Although I’m rather tired of the Scottish obsession with the Jacobites, MacLean handles the historical aspects excellently, weaving real history seamlessly into her fictional plot. 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. The school of which my husband is headteacher faces directly across to the house in which Charles Edward Stuart spent the night before the battle, and the Duke of Cumberland the night after. In a town where the spirit of Jacobite rebellion is far from dead, where allegience to the Stuart cause often comes before family, Ian soon finds himself in danger and mired in a web of deceit, death and intrigue.

A gripping historical thriller set in Inverness in the wake of the 1746 battle of Culloden from twice CWA award-winning author S. Delivers everything you could possibly want from a historical crime novel , and then gives you a bit more on top.

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. I asked for historical (crime) fiction recommendations on Twitter on Friday and this title popped up quite a bit. MacLean has a PhD in history from Aberdeen University, specializing in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Scottish history.

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. The first and third books in the series, The Seeker and Destroying Angel , have won the CWA Historical Dagger and the second and fourth, The Black Friar and The House of Lamentations were longlisted for the same award. The loss of family, friends, homes, and livelihoods is devastating, and even thirty years later people are still crushed by everything that has happened. I’d seen it was being published last August and added it to my TBR list, so I’m glad you enjoyed it. 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 .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 everything you could ask for from a historical thriller - gripping, immersive and filled with intriguing characters.