Book blurb:
“The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country’s finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows.
Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear. His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary.”
My review:
This one came as a £1.99 daily deal from Audible, at first i didn’t think i would enjoy it as i haven’t explored much in the way of historical crime books, but i decided to give it a go and im glad i did because i found a gem amongst the coal with this one.
Set around a small crofting family in 1869, it is written in a memoir style through a series of personal documents written by the main character of the story Roderick Macrae plus the early doctors and psychiatrists and of course the all important lawyer.
There are many social and political powers at play throughout this story, but the main theme i took from it was that the powerful are powerful and the downtrodden very much stay there.
Now to address the obvious elephant in the room of this book, what Roderick Macrae did and why he did it, the law of the land in this story is in charge and he doesn’t let anyone forget it especially the Macrae family, through a series of incidents some Roderick can control and some he can’t, it pushes him to carry out the only course of action he sees he has.
The narration was excellent Crawford Logan and Cameron Mowat both brought the story to life, the descriptions of life back then makes me glad i live in the now.
As with books in this style of genre one listen through is not enough, i think a second listen would take you even deeper to this sometimes uncomfortable, horrific and often sad story.
You can buy it here:
A Listener's Slant 