Benbecula

Burnet (Case Study) delves into the circumstances behind a shocking crime in this eerie tale. In 1857 Scotland, 30-something narrator Malcolm MacPhee’s younger brother Angus returns to the bleak isle of Benbecula after spending two weeks working on a neighboring island. Angus is in such an agitated state that his family ties him to his bed until he calms down. One day soon after, his three siblings are called to fetch Angus from the local church, where they find him wildly ringing its bell, and they shackle him again. After he’s freed, he bashes in the heads of his aunt, mother, and father with a rock while Malcolm; their older sister, Marion; and their youngest brother, John, are out collecting seaweed. Malcolm’s account oscillates from bawdy depictions of Angus’s youthful transgressions, such as his compulsive masturbation, to the aftermath of the murders some years later, when John and Marion are missing for unknown reasons. The novel’s devilish appeal lies in the intoxicated and isolated Malcolm’s narration from within the confines of his family’s “skullhouse,” where he muses about his own morality (“It’s not that I am wicked, at least I do not think I am. I am neither good nor bad. I simply am”). The author once again proves his mastery of moody psychological thrillers. Agent: Isobel Dixon, Blake Friedmann Literary. (Nov.)