Synopses & Reviews
A brutal triple murder in a remote Scottish farming community in 1869 leads to the arrest of seventeen-year-old Roderick Macrae. There is no question that Macrae committed this terrible act. What would lead such a shy and intelligent boy down this bloody path? And will he hang for his crime?
Presented as a collection of documents discovered by the author, His Bloody Project opens with a series of police statements taken from the villagers of Culdie, Ross-shire. They offer conflicting impressions of the accused; one interviewee recalls Macrae as a gentle and quiet child, while another details him as evil and wicked. Chief among the papers is Roderick Macrae’s own memoirs where he outlines the series of events leading up to the murder in eloquent and affectless prose. There follow medical reports, psychological evaluations, a courtroom transcript from the trial, and other documents that throw both Macrae’s motive and his sanity into question.
Graeme Macrae Burnet’s multilayered narrative—centered around an unreliable narrator—will keep the reader guessing to the very end. His Bloody Project is a deeply imagined crime novel that is both thrilling and luridly entertaining from an exceptional new voice.
Review
"A gripping crime story, a deeply imagined historical novel, and gloriously written – all in one tour-de-force of a book. Stevensonian – that’s the highest praise I can give." Chris Dolan, Sunday Herald, Books of the Year
Review
"One of the most convincing and engrossing novels of the year." The Scotsman
Review
"A stellar crime novel and a wrenching historical portrait, His Bloody Project also succeeds at lyrically questioning whether it's possible to know another man's mind—or even desirable. The novel sends out vines in all directions, its characters' tangled motives obscured by tragedy and lies." Lyndsay Faye, author of Gods of Gotham
Review
"Burnet is a writer of great skill and authority...few readers will be able to put down His Bloody Project as it speeds towards a surprising (and ultimately puzzling) conclusion." Financial Times (UK)
About the Author
Graeme Macrae Burnet has established a reputation for smart and literary mystery writing with his highly praised first novel, The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau, which was featured in the List’s Top Scottish Books of 2014. He was born and brought up in Kilmarnock and has lived in Prague, Bordeaux, Porto, and London. He now lives in Glasgow, Scotland.
Graeme Macrae Burnet on PowellsBooks.Blog
On July 26, my second novel,
His Bloody Project, was slumbering in comfortable obscurity somewhere around the 300,000-mark on the Amazon U.K. charts. By close of play the following day, it had reached 32. Seven weeks later — as I write this article — it’s at number 9. That’s a very giddy height for any novel, never mind one set in a tiny crofting community...
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