Roderick Macrae

Rodrick or Roddy Macrae is a young 17-year-old Culduie boy and the author of the account of his crimes that makes up much of this book. Through his written narrative, Roddy seems much more articulate than he should be due to his impoverished and relatively uneducated circumstances. Roddy seems rather obsessive about a variety of things, from the tribulations that Lachlan Mackenzie put upon his father (leading to the novel’s crime) to Flora Mackenzie (leading to him looking for her through her windows at night.

However, the book does not make it clear whether Roddy is within his right mind, as Andrew Sinclair suggests that during the time of the murders, Roddy was suffering some sort of bout of psychosis. Roddy’s written account of the events does not make this clear, as the source of the narrative points towards Roddy being a very unreliable narrator...