Book review: Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Polygon, £12.00)

If you’ve read any of my previous reviews, it will be clear that I’m often attracted to books set on the coast, and, even better, on a remote island, the further away the better. I came across BENBECULA by chance, after I spotted that it has been long listed for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026. It has also been long listed for the 2025 Highland Book Prize. I’ve not read any of this Scottish novelist’s work before: Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of six novels, one of which, HIS BLOODY PROJECT, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and another, CASE STUDY, longlisted for the Booker Prize. The first two lines, set starkly on the opening blank page, were enough to draw me in: ‘It is dark now and my window onto the world is a small one. I do not know how much longer I will be here.’ Set in the 1850s, on the Herbridean island of Benbecula, the novel is first-person narrated by Malcolm MacPhee, a man in his 30s, who is the sole member of his family to remain on the island. One brother, John, has left, along with sister, Marion, and we’re told on page 3 that their other brother, Angus, had murdered their mother, father, and aunt, brutally, on 9 July 1857. The narrative weaves back and forth between the present day, and the past, when Malcolm is growing up, but focussing particularly on the weeks leading up to the brutal murders. What captured me wholeheartedly was the strength of Malcolm’s voice: his word choices, syntax, and emotions tell of a simple island dweller, but one who, nevertheless, has a strong, wily personality, and understandable human desires, not least for Peggy MacRury, with whom he falls in love as a young man, and sturdy Mrs MacLeod, who gives him a monthly bath. We learn, early on, that Angus, his brother, is a strange troublemaker, suspected within the community of madness, and the book is propelled right to the end by a single question - why does Angus murder his family? Yet brilliantly, the narrator’s tone grows darker as the book progresses, and I began to suspect that he, too, may have committed questionable deeds. Here is a portrait of innocent, rural island life, peopled with a clutch of beautifully drawn characters, dealing with evil in their midst. But here, too, is a dark, taut thriller that I couldn’t put down. Any narrator who tells me that he likes to ‘scuttle’ under cover of night has my attention! I read this book over a single day (168pp) and was devastated to reach the end. BENBECULA is based on real historical events, and Graeme Macrae Burnet provides background to these in an Afterword. For me, whilst this was interesting, I was so caught up in the narrative that I didn’t feel I needed them. Do read this wonderful, often funny, book - it’s a masterclass in character, suspense, and atmosphere. For more reviews of recent books,, scroll down and click on the arrow below.

BENBECULA by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Polygon, £12.00)