MacLean has the first-rate historical novelist's gift for bringing to life any period she writes about - Sunday Express 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. I really enjoyed this novel. My ancestors fought on the Jacobite side at Culloden, and I find the history both tragic and fascinating. If you have any interest in this period of history, then I recommend this novel. It is the first of Ms MacLean’s novels I have read: I’ll be adding her others to my reading list. There are several other engaging characters including Ishbel MacLeod, who had recently returned from indenture as a servant in America, accompanied by a charming rascal, young Tormod, a half-caste boy she cares for. Others in the town are a mixture of Hanoverian supporters of King George and former Jacobites. The presence of many English soldiers is unnerving, some like Major Thornlie, polite and correct in his manner and others like Captain Dunne violent and uncouth.

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. With its superbly realised scenes and spirited narration, this slice of historical fiction takes you on a wild ride 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

Shona will find out on Friday whether the book has been shortlisted for the awards. And if she gets through, July 6 is the date the winners find out when the award ceremony is held in London. Needless to say, Shona has been pounding the pavements of Cromarty in pursuit of her characters, atmosphere and inspiration.

MacLean guides her characters through the twists of an intriguing plot with great aplomb - The Sunday Times on The House of Lamentations 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….. 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 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.The blurb paints the novel as a murder mystery, but the narrative has greater ambitions. At its heart is the agonising question of why the Jacobite cause, so passionately embraced, has not prevailed, and why the Highlands are still suffering the savagery of English redcoats. 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. 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.

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. Not gifted with his father’s resilience, Iain’s persisting trauma in the wake of the Jacobites’ defeat at Culloden is constantly triggered as the pair work together to discover the identity of both a murderer and the traitors he is targeting. 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, 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. 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.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.

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”. 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.I won a bottle of Laphroaig in a game during the quiz interval – then had another message to say the book had also been longlisted for the Historical Dagger! 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.