Imprint
- Quercus
- Quercus
Scotland, Historical mysteries, Historical fiction
A gripping historical thriller set in Inverness in the wake of the 1746 battle of Culloden. Perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Andrew Taylor.
A GRIPPING HISTORICAL THRILLER SET IN INVERNESS IN THE WAKE OF THE 1746 BATTLE OF CULLODEN.
'This slice of historical fiction takes you on a wild ride' THE TIMES
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.
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PRAISE FOR THE BOOKSELLER OF INVERNESS
'Fresh and intriguing . . . Her best yet' ANDREW TAYLOR
'Everything you could ask for from a historical thriller' ANTONIA HODGSON
'An intricately wrought, compulsively page-turning tale' CRAIG RUSSELL
'A first rate historical thriller' 5* READER REVIEW
'From the moment I began reading I was hooked' 5* READER REVIEW
'Hugely entertaining . . . fast paced, twisting and turning' 5* READER REVIEW
Praise for The Bookseller of Inverness
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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
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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
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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
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This is an expertly plotted crime thriller built around the complexities of Jacobite histories: Walter Scott meets tartan noir
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- The Times
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With its superbly realised scenes and spirited narration, this slice of historical fiction takes you on a wild ride
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- The Times Audio Book of the Week
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The fifth and final book in a gripping series of crime novels . . . the last outing does a credit to our 17th-century hero. I will miss Damian Seeker - The Times on The House of Lamentations
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MacLean guides her characters through the twists of an intriguing plot with great aplomb - The Sunday Times on The House of Lamentations
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MacLean has the first-rate historical novelist's gift for bringing to life any period she writes about - Sunday Express
S.G. MacLean
S.G. MacLean has a PhD in history from Aberdeen University. She is the author of two historical crime series - The Alexander Seaton series, set in seventeenth-century Scotland, and the Damian Seeker series, set in Oliver Cromwell's London, as well as the standalone Jacobite thriller, The Bookseller of Inverness. She has been shortlisted four times for the CWA Historical Dagger, winning it twice. S.G. MacLean lives in Conon Bridge, Scotland.
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