Man Booker Prize Finalist, LA Times Book Prize Finalist, New York Times Editor’s Choice, and an American Booksellers Association National Indie Bestseller!Named a Best Book of 2016 by Newsweek, NPR, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Sunday Times!In the smash hit historical thriller that the New York Times Book Review calls “thought provoking fiction,” a brutal triple murder in a remote … thriller that the New York Times Book Review calls “thought provoking fiction,” 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.
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I’m not usually a fan of mysteries/suspense stories, but three things make it exceptional. First, it’s told solely through documents–police statements, letters, coroner’s reports, medical and psychological evaluations, court transcripts, and the written narrative of the suspect himself. If that sound dry, believe me, it’s not. Burnet has carefully arranged them to form a gripping narrative. Second, the novel is full of details of hard life in a hard land: rural Scotland in the nineteenth century. Young Roddy has confessed to three brutal murders, but no one is quite sure what his motivation was–or if he is sane enough to stand trial or was sane at the time of the murders. Finally, the writing itself is quite brilliant. His Bloody Project is a great choice for historical fiction fans like me, or for those interested in crime stories, mysteries, or psychological studies.
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.
An engaging tragedy. At some point you can see it coming, your just not sure which door hides the horror. Fabulous sense of place, an environment that is hauntingly beautiful.
An wonderful evocation of time and place.
Realistic setting, realistic social commentary.
Interesting perspective on the time and place, a little dry in the beginning but was drawn in as the story progressed.
I couldn’t put the book down. Fascinating read.
Was he in fact insane?
I enjoyed it. It was slow at times but the character development was great. Also the setting was very original, I hadn’t read anything like it.
This book is a waste of perfectly good reading time.
This book was not as I thought it would be based on the description. However, though sad, it was an interesting picture of the life of crofters during a dismal period of history.
Very original and well written,
I am about halfway through this book, and I am really enjoying it. It is told through a child’s eye but with an adult’s vision. It is both a mystery and a memoir-style read.
This is a strange book. If you enjoy going back a century or so to a small, fairly primitive village where a murder takes place, you may enjoy this book. A lot of it is slow, but the legal side of it for the time it was in was interesting to me, as well as how awful the average persons life was spent in complete poverty with no ability to improve their circumstances. The courtroom proceedings were realistic, and this book does not have a happy ending, so read it with caution.
Well researched and engrossing.
Takes you to a place and time. The writer is intelligent and has a great command of language.
Couldn’t put it down! Such a clever and interesting storyline and setting, almost too good to believe.
If there were six stars, I’d give this book all six. I loved this cover to cover. OUTSTANDING!!
It was interesting but I wouldn’t recommend it.
This book falls into the category of micro-history that has seen a rise in quality and, perhaps popularity, over recent years. ‘The Last Witch of Langenburg’ and ‘The Faithful Executioner’ spring to mind as two exemplars I’ve read in the genre.
This one is rich in the detailed depiction of family life under serfdom. It dispells the pastoral images of a jolly old England following feudal times to expose a mean subsistence lifestyle where justice was meted out (but rarely) not by the Manor Lord, but a fellow lessee – little better than he ought to be.
Therein lies the root of the conflict. There’s a bit of gravel to hoe before the story takes root, but it’s a fruitful tale in the end. (Couldn’t resist could I?)