slaughter of civilians across the Highlands afterwards. That defeat and its aftermath seared itself across the Scottish psyche, and Maclean has captured this in her setting and characters.

The setting is Inverness, a garrison town with the Government forces in charge, consolidating their victory by building roads and forts across the Highlands. The bookseller, Iain, was wounded at Culloden, captured and transported. He wants now to keep his head down, but still loathes the arrogant redcoat officers, and knows that he would still rise again for the Prince if he was asked to. His grandmother is one of four Grandes Dames, widows of men killed in the first rising in 1715, and defiantly Jacobite within doors. Iain’s long-gone father Hector is abroad with the Prince – until he suddenly appears in Inverness with a vital mission. The plot is tightly controlled, the action fast-moving and the characters totally believable, both psychologically and as people from two centuries ago. The description of the setting, both in place and time, was vividly done – I could see the bookshop, the streets, Iain’s grandmother’s parlour, the wonderful scenes in the candle-lit ballroom – and it made me want to go to Inverness to see the things Maclean mentions, like the bullet holes in the church wall, where Jacobite prisoners were shot. Fact and fiction were deftly woven together, and the author’s notes at the end explains some of the factual basis, as well as giving a bibliography.

I knew by the end of the first page that I was going to enjoy this book, and oh, I did – so much that I went straight to Abe books for the first of her Andrew Seton historical series. If you like a crime novel that has fascinating, rounded characters, a cleverly-worked plot, a touch of romance and a real sense of period, then do read The Bookseller of Inverness.
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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor

Shona (S G) MacLean was born in 1968 in Inverness and grew up in the Scottish Highlands where her parents were hoteliers. She is the niece of world-famous thriller writer Alistair MacLean. She obtained an MA and PH.D. in History from Aberdeen University. She began to write fiction while bringing up her four children (and Labrador) on the Banffshire coast. She has now returned to live in the Highlands, where her husband is a head teacher.

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh, and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.  

Click on the title to read a review of her recent book
A Shetland Winter Mystery

www.marsalitaylor.co.uk