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    His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (Man Booker Prize Finalist 2016)
    Unavailable
    His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (Man Booker Prize Finalist 2016)
    Unavailable
    His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (Man Booker Prize Finalist 2016)
    Ebook370 pages5 hours

    His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (Man Booker Prize Finalist 2016)

    By Graeme Macrae Burnet

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSkyhorse Publishing
    Release dateOct 4, 2016
    ISBN9781510719224
    Unavailable
    His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (Man Booker Prize Finalist 2016)
    Author

    Graeme Macrae Burnet

    Born in Kilmarnock, Graeme Macrae Burnet?is among the UK’s leading contemporary novelists, having achieved both critical acclaim and best-selling status around the world. He lives in Glasgow, where he studied film and English literature. After teaching English overseas and working as a researcher in the television industry, he won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2013 and now writes full-time. He is best known for his dazzling Booker-shortlisted second novel,?His Bloody Project. Graeme is also the author of two French-set detective novels:?The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau?(2014) and?The Accident on the A35 (2017). Case Study is his fourth novel. 

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    Reviews for His Bloody Project

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      His Bloody Project : Documents Relating To The Case of Roderick Macrame🍒🍒🍒
      By Graeme Macrame Burney
      2015
      Skyhorse Publishing

      Is a person responsible for the death of another, if the killer is declared insane?
      This triple murder in 1869 Scotland, in the remote Western Ross village of Culduie asks that question.
      It's not a question of guilt. It's a question of sanity....and so the argument begins.
      The case is told through the eyes of all involved, broken into sections.Documents. Police Reports. The prison memoir of the accused. Medical and Forensic reports.
      Very good story!
    • 4/5
      An interesting and twisty epistolary novel, told in the form of documents about a murder in 19th century Scotland. Burnet does a terrific job of layering ambiguities in a very realistic way that most crime novels don't manage - so while this novel lacks any really compelling or sympathetic characters, it makes up for it in structural brilliance.
    • 2/5
      This book is subtitled on the cover a historical "thriller," and I'm not sure I've ever seen that word so misapplied. Sure, the first half of the book was fine as our unreliable narrator presented his version of events leading up to the murder of three people. Not thrilling, but it certainly alluded to plenty of sexual intrigues and other obvious holes in the narrative that I thought would be addressed in the second half of the book or perhaps a twist ending in the epilogue. But the psychological evaluation and transcript of the trial that comprised the second half just circled repetitively around the events as they had been already laid out, adding little and explaining less. My interest died with the momentum.

      And did we really need several pages of the judge's instructions to the jury? I used to give practice dictation to court reporting students, and these were everybody's least favorite parts of transcripts due to their dry legalese. This novel does nothing to liven them up.

      (p.s. I'm reading this because a monthly book club meets at one of the libraries where I work, and I'm constantly overhearing their discussions as I toil nearby, so I have decided the best way to avoid spoilers for books I have not yet read but might want to is to read along even if I'm not part of the discussion. Thankfully, the next couple books seem more promising.)
    • 5/5
      Seventeen-year-old Roddy Macrae is a murderer. He is guilty - he has freely admitted it. He murdered three people in cold blood, his bloody project. Roddy is a poor crofter in the Scottish highlands in 1869 but he can read and write and he voluntarily makes a statement regarding the crime including why - except Roddy may not be a trustworthy witness and we can't be sure if he is telling the whole truth given some of the evidence.His Bloody Project by Scottish author Graeme Macrae Burnet reads like a true crime story even to the inclusion of a preface that explains the author's 'discovery' of documents pertaining to the crime while doing genealogy research on his family as well as footnotes at the end. The novel, for it is a novel and an extremely well-written and compelling one, is told through these documents - witness statements, Roddy's statement, conversations with witnesses recorded by his solicitor, and news reports of the trial including testimony by experts on criminal psychology including measurements of his head and the shape of his ear lobes. His Bloody Project made it to the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize, a rare honour for any book but even rarer given that this is a historical thriller. But then this is a rare historical thriller. Macrae does an amazing job of portraying the period including the language used in formal documents, the culture, the use of phrenology to identify criminals, and, of course, the class system. Since the story is told through documents, most of the action occurs off the page*. However, the prose and the uniqueness of the tale more than make up for this. This is also a very dark and moody tale that kept me glued to the page throughout. If I was to critique His Bloody Project in two word, they would have to be 'bloody brilliant'. *it should be noted that the description of the murders and the wounds sustained, especially to the female victim are quite graphic
    • 4/5
      Wow.

      I loved this book.

      When I first learned of its publication, I thought that it was a non-fiction account of a murder trial in Scotland in the 1860s. His Bloody Project is actually a novel, written as though it's non-fiction, which makes the story all that more believable and engrossing. It was short-listed for the Man Booker prize in 2016.

      I'm not normally drawn to thriller/mysteries, as that's what this book is categorized as, but in my opinion it should not be categorized as either of those. This is a novel of psychology, of endurance, of the questions of what is moral and what is immoral. This is not a whodunit, but a whydunit.

      The book is broken up into parts, the first part being a memoir of events written by the accused, Roddy Macrae, while he's in prison awaiting trial for murder. The subsequent sections are medical reports, psychological assessments, and accounts of the trial. Roddy's first-account narrative lends sympathy for his circumstances. The reader follows Roddy's thoughts and emotional turmoil, forming a bond with the murderer; but later, others' interpretations of the events, during the lawyers' investigations and at the trial, cause the seeds of doubt to be sown, and nothing is certain.

      This is an expert writing full of nuances and subtleties. I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time. His Bloody Project will definitely make you ponder; it would be great for book clubs. I'm planning on stopping at Applecross while visiting Scotland this summer, just to walk around the same village as Roddy Macrae. I have to keep reminding myself that this book is fictional.

      This review is also posted on my blog: flyleafunfurled.com
    • 5/5
      ON a trip to Scotland I have to buy a book by a Scottish author in a Scottish bookstore. Graeme Macrae Burnet actually fit both bills--he is a Scottish author and he worked in the bookstore I purchased the book in. His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the Man Booker price in 2016.Roderick Macrae murdered Lachlan "Broad" MacKenzie, his 15 year old daughter Flora and his young son Danny. Of that there is no denying. He admits it. However, what was his motivation and should he be acquitted of the charges is the main issue.The year is 1869, Scotland. Graeme Macrae Burnet forms his book like a police investigation. There are witness statements, statements from doctors and Roderick's 100 statement of the murder and events leading up to it. There is an account of the trial and the verdict. The entire book is gripping, if a little slow reading at times. You learn how the poorer class lived in 19th century Scotland and how they were looked upon by the upper class and the 'lairds' whose land they farmed. I'm not a literary fiction reader and the Man Booker prize is a literary fiction award so I was a little unsure whether I would like the book, but I really loved it. So, if you're looking for something 'different' to read, I'd highly recommend His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars

      I really struggled to get through this audiobook and I admit that I was not fully there for all portions of it, so I definitely missed some details. However, I thought the layout of the book and the writing style were very good. I felt a strong connection to the main character and I was rooting for him the entire time. I must say that the historical aspect just didn't come out for me, and I am not sure why. I was aware of it at most times, but for some reason I could just as easily see this happening 20 years ago as 150 years ago.
    • 3/5
      This is fiction masquerading as nonfiction, as documents relating to the murders committed by Roderick Macrae in 1869. It starts with a handful of statements from neighbors, a lengthy confession of sorts written by the accused, a narrative from a prison psychiatrist (or the 19th century equivalent), and a description of the trial and its immediate aftermath. And to be honest, I was pretty underwhelmed. For the sake of realism, I assume, the writing was kind of stilted and emotionless. The outcome of the trial was abrupt, predictable, and unsatisfying. There was all this build-up and then nothing: the long tale of Macrae's short life leading up to the murders, a blowhard who may or may not have any idea what he's talking about, and that's it. The sensation caused by the trial was described with such little detail it wasn't even interesting, which was extra disappointing. In the end, I think that's my main issue with this book: it had a lot of unmet potential. The level of setting detail and character depth involved here could have woven into an intricate and memorable story. Instead, it was a largely forgettable tale about poor Scottish farmers mistreating each other.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of Roderick Macrae, the 17 year old son of a Scottish tenant farmer, who confesses to the murder of three people. It is told in the form of a memoir by the murderer, neighbor interviews, trial reports, and the report of a pompous, patronizing and supercilious criminal anthropologist. The book is also an exploration of memory, the insanity defense and capital punishment. This may sound like it would be interesting, but most of the book really wasn't. The memoir consists of a litany of abuse suffered by Roderick and his family at the hands of Lachlan Mckenzie, who used his position in a vindictive and petty manner to harass the family. According to the memoir, Lachlan was such a mustache-twirling villain that I was glad he was murdered. However, a lot of this memoir is about sheep and egg gathering and other mundane matters that did not hold my interest. I wanted to get to the crimes, which didn't happen until the end of the memoir, more than half way through the book. At the murder trial, Roderick's attorney tries to prove that Roderick was insane at the time of the murders. There is way too much discussion of the insanity defense here. I should have been moved by Roderick's life or at least interested in his fate, but I wasn't. I really have no idea why this book was considered for the Booker Prize, but then I often feel that way.I received a free copy of the ebook from the publisher but I wound up listening to the audiobook borrowed from the library.
    • 4/5
      I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.Roderick Macrae is a seventeen year old Scottish farmer who has confessed to three brutal murders. It is not his guilt that seems to be in question, but his motive. A series of found documents may provide the answers everyone has been seeking.This is such a creative approach to a mystery, and it works so well here. Macrae Burnet presents the book as a collection of documents he has found, including the memoirs of Roderick Macrae himself. This presents the reader with multiple unreliable narrators, led by their feelings, personal prejudices, and deeply ingrained beliefs. The purported murderer tells a large chunk of his own story, and readers must decide on their own truth.Honestly, there really wasn't anything I didn't like. This is an excellently done, highly creative take on a historical mystery.I highly recommend this book. It's unique, suspenseful, and well-written.
    • 4/5
      Poor Roddie is a loner, brilliant but lacking in emotional empathy. He is bullied by the neighbour Lachlan and his own father is useless. The sex side is disastrous, being part of Lachlan's powers over him. He takes violent revenge against Lachlan, but also against two of his children. Roddie's sister Jetta is a sad figure, abused by Lachlan, getting pregnant, bound for rejection by the locals, dressing in old clothes and eventually killing herself, at least not harming anyone else. Now I realise the book is all made up, instead of being contemporary accounts as it is set out, how does that influence my view of the story? It transforms it. Now I see I am completely in the hands of the author's decisions, and what is said about all the characters may only reflect the author's prejudices. Some of the fascination of the book has gone.
    • 4/5
      Told through a journal written by the murderer, witness statements, the notes of a criminal psychologist, and the account of the trial, this is the story of Roddy Macrae, a 17-year-old crofter guilty of murdering three members of his local community. That community is Culduie, a tiny hamlet in Applecross Village in the northwestern Highlands of Scotland. And the year is 1869. There is no question that Roddy brutally killed the local constable, his 15-year-old daughter, and 3-year-old son. The novel centers around his motivations, his mental state at the time, and the possible outcome of the trial. The feudal system and the rigid class distinctions and assumptions are vividly portrayed here, as are the wild Scottish Highlands. The narrative is compelling and the characters richly conceived. And this was almost a 4-star read but for my frustration with Roddy's persistent passivity and the capricious destiny that the author, along with the residents of Culduie, would somehow have us believe had a hand in the events as they unfold. Of course, that is part of Burnet's brilliance - his fascinating depiction of the world view of the day along with the dreadful cruelty of what must indeed be seen as fate. One's station at birth determined much; the odds of shifting that circumstance inconceivable.
    • 4/5
      Roderick Macrae, a 17 year-old crofter, murders Lachlan Mackenzie, the community "constable", who has been persecuting his family, together with Lachlan's daughter Flora (for whom Roderick has has romantic feelings) and his infant son. His stated motive is to free his father from further persecution - he murdered Flora and her brother because they were there and he didn't want them to sound the alarm. The story is presented by way of witness statements, Roderick's memoir of "how it all went wrong" (which he writes in prison on remand), the testimony of an expert on criminal insanity and accounts of the trial.I found the section written from Roderick's viewpoint both harrowing and sad. The picture presented of life on a croft was depressing, as was the lack of ambition and aspiration, especially on the part of Roderick, who had a free education offered to him. The bullying meted out by Lachlan was cruel and overwhelming and I began to feel quite murderous towards him myself. In contrast, the more "factual" sections of the story were easier to read, although Roderick, even in his own first person account, wasn't an easy man to like. There were indeed "clues" throughout the first half of the story (mostly in the form of discrepancies), which tie in with a possible explanation of Roderick's behaviour suggested at the end and these were cleverly done. On a general level, the novel shows how Victorian Scotland conflated and/or confused immorality, the "lower class", heredity and insanity. A reasonably easy read, but thought-provoking and clever.
    • 5/5
      It's oh-so-easy to forget that you're reading fiction instead of true crime. Beautifully delineated are the lives of the crofters (farmers) who must contend daily with the whims of the landowners, factors, and constables. And young Roddy's life is heartbreaking. His life definitely held a great deal of promise, but it was ruined by poverty and the maliciousness of others.His Bloody Project unfolds to its inexorable conclusion, allowing readers to absorb the hopelessness of Roderick's life. Nothing is spelled out; readers are allowed to think for themselves every step of the way... and to wonder if the trial's outcome may have been different if events involving Roderick's sister had been allowed to come to light. This certainly isn't cheery reading, but it's a masterful bit of storytelling.
    • 3/5
      This was one of the nominees whose description appealed to me from last year's Booker short list. Seventeen year old Roderick Macrae brutally killed three people in a Scottish farming village in the late 19th century. The mystery is not "whodunnit", but "why?", and whether there is a chance that Roderick's life will be spared in his criminal trial. The book is formatted as a series of documents, including witness statements taken by investigators, psychiatric evaluations of Roderick's state of mind, trial transcripts and other documents. The heart of the novel is a personal narrative "written by" Roderick himself for his attorney, setting forth his version of the events leading up to and through the crime itself. Burnet did an excellent job of presenting the story of the crime and the trial through a 19th century lens.My favorite parts of the book were the descriptions of the day-to-day lives and hardships of the villagers, living in what was essentially a feudal society, subject to the whims and cruelties of the landowners, constables and factors. The author vividly and convincingly portrays the hopelessness of their lives.However, as a 21st century psychological thriller, the book is less successful, I think. While the book uses the technique of unreliable narrators, and presents contrasting and varying viewpoints of Roderick and his actions, in the end, the "big reveal" was a big let-down. In addition, the pacing was rather slow, and I never felt compelled to keep turning the pages to see what happened next.A Newsweek review describes the book as "halfway between a thriller and a sociological study of an exploitive economic system..." I'd say it's much less than "half a thriller," although it is still a decent read.I was intrigued by the sound of Burner's first novel, The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau, and liked His Bloody Project enough that I'd pick up his earlier book if I came across it.3 stars
    • 4/5
      Burnet begins with a preface explaining the story that follows as a true crime story from 1869 in the Scottish Highlands. However, it is a clever work of fiction and a deserving nominee shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize. Descriptions of 19th century crofting were interesting but the unfair treatment of the crofter and the method of determining the murderer's mental state were infuriating. Still, this is a chilling psychological study that includes some genuine elements and is written in a style that gives it an intriguing authenticity.
    • 4/5
      The great achievement of this NOVEL is that during the reading of the book it becomes increasingly difficult to regard it as a novel. The more you read the more you take it as factual, so much so that you may not at first see how unreliable the principal narrator, Roderick Macrae is (note: he is a made up character in the first place, not based on any historical character). We want to believe him, and his memoir is presented as definitive .. when it isn't. The reason it cannot be definitive is that there are "powers that be" who have a determining role in Roddy's life. He is a small cog in a big wheel of a power structures and social restrictions.Roderick's memoir shows his limitations as a young man who is still naive. But his unreliability as a narrator is also evident. Little pieces of contradictory information crop up in other documents which are presented to the reader. To a greater or lesser extent we are all unreliable narrators of our own life stories, especially when we are 17. Certainly though, the book raises questions about how we present ourselves and how we situate ourselves in our own stories. It is well worth the read, despite the complete lack of joy in the story. We never really get to fully know "Roddy" and the one tear he sheds at the end is one of the saddest parts of any book I have ever read. "As the hood was pulled over his head, tears streamed from Roddy's eyes." Roddy never had much of a chance. The voice of Roderick Macrae is immediately compelling, genuine, but ultimately inscrutable. At no point does he show any remorse for the triple murder he commits. The author has played at the edges of fiction, keeping motive from us, so much so that some readers end up feeling that Macrae the author has been "unfair" or "biased" against Roddy .. when in fact it's impossible to be unfair to a made up character, when you think it through. This is the achievement of the book: people end up wanting to believe it's real .. when it isn't. And then they get disappointed. How strange! How wonderful.A couple of quotes here, which I am still chewing on. Mr. Sinclair, Roderick's lawyer, tries desperately to get Roddy off on grounds of insanity, and insists that Roderick's lack of guile and free admission of his crime show he is in fact insane: "For what sane man would freely make statements which, if accepted at face value, would consign him to the gallows?" (p. 276). This thought is echoed by the section written by Dr. J. Bruce Thompson (the most caricatured character in the book), who says (p.172) "Whether his diffident attitude was feigned or was the product of some misplaced bravado, I could not say. Nor could I say at this point whether the matter-of-fact answers he had given were entirely ingenuous, or due to some ploy to seem quite out of his mind; that he calculated that by admitting so openly to such brutal acts, he would be pronounced not to be in possession of his reason."
    • 5/5
      This is brilliant. Has ome similarities with Hannah Kent's wortk, as it transports you completely to the space and time. I love the considered way the author incorporates his research -it's seamless and convincing; i had to keep reminding myself that the whole story is a novel, not an expose of a true crime. I very much enjoyed his light touch onnthe characters and his clever manner of setting out the differing perspectives. One of the best reads of 2017 I'm predicting!
    • 3/5
      This story is told in the format of a group of court documents in a murder trial and a journal of the accused. The Macrae family, living in a rural hamlet in Scotland, has certainly been treated unfairly and sees no hope for redress. So young Roderick takes things into his own hands . While I admired the craft of the storytelling here and I certainly grew to sympathize with the protagonist, I kept hoping that the book would become more than just a record of events. But, to me, it didn't go deeper than that.
    • 3/5
      This made my top 10 TBR because it shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 and involves criminal psychology and murder. The writing is, as one would expect, solid. There is little mystery and zero thriller. A murder occurs. There's a full and clear confession, an arrest and a trial ensue. What little mystery there is lies in what, truly, precipitated the crime. Much of the book lies there and in explaining the context that led up to the perpetrator perpetrating. But, in the end, the 'why' really doesn't matter and neither does the trial outcome. It's a somewhat unsatisfying read that I hoped was heading somewhere, anywhere, and then you realize it isn't.Set in the backdrop of small-town, rural Scotland in the late 1800s amidst the working poor, it's an interesting time to see how feuds and conflicts build and are settled and justice and mercy are/aren't applied and by whom. But though the book lays out a lot of context and detail, it is content to tell the "facts," without saying anything at all. For me, this book came across as an academic exercise that totally failed to provoke any feels at all. Having read it, I feel...unchanged. Not gut-punched, not satisfied, not needing to talk it out...just...nothing. I will tick a book off my TBR, move along and promptly forget about it.Booker shortlisted? I don't get it.
    • 5/5
      Unreliable narrator, pseudo-historical 'found' documents, setting so well described that it becomes as good as a character - all my favourite ingredients for an unputdownable read. Highly recommended and should glean excellent discussion with fellow readers.
    • 5/5
      In the 1860s, in the remote and impoverished village of Culduie on the Applecross Peninsular on the west coast of Scotland, 17 year old Roderick MacRae calmly walks towards the house of his neighbour Lachlan MacKenzie, purportedly to do some work on digging a ditch behind the house. When he returns half an hour later he is covered in blood, and seemingly still calm, announces that he has killed Lachlan. So there is never any doubt as to who has committed the murder of Lachlan MacKenzie and two other member of his household. What is in doubt is the motive, and whether Lachlan is or isn't in his right mind.Very much in the style of many nineteenth century novels the story purports to unfold through a series of documents discovered by the author while researching his own family history. Roderick's own memoir, which he has supposedly been encouraged to write by his advocate, is contrasted with the statements of the doctors who performed the autopsies, and the other witnesses, and with the supposed newspaper account of the trial. But what I found most interesting was the evocative descriptions of the way of life of one of the remotest parts of Scotland. But this isn't any nostalgic account, the lives lived by the crofters are harsh in the extreme, and the lack of control that they have face becomes painfully obvious.Applecross is one of the remotest parts of mainland Scotland even today, and as somewhere I have visited more than once I found it fascinating to look at this portrait of what it would have been like to live them a hundred and fifty years ago.
    • 4/5
      After Serial and Making A Murderer, it's good to get back to some good old fashioned Fake Crime. This has it all - a likeable suspect, unreliable narration, a story that twists and turns and then, finally, horrific violence. My New Year's Resolution is to recommend this book to people so I can discuss it with them. A great read!
    • 4/5
      A case study of a gruesome triple murder committed in a rural Scottish village in 1869, presented through a jailhouse memoir written by the accused, medical reports, trial transcripts, &c. A real page-turner, but very dark from start to finish (as one might expect). Recommended.
    • 4/5
      This is my favourite of the three books on the Booker longlist I have read so far [edit 9 Oct - though having since read Do Not Say We Have Nothing and Hot Milk it, His Bloody Project is now only my third best]. I am probably biased in that I have spent a lot of time in the Scottish highlands and have read quite a lot about its social history, so much of the backdrop is familiar. In one sense it is a historical crime story in that it centres on a triple murder to which a poor crofter's son has admitted full responsibility from the start, but there is also a lot of social history and Burnet clearly knows the Applecross peninsula very well - all of the locations are real, as is one of the criminal psychologists who is called in to help investigate the case, and Burnet has done his best to research the history of the area. The story is always readable despite the limitations imposed by the structure, quite an achievement since it purports to be a set of contemporary documents on the case. It can also be read as a microcosm of the wider story of the highland clearances.
    • 4/5
      Readers never have a doubt of the protagonist's guilt in this Booker nominated book. Roddy Macrae freely admits he committed the offense. He even offers his reason for doing so although the motive is called into question. Will the defense be able to get him off with an insanity plea? The novel is based on an 1869 case from Scotland that received a great deal of attention in newspapers of the day. The author's arrangement of the work is more interesting than the actual case. I am intrigued by the "genealogical research" that went into this volume, but I really don't think it is a serious Booker contender. I may be proven wrong in this year of what many believe are less-than-stellar nominees.
    • 4/5
      Possibly the bleakest tale I've ever read. In 19th century Scotland, teenager Roderick Macrae faces murder charges for killing a neighbor and two of his children. Told through Roderick's written account, a reporter's notes on the trial, and reports and testimony submitted by various experts, the evidence for insanity and blame are examined from many sides. Roderick is from an extremely poor group of crofter cottages along the shore of Scotland. The manor's lord has a factor (property manager) who forces the cottages to elect a "constable" to keep themselves in line, a job they all detest having to fulfill. All but one, that is. In this year, crofter Lachlan Mackenzie has bullied his way to the job and used it to take vengeance against the Macrae family, apparently just because he can. Having just lost the mother of the family, the Macraes are in a terrible way to start, and being the poorest of the crofter families, they are only a few steps from being evicted. Mackenzie's goal is to torment them further and force them out. There's really no hope for this family or for Roderick himself. They see no future, they have no recourse against Mackenzie, and when the eviction is finally served, Roderick feels he has no choice but to try to protect his family. The court must decide if there is a case for temporary insanity, but it is clear that the norms of the society in question do not allow much pity for the lowest-of-the-low who rebel against abuse by their betters.The hopelessness here, especially the complete lack of power this family has to protect itself, is almost unbearable to behold. I was drawn to the book because of the format (journals, reports, etc.), but had I known how unrelentingly depressing it was, I wouldn't have read it. Yes, it's good to face the existence of evil and tragedy in the world, but for my part, this tale of inevitable and total degradation and destruction was more than I could stand. Unfortunately, though, I think I'll remember the book for a long time.
    • 3/5
      Very mixed feelings about this book. It's told entirely through documents pertaining to the trial of a boy who admits to killing three people. In general, Burnet does a good job with the voice, although at times I felt the trial transcript itself sounded more modern than it should have (especially the dueling psychological experts -- would they even have existed at the time?). More than that, though, I get that writing up all of these documents in an authentic way was a creative challenge for Burnet but I don't get exactly what he was trying to say; I don't see this book shedding any fresh new light or looking at this point in history through a different lens. I also thought the sister's storyline was painfully cliched, although that's a bit of a gray area since we only hear about her from the accused himself.

      I don't understand why this is on the Booker longlist, and I probably would be a little bit easier on it if it hadn't been.
    • 5/5
      Well, I whizzed through the audio version of this book in a day and a half, so that should tell you something! It's 1869, and a brutal triple murder has occurred in a small Scottish village. Young Roddy Macrae is clearly the killer; he doesn't try to hide his guilt. But what was his motivation? And was he sane at the time of the murder?Burnet's novel takes the form of a case study based on documents. The primary source is Macrae's own account, written at the behest of his lawyer, who hopes to spare his life by proving him insane. But the novel also relies upon neighbors' statements taken by the police, the medical examiner's reports, psychiatric evaluations, and the complete transcript of Roddy's trial. Along the way, we're given a detailed picture of the hard, bleak, cruel life of the poor in 19th-century Scotland. It's these details, as well as the opposing views of young Roddy, that make the novel both complex and fascinating. [His Bloody Project] reads a bit like a true crime story--a genre that I'm generally not fond of. Yet it also creates an engaging story with memorable characters that draw the reader in, and the fine writing is both distinctive and appropriate to the content.I don't want to say much more because I don't want to give any spoiler, and I want to encourage everyone to read and discover this books for themselves. I listened to the audiobook, which was perfectly read by Antony Ferguson (who has a wonderful Scottish accent).This book was a finalist for the 2016 Man Booker Prize.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. Absolutely loved it. It was so good, in fact, that although I'd decided to read the entire longlist this year, after finishing this one I knew I'd found my winner. How the official judging plays out may be a completely different story, but this would be my hands-down choice for sure, so no point in reading further down the list for me. The time is 1869, and a young (17) Roddy Macrae of the small remote village of Culduie, Scotland has just killed three members of one family. His family and the other villagers are crofters, ekeing out a harsh, miserable existence, and are always at the mercy of their benefactor "the factor," and his representative in the village, the Constable. Roddy confesses right away, and there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he is guilty. But the major question in this novel is "why?" and the story surrounding the murders is revealed slowly via different sources in this book: Roddy's memoir, written "at the behest of [his] advocate," witness statements, police statements, psychological assessments, and other voices that join in to tell the story. However, there's a big catch: from page one on, it becomes very clear that truth and perception are in the eyes of the beholders, and that both may just be slippery and elusive. I'm really not going to say more than that little bit about the plot, because really, it's a book that should absolutely be experienced on one's own. It's a stunningly superb novel, and aside from offering readers the challenge of trying to piece together what may have actually happened and why, the author has done an excellent job here in bringing us into life in the small, rather claustrophic village of Culduie, mid 19-th century. I'll just note that aside from the mystery of the why, the social, political, religious and class explorations in this novel elevate it to something well beyond anything else I've read this year. Reading this novel at a slower pace pays dividends, and it is definitely a book to be savored. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and I will say that anyone thinking about it would be wise to avoid any reviews or reader posts that give away much more than what's on the back-cover blurb or what I've said here. I'll also say that it is a story that demands active reader participation -- it's a thinking person's novel that really demands close attention, but also one that highly satisfies in the end. Sheesh! It seriously just does not get better than this!!!!