BENBECULA by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Ever since the brilliant Darkland Tales series kicked off, I’ve been hoping Graeme Macrae Burnet would get a tap on the shoulder. I mean, who better to contribute a fresh take on some contested Scottish history than the guy whose entire career was founded on excavating and reimagining obscure episodes from his family’s past? Six books in, we now get Benbecula and, just as I’d hoped, Burnet has unearthed a doozy of a tale from the outer marginalia of the history books.
Drawn from court files and county registers, Benbecula tells of the murder of three members of the McFee family by one of their own - the troubled labourer Angus - on a small island off Scotland. The story is related, some years after the events, by his older brother Malcolm and what emerges is a subtly drawn portrait of complex family dynamics, class division, the inadequacy of mental health awareness and care, and a penal system that serves proprietary interests while learning to integrate the new law of criminal insanity. Part psychological thriller, part socio-legal critique, Benbecula is peak Burnet. It’s a blast to read but its real genius lies between the lines.
Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Polygon, 2025
140 pages