S. G. MacLean

This is set in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising in 1745. Iain, the titular bookseller, was involved and his face ruined in the experience as well as his confidence and ease of manner. He tries to carry on and keep his head down until there's a murder in his bookshop of a man intent of browsing the books of the late Lord Lovatt. His missing (believed dead) father turns up shortly after and they go after the Book of Forbidden Names, a book with a hidden code revealing traitors to the cause. The deaths multiply as someone is solving the code in the second copy.
Once past the first 2 chapters, the book is set in a single timeline. However there is far too much referring back to the risings in 15 & 45 and it is all too complicated. There are too many characters introduced for limited reason and there is too much going on. The attempt at a romance is tacked on like an afterthought. The plot veer suddenly from one chase to another and some of the actions described are nonsensical. The author has an annoying habit of the short punchy cliff hanger of a sentence at the end of a chapter. It's OK once or twice but was most definitely overused here.
There has clearly been a lot of research done and there's a lot of historical fact and flavour in here, but it is trying to do too much and could have done with being put on a diet.… (more)

Bookseller opens with an oddly inviting map, then moves into the survival, like Jamie in OUTLANDER,
of Iain MacGillivray hidden on Drummoissie Moor at Culloden.

Years later, following prison and many British atrocities, a stranger is found dead in his bookshop with the emblem of the Jacobites on the fatal hilt.

Not coincidentally, his Father, Hector, who everyone believed was dead, secretly enters Inverness and upends Iain's careful life.

Compelling - if often with too many conflicting characters and backstories - plot delivers, then falters,when Hector decides to risk
the lives of all his Jacobite friends and his son
by not leaving town as predicted and instead barging into an Assembly dance to fulfill an old promise.

This easily could have been handled with his son as replacement, but, no, his selfish pride overtakes him
and nearly destroys his mission to land Prince Charlie.

Another plot twist that doesn't quite land is Iain taking off toward the alleged Pickle without bothering to check the source
of the Penny Message. Disappointing. Slightly balanced by "...definitely be easier."… (more)