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His Bloody Project

Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae: a Historical Thriller
Jan 03, 2017Chapel_Hill_MaiaJ rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Although this isn't the type of book I'd normally pick up, I thought I'd give it a look because it was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, and it didn't fail to impress. The author does such a good job getting into the different narrators' voices that I had to remind myself that it was actually a work of fiction, and not a collection of real historical documents. This is not a book that ends with a neatly tied up bow. It is a book that makes you think--about the complexity of an insanity defense, about the nature of truth, about the reliability (or unreliability as the case may be) of eyewitness testimony, even from the killer himself, because there's no way to know what perceptions or beliefs may cloud their recollection, or if they might even be outright lying. If you enjoy thinking deeply about a character's motivations, then this is definitely the book for you.