His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
It seems to me that anyone writing a novel about historical events must have strong feelings about the interpretation of the events described. The author either wants to validate the verdict of history, or challenge it. Novelists rehabilitate (or destroy) reputations, drag minor characters from the shadows to become the star of the show, quilt together a patchwork of sources and clues to solve ancient mysteries, or put a modern spin on accepted interpretations of action and motive.
Which makes me wonder what this novel is âforâ?
Ostensibly this is a collection of documents relating to a 1860s murder committed by the author's distant relative, the teenaged son of a poor crofter on an isolated estate in the Highlands. In a frenzied attack, the boy killed three neighbours, immediately admitting what he had done and offering no real defense. The documents are a brief account of how the author's genealogical research turned up this black sheep of his family; a biography written in prison by the accused, as he awaited trial; a report by a noted alienist of the period, considering the Defense's attempt to claim insanity, and reports gleaned from local newspapers on the trial and subsequent events. There's a glossary, bibliography, and footnotes aplenty. It's only at the end, you discover that not a word of this is true: the boy, the murder, the family history are all complete fictions.
Which leads me to ask, once again, what is this novel âforâ?
It's not âforâ the mystery â Spoiler Alert, what you see here is what you get. It's not "for" any deep character insights: every single character including the murderer himself, is relentlessly two-dimensional, and curiously affectless â it is really very hard to care about any of them. To a certain extent, it succeeds for me as historical document â a reconstruction of the miseries of life for Highlands crofters, of the legal system of 19th century Scotland, of the stumbling awaking of modern criminal psychology.
Hence the two-stars; but apart from that, I can't share the high opinion that others have of this.
Which makes me wonder what this novel is âforâ?
Ostensibly this is a collection of documents relating to a 1860s murder committed by the author's distant relative, the teenaged son of a poor crofter on an isolated estate in the Highlands. In a frenzied attack, the boy killed three neighbours, immediately admitting what he had done and offering no real defense. The documents are a brief account of how the author's genealogical research turned up this black sheep of his family; a biography written in prison by the accused, as he awaited trial; a report by a noted alienist of the period, considering the Defense's attempt to claim insanity, and reports gleaned from local newspapers on the trial and subsequent events. There's a glossary, bibliography, and footnotes aplenty. It's only at the end, you discover that not a word of this is true: the boy, the murder, the family history are all complete fictions.
Which leads me to ask, once again, what is this novel âforâ?
It's not âforâ the mystery â Spoiler Alert, what you see here is what you get. It's not "for" any deep character insights: every single character including the murderer himself, is relentlessly two-dimensional, and curiously affectless â it is really very hard to care about any of them. To a certain extent, it succeeds for me as historical document â a reconstruction of the miseries of life for Highlands crofters, of the legal system of 19th century Scotland, of the stumbling awaking of modern criminal psychology.
Hence the two-stars; but apart from that, I can't share the high opinion that others have of this.
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