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It was really lovely. At Cromarty on the second night, we were just getting up from dinner to head for a pub quiz when I got a text message from my agent to say this book had been longlisted for the Gold Dagger! She was easy to write,” Shona said, “and a good foil for Lady Anne, as I wanted a more satisfying personal life for her.” The use of Gaelic in conversation and in names was an authentic touch as it would have been (and still is) in common usage in the Highlands and indeed is on the rise across Scotland - a current learner right here. Very much enjoyed the character of Donald Mòr the grumpy book binder who speaks almost exclusively in Gaelic and has time for nobody but a soft spot for the young Tormod. MacLean has the first-rate historical novelist's gift for bringing to life any period she writes about - Sunday Express
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. She takes the Jacobite side, as is de rigueur in modern Scotland – a bit like the Spanish Civil War, this period of history has been written mostly by the losers, and we all now like to pretend we’d have been Jacobites for the romance of it, however ahistorical that might be. But MacLean shows that there were good people and bad on both sides of the divide, and that honour wasn’t the sole preserve of the Jacobites. 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. This is not, however, as romanticised as The Flight of the Heron – MacLean’s characters ring truer and this makes the book feel more modern, not in an anachronistic sense but in that they think and act as normal flawed humans, rather than as the impossibly virtuous Highlanders of Broster’s creation. Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. MacLean guides her characters through the twists of an intriguing plot with great aplomb - The Sunday Times on The House of Lamentations Hector’s flamboyant delivery of himself into English hands, while repaying a debt of honour, could easily be seen as symbolic of some of the Prince’s more quixotic decisions and goes some way, perhaps, to explaining why, despite their passionate convictions, the Stuarts could not prevail against the ruthless pragmatism of the English state. Thirty-six years later, six years after the Jacobites’ final, failed rebellion of 1745, Iain MacGillivray is a lost soul. He gets up each morning, dresses and goes to his bookshop where he endures another day of a life he no longer finds meaningful.I sketched out a short story, and left it at that. I’d known the story of the Jacobites for as long as I could remember. Born in Inverness and brought up in the Highlands, it was impossible not to know of the failed rising of Charles Edward Stuart – Bonnie Prince Charlie – which had aimed at restoring his family to the British throne. The events of the aftermath of that failure still resonate today – my husband is even headteacher of Culloden Academy, which faces directly across to Culloden House, in which the prince spent the night before the battle and the victorious Duke of Cumberland the night after. And yet, such is the strength of his father’s belief in the cause that Iain finds himself hoping against hope that all may not be lost.
Most of the characters in the book are fictional, although many of them, as I discovered from the author’s note, are based on the lives and experiences of real people. One historical figure who plays an important part in the story without actually appearing in it is Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat – known as the ‘Old Fox’ – who readers of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series will remember as Jamie Fraser’s grandfather. Iain MacGillivray himself is an engaging character with an interesting past; I enjoyed getting to know him and reading about the work he and his assistants put into collecting, restoring and selling – or lending – books to the people of Inverness. Bullough is the author of four novels and Sarn Helen, which was long-listed for the 2023 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation, is his first work of non-fiction. He commented: “ Sarn Helen is a book of the ancient Welsh past, and of Wales as it is today, but above all it is a book about how we shape our future, given the climate and nature emergency. The mystery is centreed around a missing book of names, which is part of a greater collection. This book seems to hold the key as to why so many people are being killed. Now THAT is what you call a powerful read. And, through the web of allegiances the family owes to other supporters of the Stuart cause, we swiftly develop an empathy with the sacrifices, the commitment, and the almost religious devotion of three generations of Jacobites to their King and Prince.And it turns out there was a French consul in Cromarty, something which surprised me, but makes sense as Cromarty was a key embarkation point for people going to North America. 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. 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.
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 The Highland Archive Centre, also based in Inverness, had re-opened to the public early on, and it was there that I read the manuscript letter book of Baillie John Steuart, a prominent C18th Inverness merchant with a vast family who seemed had settled in every far-flung part of the globe. The Bailie’s newsy, pleading letters to family and friends are revelatory of the lives of townspeople at the time, but the longer I read, the more convinced I became that he – a known Jacobite – was using his letters to make clandestine plans with fellow-Jacobites at home and abroad. Setting the letters against subsequently-known historical events, it seemed to me that his mundane family letters might well be a coded front for something else entirely. I had some fun making the Bailie a character in my book. The awards specifically champion books by Scottish and Welsh authors, or titles that have strong Scottish or Welsh settings. Next Tuesday (May16), Shona will be HighlandLIT's guest at the Glen Mhor Hotel, Ness Bank, Inverness – talking about her career, latest book and researching and writing historical fiction – in the free event postponed by bad weather in January. It will be in person and livestreamed on Zoom. From 6-7pm there will be socialising at the in-person event, then Shona will talk from 7-9pm.
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But ultimately, it’s the characters who make the book sing. The way in which their lives are changed forever by the murderous events at the heart of the plot draws the reader into their world and makes latter-day Jacobites of us. Even though history tells us that there were no more rebellions after 1745, we will the Elibank plot to be successful and the Highlanders freed from the oppression of the Hanoverians. Hector MacGillivray is a charismatic charmer, and as we watch him raise flagging spirits and revive the hopes of men who had thought their cause lost, it’s tempting to see him as SG MacLean’s proxy for Bonnie Prince Charlie, a constant ‘off camera’ presence. It is also our best-selling Scottish Book of The Month ever. It is without a doubt that an author of Shona’s calibre rightly deserves to be the winner of The Waterstones Scottish Book of The Year. I cannot wait for us to get this novel both into the hands of customers who have read her earlier books and those to whom she is a new voice as there is something in this book for everyone”. I get a lot of questions about her from them. And other people want to read more about the dog in the book. It surprises me what people like.” Free to pursue new ideas As the story unfolds , the book explains the various intrigues and connections surrounding the Jacobite cause across the years. This is never ‘heavy’ though and gives the reader enough to understand without burdening them with the weight of history.
The initial plot itself is probably the weakest part of the book, although it’s just about strong enough to carry it. It soon becomes clear that someone is seeking revenge against people who betrayed the Jacobite cause in the earlier rising, in 1715. Although we follow Hector’s and Iain’s investigations into this aspect, much is withheld from the reader, and indeed Hector withholds important information from Iain till late in the story. Oddly, despite this, I had a good idea of who both the avenger and the last victim were going to be, and I put this down to the fact that there weren’t enough credible possibilities. However, there’s a secondary plot which grows in importance as the book wears on, and this is much more successful, involving a possible new uprising and the fear that a traitor is still at work. 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. The novel begins with a prologue in which prisoners taken after the unsuccessful Jacobite rising in 1715 are plotting escape. The beautiful and feisty Lady Anne has proved a great draw for ‘gents of a certain age’, as Shona puts it. There’s something afoot you see. Talk about atmosphere and compelling foreshadowing. I knew something was up – someone is lurking in his bookshop and he confronts Iain, saying he will not leave until he’s found it. It’;s only when the shop shuts that he eventually leaves. 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. The sword wuth the emblem of the Jacobites on it…..I enjoyed reading descriptions of the surrounding countryside, where I have family connections, and there is an increasing air of tension as old resentments surface and revenge is enacted. There are two questions to be answered. Who is the murderer, and can Iain find the other traitors first? Certainly, he realises he can no longer leave the past behind and he finally gains real understanding of his charismatic father, Hector. A Major G.G. Munro of Poyntzfield was the instigator of the reading club, and here’s an example of how it worked, with the name of the book in the middle: gripping historical thriller set in Inverness in the wake of the 1746 battle of Culloden from twice CWA award-winning author S. G. MacLean. Perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Andrew Taylor. She said: “I went to an Open Gardens Day there and found long gardens going uphill behind those huge mansion houses.
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