Polygon has acquired Benbecula by Booker Prize-shortlisted author Graeme Macrae Burnet. Benbecula will be the sixth title in Polygon’s acclaimed Darkland Tales series, which sees Scottish authors reimagine key moments from Scottish history, myth and legend. Previous titles in the series include Rizzio by Denise Mina, Hex by Jenni Fagan, Nothing Left to Fear from Hell by Alan Warner, Columba’s Bones by David Greig, and most recently, Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid. Polygon Editor-at-Large Jamie Crawford acquired UK and British Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. Benbecula will be published by Polygon in Winter 2025.
‘I couldn’t be more thrilled to be writing a novella for Polygon’s Darkland Tales, a series that has quickly established itself as “must-read” for anyone interested in Scottish literature and history. I find myself immersed in a grimly fascinating murder case that has haunted me since I first came across it over a decade ago.’
–Graeme Macrae Burnet, Author
The book is based on a true story. Graeme’s inspiration for his Booker-shortlisted His Bloody Project came from a case in 1835 in rural Normandy in which a young Frenchman brutally murdered his mother and two siblings then wrote a memoir to justify what he’d done. It was only late in the writing of His Bloody Project that Graeme heard about another murder committed on the Scottish island of Benbecula in 1857 when a crofter called Angus MacPhee butchered his mother and two other family members. This true story forms the basis for his Darkland Tale.
On the 9th of July 1857, a twenty-five-year-old labourer named Angus MacPhee bludgeoned to death his parents and aunt in the crofting community on the remote Hebridean island of Benbecula. Five years later, Angus’s older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity. Malcolm is ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past, but is he as innocent as he seems? From Graeme Macrae Burnet, the Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project, comes a tale of darkness, violence and madness, leavened by moments of black humour and absurdity.
‘Graeme is the perfect author for the Darklands series – wonderfully adept at mashing-up convention and genre, and a master at the darkly humorous and subversive tone that makes these books such compelling reads. It will be hugely exciting to see his thrilling vision for this latest tale make its way on to the page.’
–Jamie Crawford, Polygon Editor-at-Large
‘Graeme is so brilliant at exploring the fertile borderlands of fact and fiction in his work and I’m delighted that Jamie Crawford realised how Polygon’s Darkland Tales series forms a perfect match for that sensibility. I know that readers will be utterly gripped by what Graeme makes of this historic family tragedy in the Outer Hebrides – already we’re fielding a great deal of interest in other rights.’
–Isobel Dixon, Agent
Born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, Graeme Macrae Burnet studied English Literature at the University of Glasgow and International Security Studies at the University of St Andrews. He subsequently taught English in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London, before returning to Glasgow where he worked with various independent television companies.His debut novel, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau was published by Saraband in 2014 and earned him a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust. It was followed by another Inspector Gorski novel, The Accident on the A35, in 2017 and the trilogy concluded in 2024 with the acclaimed A Case of Matricide. Lauded by critics and readers alike, his 2015 novel His Bloody Project won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2015 and was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize. Burnet’s fourth novel, the 1960s-set Case Study (2021), was named as one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022 and sold in 22 countries. It was also shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, Ned Kelly International Crime Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize, Dublin Literary Award and the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown award.
