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

Product Information

The books had taken me to London, Oxford, York and Bruges, all places I had had very little knowledge of beforehand.

It’s such a talent and I’ve no idea how she does it but has certainly done it again for Bookseller of Inverness. Her standalone Jacobite thriller, 'The Bookseller of Inverness' was voted Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2023. I wonder if closer to the time of these events of Scottish history more books were written featuring characters who were on the winning side.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. It seems to be the same phenomenon as has happened around the Tudors – one author has fabulous success writing about the subject, and everyone else climbs on the bandwagon and does it to death. Set in Inverness and the surrounding countryside in 1752, it tells the story of the remnants of the Jacobite cause.

The loss of family, friends, homes, and livelihoods is devastating, and even thirty years later people are still crushed by everything that has happened. But I will try not to do it again, though disappearing for a while seems to be becoming a (bad) habit! 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. Set in the wake of the 1746 battle of Culloden, Iain MacGillivray was left for dead – years later, he lives a quiet lift as a bookseller in Inverness. The way the Scots were treated after the 45 was shocking…it will certainly encourage me to read more about it!If you have ever wanted to go back in time to a dangerous yet captivating period of history, this is the book for you. Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. And I think I wanted more of the bookseller and less of the conspiracy which is idiotic of me, because that's another book.

There are younger women too – Julia, a young lady of twenty-seven, whose mother is frantic to marry her off before she is irrevocably classed as a spinster; and Ishbel, one of the many Highlanders who were forcibly transported to America and the West Indies following the failed rebellion to serve as indentured servants – slaves, essentially, but with the possibility of freedom after serving for a period of years. Das Buch hätte sehr viel Potenzial, aber es war mir zu abgehackt, zu viele Sprünge, zu viele Dinge, die ich nicht verstand (ein Glossar wäre hilfreich gewesen), die Charaktere waren nicht wirklich sympatisch, die Reaktionen nicht logisch. As I wrote the book, I could not shake off the consciousness of my father’s generation of native Highlanders whose lives had been blighted by having to go through a war of their own. Even with my relative boredom with the Jacobite era, I felt much more at home there than amongst Cromwell’s cronies!

The latter stages of the book take on aspects of the thriller, and again MacLean handles this very well.

As the story unfolds , the book explains the various intrigues and connections surrounding the Jacobite cause across the years. The strength of the book is in the characterisation, especially of Iain but of all the other main characters too, and in the portrayal of the town and the historical setting.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 is a difficult and complex period of British history and yet it evoked the post Culloden Inverness and its inhabitants so clearly that I became totally engrossed.