The Cromarty Library Circle
Feb 2026 · Hachette UK
Ebook
448
Pages
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Eligible
info
infoThis book will become available on February 26, 2026. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
From the bestselling author of The Bookseller of Inverness comes a dazzling historical novel set in 19th century Scotland
1831, Cromarty, a declining Scottish port town built on fishing, hemp and the plantations of the Caribbean.
A group of leading townspeople are brought together by a newly founded circulating library. From the fragile young wife of the laird to the town's minister whose marriage is plagued by malicious rumours, and the schoolmaster with a dark secret to hide, they are united by their love of books, despite their differences.
Against the background of mass emigrations, an encroaching cholera epidemic, political unrest and the campaign to abolish chattel slavery in the British Caribbean, the people of Cromarty must negotiate their changing world and each other, over the course of this tumultuous year.
Praise for Shona MacLean
'MacLean can make any period sing with life' Antonia Hodgson
'An excellent work of historical fiction' Literary Review
'A wonderful storyteller' The Times
'Well-researched and fascinating' Guardian
1831, Cromarty, a declining Scottish port town built on fishing, hemp and the plantations of the Caribbean.
A group of leading townspeople are brought together by a newly founded circulating library. From the fragile young wife of the laird to the town's minister whose marriage is plagued by malicious rumours, and the schoolmaster with a dark secret to hide, they are united by their love of books, despite their differences.
Against the background of mass emigrations, an encroaching cholera epidemic, political unrest and the campaign to abolish chattel slavery in the British Caribbean, the people of Cromarty must negotiate their changing world and each other, over the course of this tumultuous year.
Praise for Shona MacLean
'MacLean can make any period sing with life' Antonia Hodgson
'An excellent work of historical fiction' Literary Review
'A wonderful storyteller' The Times
'Well-researched and fascinating' Guardian
About the author
Shona MacLean has a PhD in history from Aberdeen University. Under the name S. G. MacLean 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. She has been shortlisted four times for the CWA Historical Dagger, winning it twice. Shona lives in Conon Bridge, Scotland.
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