Category: Reading Challenges

Book Review – Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet

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About the Book

On 9 July 1857, Angus MacPhee, a labourer from Liniclate on the island of Benbecula, murdered his father, mother and aunt. At trial in Inverness he was found to be criminally insane and confined in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison.

Some 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 living in isolation, ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past.

Format: Hardcover (170 pages) Publisher: Polygon
Publication date: 2nd October 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

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My Review

Benbecula, part of the Darkland Tales series, is based on the true story of a gruesome triple murder carried out in July 1857 on a small island in the Outer Hebrides. The author fills in the gaps in the available documentary evidence about the case to explore the events leading up to the murder.

Our narrator is Malcom MacPhee, the elder brother of Angus, the man responsible for the murder who was committed to the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison following his trial. It’s many years after the murder and Malcolm is living alone in the family home. He lives in a state of squalor, rarely bathing or venturing outside. His days are spent reflecting on his role in past events, especially the increasingly erratic behaviour of Angus, and pondering on his own mental state. Perhaps it’s true, he thinks, his family is ‘a poisoned lineage’.

Shunned by most of the villagers, Malcom’s only visitors are the local priest and a Mrs MacLeod who, seemingly of her own volition, turns up periodically to clean the house, force him to bathe and cut his hair; the latter he finds strangely erotic.

As he looks back on the past, Malcolm paints a picture of a very strange family who scrape a meagre living from tending a small strip of land (a ‘rig’) and collecting kelp from the shoreline. The most, possibly only, sensible person in the household in his sister Marion but the island has nothing to offer her except years more of the same backbreaking mundane tasks. Malcolm’s father is mostly inebriated and his mother spends her days obsessively tending the fire, sitting in front of it with her legs splayed.

Uncontrollable sexual urges and a capacity for violence lurk just under the surface. In the case of Angus these emerge from time to time in manic episodes. Angus’s violent outbursts and strange behaviour are an increasing burden on the family. They cannot afford to have him confined to an institution so they must be constantly vigilant. In practice this task falls to Malcom and Marion.

But how much can we trust Malcolm’s account of events? After all, we learn Malcolm shares some of the same violent and sexual impulses as Angus. For example, he interprets a cat tormenting a half-dead mouse as an entertainment put on for his benefit. And although he manages to control – just – most of his impulses, instead acting them out in his imagination, there is one very chilling act he carries out in reality. Through these and Malcom’s own insights into his unstable mind, the author provides just enough ambiguity to leave us wondering if there’s more to events than meets the eye.

This is not a book in which the crime itself dominates. In fact, the description of the murders doesn’t come until late in the book. Instead it’s much more an exploration of notions of hereditary insanity and attitudes towards mental illness prevalent at the time. The afterword provides details of source documents but also of the cruelty endured by Angus during his long incarceration. If this all sounds pretty depressing, rest assured there are moments of absurdity and dark humour.

In three words: Unsettling, sinister, atmospheric
Try something similar: A Granite Silence by Nina Allan

About the Author

Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of five novels: the Booker-shortlisted His Bloody Project, which has been published in over twenty languages; the Booker-longlisted Case Study (named as one of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2022); and the Georges Gorski trilogy, comprising The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, The Accident on the A35 and A Case of Matricide. Graeme was born in Kilmarnock and now lives in Glasgow.

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Book Review – Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier

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About the Book

She set men’s hearts on fire and scandalized a country.

In Regency London, the only way for a woman to succeed is to beat men at their own game. So when Mary Anne Clarke seeks an escape from her squalid surroundings in Bowling Inn Alley, she ventures first into the scurrilous world of the pamphleteers. Her personal charms are such, however, that before long she comes to the notice of the Duke of York.

With her taste for luxury and power, Mary Anne, now a royal mistress, must aim higher. Her lofty connections allow her to establish a thriving trade in military commissions, provoking a scandal that rocks the government – and brings personal disgrace.

Format: Hardcover (379 pages) Publisher: Victor Gollancz
Publication date: 1st January 1954 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Mary Anne is the first book from my new Classics Club list. Set during the Napoleonic Wars it’s a fictional account of the life of Daphne du Maurier’s own great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Clarke. From 1803 to 1808, Mary Anne was the mistress of Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (the ‘Grand Old Duke of York of the nursery rhyme) who was the second son of King George III.

Mary Anne’s story is one of a woman determined to rise above the circumstances of her birth and provide a better life for her three children, the product of a disastrous early marriage to a man with whom she was smitten but who turned out to be an inveterate gambler and drunkard. Scarred by this experience Mary Anne is encouraged to use her beauty and charm to attract a succession of wealthy men willing to support her increasingly lavish lifestyle. Throughout she keeps her marriage a secret, presenting herself as a widow.

When she comes to the notice of the Duke of York, it looks like she’s hit the jackpot. He appears besotted with her although she knows, given his position and the fact he is married, she will never be anything more than his mistress. Having said that I thought she developed a genuine affection for him. However, even the Duke proves unable to fund Mary Anne’s lifestyle – the dinner parties, the gowns, the jewellery – resulting in her running up debts with numerous traders. Forced to look elsewhere for money she becomes involved in using her influence with the Duke to obtain military commissions for those willing to pay.

Unfortunately it all comes tumbling down when her relationship with the Duke comes to an end. Mary Anne finds herself facing financial ruin and embarks on a campaign of revenge threatening to reveal his personal letters. Eventually she goes one step too far with catastrophic consequences.

Mary Anne makes a lively, very engaging heroine. She is quick-witted and charming but at the same time there’s a ruthless streak to her. And the line ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ could have been written with her in mind. Although she professes to be acting in the interests of her children, they have to move frequently from place to place whenever creditors threaten and Mary Anne is forced to seek a new patron.

The book’s major flaw is that it gets bogged down in a lengthy section describing a Parliamentary inquiry into the Duke of York which reads like a court transcript. Apparently du Maurier herself wasn’t entirely satisfied with the book acknowledging that some of it read more like newspaper reportage.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nathalie Buscombe as the text in my hardback copy was too small to read comfortably. I thought she did a great job of conveying the wit and charm that proved so irresistible to Mary Anne’s male acquaintances.

In three words: Lively, fascinating, detailed
Try something similar: England’s Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton by Kate Williams

About the Author

Daphne du Maurier (born May 13, 1907, London, England—died April 19, 1989, Par, Cornwall) was an English novelist and playwright, daughter of actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier, best known for her novel Rebecca (1938).

Du Maurier’s first novel, The Loving Spirit (1931), was followed by many successful, usually romantic tales set on the wild coast of Cornwall, where she came to live. She also wrote historical fiction, several plays, and Vanishing Cornwall (1967), a travel guide. Her popular Rebecca was made into a motion picture in 1940.

Du Maurier was made a Dame Commander in the Order of the British Empire in 1969. She published an autobiography, Growing Pains, in 1977; the collection The Rendezvous and Other Stories in 1980; and a literary reminiscence, The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, in 1981. (Source: Britannica)