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All of S. G. MacLean’s Books!
Who is S. G. MacLean?
Shona G. MacLean is a Scottish author with a degree in History from the University of Aberdeen who writes historical mysteries.
MacLean published her first book, The Redemption of Alexander Seaton, in 2008. It was the first novel in the Alexander Seaton Series, a mystery series in the vein of Shardlake or Cadfael. She also writes The Damian Seeker Series about a London detective in the 1650s.
S. G. MacLean is the niece of best-selling author Alistair MacLean.
S. G. MacLean Books in Order:
The Alexander Seaton Series in Order
- The Redemption of Alexander Seaton (2008) – Banff, Scotland in the 1620s. A young man walks unsteadily through the streets. Is he just drunk or is there something more sinister happening? When he collapses in front of two sisters on that dark, wet night, the women guess that he’s been poisoned. His body is discovered in the house of Alexander Seaton – a fallen minister, the discovery of whose clandestine love affair has left him disgraced. Seaton sets out to find answers, embarking on a journey not only through the darkest part of other men’s souls, but also his own.
- A Game of Sorrows (2010) – It is 1628, Charles 1 is on the throne, and the British Crown is finally taking control of Ulster. Returning to his rooms one night, Alexander Seaton is shocked to find a stranger standing there – a man who could be his double. His name is Sean O’Neill, and he carries a plea for help from Maeve O’Neill, the forbidding matriarch of Alexander’s mother’s family in Ireland. All those who bear their blood have been placed under a poet’s curse: one by one they are going to die. Only Alexander is immune, his O’Neill heritage a secret from all but his closest family. Alexander travels to Ulster, to find himself at the heart of a family divided by secrets and bitter resentments.
- Crucible of Secrets (2011) – Aberdeen, 1631. University librarian Robert Sim takes receipt of a gift of books recently arrived from overseas, mysterious works on alchemy and hermetics – the pursuit of ancient knowledge. By nightfall, he has been brutally murdered. His colleague and good friend Alexander Seaton is left with the task of hunting for clues as to his killer’s motive, as well as locating the missing books. What did Sim discover in the package, and what makes these books so dangerous?
- The Devil’s Recruit (2013) – Aberdeen, 1635. A girl lies dead in a frozen garden. A young man goes missing after a drunken brawl and a sinister cloaked figure watches from the shadows. The missing student, son of a Highland chief, is one of Alexander Seaton’s pupils. When the young man’s companion turns up bruised and bloodied, suspicion mounts that he has murdered his friend. But Alexander is convinced that there’s another explanation.
The Damian Seeker Series in Order
- The Seeker (2015) – London, 1654. Oliver Cromwell is at the height of his power and has declared himself Lord Protector. Yet he has many enemies, at home and abroad. No one knows where Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector, comes from. All that is known of him for certain is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell, and that nothing can be long hidden from him. John Winter, hero of Cromwell’s all-powerful army, is dead, and the lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, is found standing over the bleeding body, clutching a knife. Yet despite the damning evidence, Seeker is not convinced of Ellingworth’s guilt. He will stop at nothing to bring the killer to justice: and Seeker knows better than any man where to search.
- The Black Friar (2016) – London, 1655, and Cromwell’s regime is under threat from all sides. In the east end of London, a group of religious fanatics plots rebellion. In the midst of all this, a stonemason uncovers a perfectly preserved body dressed in the robes of a Dominican friar, bricked up in a wall in the crumbling Black Friars. Ill-informed rumors and speculation abound, but Seeker instantly recognizes the dead man. What he must discover is why he met such a hideous end, and what his connection was to the children who have started to disappear from around the city.
- Destroying Angel (2018) – Captain Damian Seeker has gone north. Charged with preparing the way for the rule of the major-generals, he is now under the command of Colonel Robert Lilburne at York. But when Lilburne orders him to a small village on the North York moors with details of the stringent new anti-Royalist laws, Seeker finds that what should be a routine visit will reveal a plot to rival anything in scheming London.
- The Bear Pit (2019) – London, 1656. Captain Damian Seeker is preoccupied by the horrifying discovery in an illegal gambling den of the body of a man ravaged by what is unmistakably a bear. Yet the bears used for baiting were all shot when the sport was banned by Cromwell. So where did this fearsome creature come from, and why would someone use it for murder?
- The House of Lamentations (2020) – Summer, 1658, and the Republic may finally be safe: the combined Stuart and Spanish forces have been heavily defeated by the English and French armies on the coast of Flanders, and the King’s cause appears finished. Yet one final, desperate throw of the dice is planned. And who can stop them if not Captain Damian Seeker?
Other books by S. G. MacLean in order of Publication
- The Bookseller of Inverness (2022) – After Culloden, Iain MacGillivray was left for dead on Drumossie Moor. Wounded, his face brutally slashed, he survived only by pretending to be dead as the Redcoats patrolled the corpses of his Jacobite comrades. Six years later, Iain lives a quiet life, working as a bookseller in Inverness. One day, he notices a stranger lurking in the upper gallery of his shop, poring over his collection. But the man refuses to say what he’s searching for. The next morning Iain opens up shop and finds the stranger dead, his throat cut, and the murder weapon laid out in front of him – a sword with a white cockade on its hilt, the emblem of the Jacobites. Iain soon finds himself embroiled in a web of deceit and a series of old scores to be settled in the ashes of war.
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