A Game of Sorrows

Second historical thriller in the Alexander Seaton series sweeps the hero back to his roots in Ulster, and a family living under a curse and riven with long-held secrets

Aberdeen, 1628.

Alexander Seaton's happily settled life as a university teacher is shattered by the arrival in town of a stranger who looks like his twin and who carries a plea for help from Alexander's dead mother's family in Ireland. The family has been placed under a poet's curse, threatening death to various members. Elements of the curse have already begun to play out.

Reluctantly answering the call, Seaton travels to Ulster, to find himself among a family torn apart by secrets and deep resentments.

As he seeks out the author of the curse, he becomes deeply entangled in a conflict that involves fugitive priests, displaced poets, rebellious plotters and agents of the king. Confronted by murder within his family, he finds the lines between superstition and faith, duty and loyalty are becoming increasingly blurred, while his Scottish homeland grows ever more remote.

“'A fine, rich, beautiful historical thriller - literate, engaging and moving' Manda Scott.-- Manda Scott”

Pacy and literate. Such is the quality of the recreation, not only of the reeking ebb and flow of everyday life but also of the period mindset that it's easy to believe Satan is walking abroad ... accomplished and thought-provoking - Guardian

Richly laden with historical detail but MacLean wears her scholarship lightly. Flashes of humour ensure that the sympathy remains with Seaton, an entertaining narrator. An absorbing foray into Scottish history - Times Literary Supplement

The vivid evocation of a particular time and place by an author whose uncle was Alistair MacLean and who is herself a historian specialising in 16th and 17th century Scotland. She has used her gifts to the full to create a truly memorable and exciting read - Historical Novels Review

S.G. MacLean has a PhD in history from Aberdeen University. 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. S.G. MacLean lives in Conon Bridge, Scotland.

Second historical thriller in the Alexander Seaton series sweeps the hero back to his roots in Ulster, and a family living under a curse and riven with long-held secrets Aberdeen, 1628.Alexander Seaton's happily settled life as a university teacher is shattered by the arrival in town of a stranger who looks like his twin and who carries a plea for help from Alexander's dead mother's family in Ireland. The family has been placed under a poet's curse, threatening death to various members. Elements of the curse have already begun to play out. Reluctantly answering the call, Seaton travels to Ulster, to find himself among a family torn apart by secrets and deep resentments. As he seeks out the author of the curse, he becomes deeply entangled in a conflict that involves fugitive priests, displaced poets, rebellious plotters and agents of the king. Confronted by murder within his family, he finds the lines between superstition and faith, duty and loyalty are becoming increasingly blurred, while his Scottish homeland grows ever more remote.

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