This guide was created using the following version of this text: Burnet, Macrae Graeme. His Bloody Project. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2015.

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet is a pseudo-historical crime novel that analyzes the crimes of a seventeen-year-old Scottish crofter’s son named Roderick Macrae, Roddy. Much of the book consists of Roddy’s personal account of the events leading up to the crime as well as the crime itself.

Roddy’s account begins by explaining he lives with his father, John “Black Macrae” and Roddy’s sister Jetta. The Macraes are crofters as are the majority of the citizens in their village known as Culduie. Roddy tells of a long-lasting feud between the Mackenzie and Macrae families that is only elongated by Roddy’s killing a sheep that fell into the mud and suffered a broken leg. Eventually, the Mackenzie patriarch, Lachlan Mackenzie became the village’s constable. This allowed Lachlan to further his vendetta against the Macraes. For example, Lachlan reduced the size of the family’s croft and limited their access to the fertilizer, sea-ware.

One day, on the way home from mandatory work put upon Roddy by Lachlan, he found Lachlan having sex with Jetta. He brushed this encounter off and continued on. Eventually, Roddy became friends with Lachlan’s daughter, Flora, causing Roddy to fall in love with her. At the yearly village Gathering, Roddy drunkenly admitted these feelings to Flora, and Roddy learned that the feelings were not mutual. This caused Roddy to go to the inn to get even more drunk, where he was eventually assaulted by Lachlan.

Not long after, Roddy returned home to find that eviction papers have been served to his family thanks to Lachlan Mackenzie. In his anger, John Macrae admitted that he knew that Jetta was pregnant and demanded to know who was responsible. Roddy explained that Lachlan Mackenzie was the father, which caused John to assault his daughter. Roddy stopped his father, and the sibling retreated to the barn. It is here that Roddy decided to murder Lachlan Broad. Once at the Mackenzie home, Roddy finds Flora, who he killed and possibly sexually assaulted. Once her brother Donnie entered, Roddy killed him as well. Lachlan finally arrived and a struggle ensued, which ended in Lachlan’s death. After the murders, Roddy’s neighbors hide Roddy until the proper authorities arrived. The reader later learns that during this period, Jetta hanged herself.

The majority of the rest of the book consists of court documents and reports of the happenings within the courtroom. Roddy’s advocate, Andrew Sinclair attempted to claim that Roddy was insane at the time of the crime. After a variety of character witnesses, psychological “experts,” and medical officers testified, Roddy is found guilty of the murders and sentenced to hanging. Before his hanging, Roddy wrote a letter to his father, which never reached him, as he died before it arrived. After a failed petition, Roddy was hanged.