My experience of Shona MacLean’s work has so far been limited to her historical thriller, The Bookseller of Inverness, set in Scotland in the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite Rising (and published under the name SG MacLean). Her newest novel, The Cromarty Library Circle, is very different – the only similarity is that it’s also set in Scotland.
Cromarty is a town in the Scottish Highlands, situated at the tip of the Black Isle. The story takes place in 1831, when a group of people get together to form a circulating library and discuss which books they should order for it. They’re a select group, referred to by the town clockmaker (who has not been invited, despite being better read than they are) as ‘the great and the good’. They include Sir William and Charlotte Mackenzie, the local laird and his wife; her best friend, Rachel who is married to the minister, Alasdair Mackay; the previous minister, Micah Fraser, now retired; the hotel keeper Mrs Cameron and her son Ludovic, who works in a bank; two spinster sisters, the Misses Rose; a newly arrived schoolteacher, John Learmonth; an antiquarian, Isaac Fordyce, and the owner of a rope factory, Willie Hossack.
If you feel overwhelmed by this list, I can tell you that there are even more characters – those outside of the library circle – who also play a part in the story. Maybe it would have been better if I’d read this book in physical form and could easily turn back to the character list at the beginning, but I read it on my Kindle and struggled to keep track of who was who. It didn’t help that we switch from one perspective to another every few pages, rather than being given time to get to know one character before meeting another. Once I eventually managed to settle into the book and keep the many residents of Cromarty straight in my head, though, I found a lot to interest me.
In terms of plot, not much actually happens in the first half of the book. MacLean takes her time setting the scene and introducing the characters, focusing on all the gossip, snobbery, rivalries and minor scandals that go along with being part of a small 19th century community with a clearly defined social structure. I was strongly reminded of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. The drama is saved for later in the book, when the troubled marriage between Sir William and Charlotte Mackenzie reaches breaking point, the secret past of schoolmaster John Learmonth is revealed, and the people of Cromarty have finally had enough of the arrogant, bullying attitude of the ropemaker’s son, Farquhar Hossack. I was more invested in the story by this point, so I think, for me, it was worth persevering through the slow, confusing beginning.
The lives of the characters play out against the backdrop of wider political and social changes affecting Scotland and the world as a whole. One of these issues is the debate around the abolition of slavery; this is of particular significance to our story because Sir William owns a plantation in the Caribbean and another character, Hester, is a formerly enslaved woman from Demerara who now works as a servant at the Camerons’ hotel. There’s also a lot of discussion in Cromarty of the Reform Act about to be passed in parliament which will extend the right to vote (although still not to women or most working class men). Then there’s the cholera epidemic gradually moving closer and closer to Cromarty and we even hear about the recent Polish uprising against Russia through the character of Stanislas, the clockmaker’s apprentice. The novel touches on so many different things that I felt the library circle storyline got a bit lost in the background, although it serves its purpose of bringing the central group of characters together now and then.
I had a mixture of feelings about this book, then, but in the end I enjoyed getting to know the people of Cromarty. I’ll look out for Shona MacLean’s next book, but I still have one of her earlier ones, The Redemption of Alexander Seaton, waiting to be read.
Thanks to Quercus Books for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
She Reads Novels 
I’ve got this on order at the library. Hopefully reading a physical copy will help with keeping the characters straight in my head though
I hope you enjoy it. I think I would probably have got on better with a physical copy!
I quite like the sound of this but it seems a physical copy might be helpful!
Yes, I think so!
This was one of my favourite books so far this year. I do like slow burners which set a scene and let you get to know the characters, rather than plunge you straight into frenetic action. I don’t usually read on Kindle, so I had the cast of characters to refer to, and I didn’t have a problem with differentiating them. I found it immersive and very satisfying.
I read a mixture of Kindle and physical books and I find that the biggest problem I have with ebooks is the inability to easily move backwards and forwards to refer to character lists, maps, notes etc. I’m glad you enjoyed this one. I did find it very immersive as well once I got past my initial problems with it.
Never did I think I’d run across a second book that includes the owner of a rope factory!! Good review. In case you are curious, the other book is the super “…and the Ladies of the Club” by Helen Hooven Santmyer [huge but worth it]
Yes, rope factory owners aren’t exactly very common in fiction! I haven’t read “…and the Ladies of the Club” but I’ve been meaning to read it for years.
Wow that’s definitely a lengthy cast list and with how frequently it changes perspective I can see how you’d feel a bit lost initially. Im glad it won you over in the end though and it sounds like it has a surprising amount going on with so many historical ties.
Yes, I loved the insight we get into 19th century Scotland and all the historical events that were affecting people’s lives at the time. I did enjoy the book once I got into it.
I liked The Bookseller of Inverness. It’s hard to tell about this one.
The two books are completely different but I think I preferred The Bookseller of Inverness.
That’s good to know.
I’ve been looking forward to this! I hope to find a copy soon.
I hope you like it!
You did better than me – I gave up halfway through. I’ve enjoyed others of her books much more. This one felt really unfocused, although her historical research is always good.
I can definitely understand why you gave up. I thought it improved in the middle, but I agree that it needed more focus, particularly in the first half.
It can be a struggle to keep everyone straight when there are so many characters in a book…glad there’s a character list at the beginning. The book angle in this one is intriguing, but it sounds like it’s not the main focus with all the other historical and political things going on. Probably not the book for me for that reason.
Yes, I had expected the library angle to be stronger but it seemed to get pushed into the background as there was so much else happening.