Iain McGillivray fought as a young man at Culloden, surviving only by playing dead on Drumossie Moor as his friends and family were cut down around him. Six years later, while working as a bookseller in Inverness, he discovers a man murdered in his shop. More shocking than the crime itself is the Jacobite emblem on the weapon and what it implies. As bodies begin to pile up, Iain finds himself at the center of a deadly mystery but in the aftermath of Culloden, with so many lingering grudges, the killer could be anyone.

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I wasn’t especially blown away by the plot, though it was well executed, and the culprit’s identity kept me guessing until the end. I’m simply not a huge fan of murder mysteries and often struggle to get invested in them. That said, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book despite its whodunnit premise not being my usual cup of tea.

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Set in the aftermath of Culloden, S.G. Maclean's The Bookseller of Inverness has a vivid sense of time and place. Anyone remotely familiar with Inverness will easily be able to picture the unfolding events, thanks to Maclean’s detailed and evocative writing. She masterfully conjures the city’s grimy wonders while immersing the reader in its tension, political intrigue, hidden loyalties, and festering grudges. Her depiction of life under the redcoats is both compelling and unsettling.

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For me, this book felt special not just because I love Leaky’s, the Inverness bookshop where Maclean first conceived the story, but also because of my personal connection to the setting. My ancestors (Frasers, Camerons, and Shaws) lived in and around Inverness after Culloden and must have been deeply affected by both the battle’s horrors and the brutal government reprisals that followed.

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