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

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The eighteenth-century manuscript records of the town gave a sense of immediacy and life to the people I was reading about. His father, whom he has not seen for years, a close confidante of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Teàrlach Eideard in Scots Gaelic) appears in Inverness. 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. 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. The characters -- Hector MacGillivray, his son Iain, the British 'redcoat' officers, the Grandes Dames and the other ladies -- are well drawn.

While reading the book, I did stop and brush up a bit on my Scottish history, the better to understand what was going on. He feigns death but then we meet him again several years later, now working as a bookseller of Inverness. I’d have given it five stars but I found it too complicated - but that may be my fault as an American ill-versed in Scottish history. The dog is much more conducive to this kind of thing than the children, although I have realised that a close reading of my books reveals the true hero of most of them to be a canine.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. There are several dour Scots among the townsfolk, but Iain’s true nature is revealed in his rebellious singing at the Assembly dance.

This is never ‘heavy’ though and gives the reader enough to understand without burdening them with the weight of history. 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. 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 used my new time machine to travel back to the Chicago World Fair in 1893, and then it broke down.

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. In this sense, it reminded me rather of DK Broster’s wonderful The Flight of the Heron trilogy, also seen from the Jacobite side but which also recognises that there were honourable people on the Hanoverian side. Edinburgh-based Charco Press, founded by Samuel McDowell and Carolina Orloff, aims to change the current literary scene to make room for a kind of literature that has been overlooked’ and ‘expose the UK reader to new and exciting voices. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I could have due to it feeling weighed-down with too much description. An uneasy peace reigns in the Highlands now, enforced by the red-coated soldiers of the ruling Hanoverian King.

My ancestors fought on the Jacobite side at Culloden, and I find the history both tragic and fascinating.The books had taken me to London, Oxford, York and Bruges, all places I had had very little knowledge of beforehand. The latter stages of the book take on aspects of the thriller, and again MacLean handles this very well. If you have ever wanted to go back in time to a dangerous yet captivating period of history, this is the book for you.