Review

"Spellbinding ... Riveting, dark and ingeniously constructed." - Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times. "The book's pretence at veracity, as well as being a literary jeux d'esprit, brings an extraordinary historical period into focus, while the multiple unreliable perspectives are designed to keep the audience wondering, throughout the novel and beyond. This is a fiendishly readable tale that richly deserves the wider attention the Booker has brought it." - Justine Jordan, The Guardian. "An astonishing piece of writing... a voice that sounds startlingly authentic." - Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph. "Gripping, blackly playful and intelligent, it deserves a space on the shortlist. It's one of the few that may set the heather - and imagination - ablaze." - Robbie Millen, The Times. "Graeme Macrae Burnet's His Bloody Project is 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, Book of the Year, The Herald. "The Man Booker judges got it right: this really is one of the most convincing and engrossing novels of the year." - David Robinson, The Scotsman. "A real box of tricks... a truly ingenious thriller as confusingly multilayered as an Escher staircase." Jake Kerridge,Express. "A historical revenge tragedy and courtroom drama... [are] at the heart of this masterful psychological thriller." Ian Stephen "Masterful, clever and playful. It is every inch the riveting second novel I had hoped for." Louise Hutcheson, A Novel Bookblog.

About the Author

Graeme Macrae Burnet is one of Scotland's brightest literary talents. Born and brought up in Kilmarnock, he spent some years working as an English teacher in Prague, Bordeaux, Porto and London, before returning to Glasgow and working for eight years for various independent television companies. He has degrees in English Literature and International Security Studies from Glasgow and St Andrews universities respectively. His first novel, The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer's Award from the Scottish Book Trust, was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and was a minor cult hit. Set in small-town France, it is a compelling psychological portrayal of a peculiar outsider pushed to the limit by his own feverish imagination. His second novel, His Bloody Project, has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016. He is currently working on another novel featuring Georges Gorski, the haunted detective in The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau.




Marianne (Australia) (2018/12/26):
5 stars
His Bloody Project is the second novel by award-winning Scottish author, Graeme Macrae Burnet. It is presented in the form of a set of historical documents pertaining to murders committed in early August, 1869 by Roderick John Macrae. These ‘documents’ are ‘edited’ by Macrae Burnet, who explains in his preface how he came across this fascinating case. They include interviews with people who knew Macrae, Macrae’s own written account of events, a handy map, post-mortem reports on the victims, an excerpt from a book on mental illness written by J. Bruce Thomson, Resident Surgeon to the General Prison for Scotland at Perth, and an account of the trial proceedings, compiled from various press articles of the time. The Epilogue describes the aftermath to the trial.

Roddy Macrae stood accused of three brutal murders, to which he freely admitted, and for which he, at no time, showed remorse. His solicitor, Andrew Sinclair had asked him to write his own account of events, and had also asked Mr Thomson to give an opinion on his client. It soon becomes clear that Mr Sinclair was hoping to have Macrae found Not Guilty by reason of Insanity. Roddy’s account is comprehensive, quite eloquent and credible and makes a compelling read in itself, but Macrae Burnet makes it even more interesting by throwing in a few conflicting facts and opinions with the other documents.

By inserting these contradictions, Macrae Burnet leaves it to the reader to form their own opinion: was seventeen-year-old Roddy a cold, calculating murderer? Or, having lost the steady support and moderating influence of his mother, was he simply an overwhelmed young man, driven to a gross overreaction to his ultimate victim’s continued persecution of his family.

Macrae Burnet easily captures the era with his descriptive prose, conveying not just the oppression suffered by the Highland crofters, but also the mindset of society and the prevailing knowledge of mental illness. This is a cleverly constructed, thought-provoking novel and it is easy to understand why it was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize. It will be interesting to see what this talented author does next.