Fiction

A Decent Ride, Irvine Welsh (Vintage 2015)

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His Bloody Project, Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband 2015)

Crime novels don’t regularly feature on the Man Booker long list, but reviews for Kilmarnock-born Burnet’s psychological thriller have been universally superlative, and rightly so. Set in a West Highlands community in 1869, this story of the brutal murder of three members of a neighbour’s family by a socially awkward young man, Roderick MacRae, is utterly captivating.

We know MacRae is guilty because he admits this from the outset. But Burnet challenges the perceptions behind what might appear to be an open and shut case by introducing the journal written by MacRae in his prison cell. This compelling narrative not only blurs the boundaries between fiction and family history (with footnotes relating to archives), it draws us back through the centuries on an enthralling journey to less-enlightened times. 
Crofters eke out an existence on their absentee laird’s extensive estate, the threat of summary eviction hanging over them, their basic rights no better than the livestock often sharing their roofs.

Victoria's Empire might have been sprawling across the world in all its pomp and pageantry, but this community seems as isolated as natives in sunnier climes. Here tenant crofters eke out a grim existence on their absentee laird’s extensive estate, the threat of summary eviction forever hanging over them, their basic rights practically no better than the livestock often sharing their roofs.

The reader is soon torn between the human reaction to the scale of the monstrous crime and the extent to which the insanity plea his defence lawyer is arguing for may be justified. This argument is all the more poignant given that the outcome of the trial will mean either life imprisonment or the noose. This dilemma, that MacRae’s life is literally hanging in the balance, keeps the tension taut to the final page.

Take Anywhere

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