The Indiana Wesleyan University Division of Modern Language and Literature will host a book-signing event on Tuesday, Jan. 17 honoring the recent release of a novel written by IWU English Professor Dr. Michael Buck. The self-published novel, “Last Execution at Grassmarket”, is a historical romance adventure novel set in seventeenth-century Scotland during a time when England had appointed its king as the head of the church in Scotland. As a result, many Scottish Presbyterians—known as Covenanters—refused to accept this new policy, and some paid the ultimate price: death by execution.
The novel follows the tale of young James Renwick as he leads the Covenanters in defiance against England. He also begins to find himself at odds with his heart as he begins to fall in love with a beautiful Scottish woman named Jean Hamilton.
Buck’s inspiration for the novel resulted from a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he learned of Grassmarket’s heartbreaking history as the execution site for over one hundred Covenanters between 1661 and 1688.
“About this time last year, ‘Last Execution at Grassmarket’ was about 330 pages in length, and I had been working on it off and on for almost ten years,” said Buck, a professor at IWU since 1989. “So I decided to edit it to as concise a form as possible, striving to make it a historical adventure romance which moved quickly. The result is, I think, a much more rapid read of 270 pages which draws in the reader with conflict, pursuit, sectarian conflict and romance.”
The book signing is open to the public and will take place on Jan. 17 in Elder Hall Room 143 at 4-5 p.m. For more information about the novel, visit lastexecution.com.