His Bloody Project (2015) is a classic found document story, ostensibly presented as a collection of documents relating to a historical triple murder in a remote part of Scotland in 1869. The author, in his foreword, reportedly came across the story when researching an ancestor. The bulk of the book is dedicated to the testament of the alleged murderer, seventeen year old Roderick Macrae, a lengthy confession that is interesting, thrilling, and ultimately shocking. Among other things, also enclosed are medical reports, character witness statements, and an overview of the subsequent trial, on which Roddy’s fate on the gallows res

The trick employed here is in putting Macrae’s account up front. The reader, following his story, had no reason to doubt its veracity as he delivers the story of his tough life as the son of a powerless crofter, a life (as per the eloquence of his delivery) that suggests a greater potential that will be wasted in following tradition. But this is just one person’s version and Burnett pulls the rug out from underneath, forcing us to question what we have read, a seed planted in his preface when it’s suggested that the real author was someone else. To this end there’s an echo of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel Poor Things (itself a book where the author claims only editorship), whereby an original account is subverted by a letter addressing its errata.

At the heart of the book is the efficacy of testimony, for each additional resource provided serves only to muddy the water and sow doubt in readers’ minds. This is unreliable territory, where every person is only privy to their own interpretation, and that in itself can be corrupted by ulterior motive. Doubt is everywhere, motivations hidden behind the actions recounted, and where each person, like those in Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s In A Bamboo Grove (1922) has their version which is merely one piece in a larger mosaic.

Having read this book as part of the Scottish Book Club monthly read, the subsequent discussion showed the variety of interpretations possible, effectively highlighting the subjective nature of personal accounts. The truth is that His Bloody Project is an Escheresque puzzle where each path leads back to the presented facts and offers new interpretations. Like the jury assembled to pass judgment on young Roddy, to decide his guilt, the reader is also invited to interpret the case and form their own decision knowing there’s no right or wrong answer. Though it should be noted that the only words on record attributed to Roddy are ‘Not guilty, my lord’, a rare voice in the historical record for the type of person that history overlooks.