Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016
Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Awards 2016
Winner, Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year 2016
Winner, Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year 2016
‘A spellbinding piece of serious new fiction…Riveting, dark and ingeniously constructed.’ Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times
‘A smart amalgam of legal thriller and literary game that reads as if Umberto Eco has been resurrected in the 19th-century Scottish Highlands.’
Mark Lawson, Guardian
‘An astonishing piece of writing … a voice that sounds startlingly authentic.’
Jake Kerridge, Telegraph
‘Compelling and entirely true to its setting … as good as historical fiction gets.’
Critics’ Choice, Times
‘Brings an extraordinary historical period into focus …This is a fiendishly readable tale that richly deserves the wider attention the Man Booker has brought it.’
Justine Jordan, Guardian
‘Gripping, blackly playful and intelligent … one of the few [Man Booker longlist titles] that may set the heather – and imagination – ablaze.’
Robbie Millen, Times
‘His Bloody Project has a feel for authentic-seeming time and geography that transports readers into the moment …but its overarching themes are timeless.’
New Statesman
‘Sucked me in from the very first page with compelling narratives … A series of convincing but unreliable voices circles the central event and left me breathless.’
Val McDermid, Guardian
‘A brilliantly written story of rural hardship, fractured community and eventual, inescapable bloodshed.’
Ian Rankin, Guardian
‘Burnet proves that the undeniable pleasures of the crime novel can be combined with real literary value and an experimental narrative structure … Few readers will be able to put down His Bloody Project as it speeds towards a surprising (and ultimately puzzling) conclusion.’
Barry Forshaw, Financial Times
‘One of the most convincing and engrossing novels of the year.’
David Robinson, Scotsman
‘The dark intimacy of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project – a rich, brooding book … is difficult to classify, and utterly compelling from the first page.’
Jon Day, Man Booker Prize judge
‘Grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let you go. This multilayered novel about a 19th-century murder near Applecross is as heartbreaking as it is desperate.’
Kirsty Wark, Guardian
‘Darkly engaging.’
Sally Magnusson, Books of the Year, Herald
‘The overwhelming appeal of this excellent novel is its authenticity: Macrae Burnet marshals a wide variety of Victorian styles and voices and every single one of them rings true.’
Times Literary Supplement
‘A gripping story, a deeply imagined historical novel, and glorious writing … a tour-de-force.’
Chris Dolan, Book of the Year, Herald
‘Compelling … a fine achievement from an ambitious and accomplished writer.’
National
‘This is a novel on which Robert Louis Stevenson might have bestowed an envious blessing.’
Robert McCrum, Observer
‘A real box of tricks … a truly ingenious thriller as confusingly multilayered as an Escher staircase.’
Daily Express
‘Riveting.’
Mail on Sunday
‘Wonderfully vivid and moving … a love letter to Scottish literature … a terrific psychological thriller.’
Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae
‘Such an engrossing plot that I couldn’t put it down.’
Nicola Sturgeon, Books of the Year, Herald
‘Graeme Macrae Burnet makes such masterly use of the narrative form that the horrifying tale he tells in His Bloody Project … seems plucked straight out of Scotland’s sanguinary historical archives.’
New York Times
‘Halfway between a thriller and a sociological study of an exploitive economic system with eerie echoes to our own time, His Bloody Project is a gripping and relevant read.’
Newsweek
‘Offers an intricate, interactive puzzle, a crime novel written, excuse my British, bloody well.’
Los Angeles Times
‘Burnet has created an eloquent character who will stick with you long after the book is read.’
Seattle Review of Books
‘Maddeningly brilliant… A cunning and unreliable tale that still bloody nags at me.’
Hannah Kent, Sydney Morning Herald
‘Genius … His Bloody Project is provocative, rewarding reading for its deeply observed explorations of repression, loyalty, justice and truth.’
Sumana Mukerjee, Livemint
‘Burnet skilfully knits together a solid detective story and a compelling character study to make a captivating psychological thriller.’
Herald
‘One of the best debuts from a Scottish writer in some time.’
National
‘A character-driven plot that is incredibly engaging … the writing is evocative and the characters intriguing.’
Bookseller
‘A strikingly singular talent, Burnet blends a gripping story with compelling characters and surprising sweeps of the imagination. This is an accomplished, elegantly written and exciting first novel.’
Booktrust
‘Clever, playful and bleakly funny, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau has all the makings of a cult classic.’
A Novel Bookblog
‘Imagine Crime and Punishment filtered through the sensibilities of Simenon and Beckett and distilled into a novel … Gripping and mysterious, The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau lingers in the reader's mind long after the late nights of reading it has inspired.’
John Langan, author of The Fisherman
‘This is a crime novel but it is so much more than that, and whilst it owes a lot to Simenon, it is in no way diminished by that comparison.’
Crime Review UK
‘A deeply atmospheric read … in Graeme Macrae Burnet, we have a refreshing new storyteller, one who presents his morbidly interestingly tales in a most assured and riveting fashion.’
Scottish Books
Longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award
Selected amongst Scotland’s Best 2014 Titles by The List Magazine