Graeme Macrae Burnet
Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock and now lives in Glasgow. He is the author of five novels and a novella. His novels are His Bloody Project, Case Study and the French-set Gorski trilogy, the final part of which A Case of Matricide was published in October 2024. His novella Benbecula was published in October 2025 in Polygon’s Darklands series. The Guardian called it βintense and utterly compelling.β
His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize and won the Saltire Prize for Fiction. It was variously described as βastonishingβ, βfiendishly readableβ and βspellbindingβ. Case Study was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and included in the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022. Hannah Kent called it βa novel of mind-bending brilliance.β The Financial Times declared A Case of Matricide ‘a triumph’. It won the Australian Crime Writers Best International Crime award.
Graemeβs work has been translated into more than twenty languages, and he has appeared at festivals all over the world.
Case Study
Read an extract
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022
βA page-turning blast, funny, sinister and perfectly plotted β¦ Rarely has being constantly wrong-footed been so much fun.β James Walton, The Times “A novel of mind-bending brilliance.” Hannah Kent βFun and funny, sly and serious, a beguiling literary game.”Β David Szalay
I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.’
London, 1965. An unworldly young woman believes that a charismatic psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, has driven her sister to take her own life. Intent on confirming her suspicions, she assumes a false identity and presents herself to him as a client, recording her experiences in a series of notebooks. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything. Even her own character.
In Case Study, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents these notebooks interspersed with his own biographical research into Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling β and often wickedly humorous β meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.
From the author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted His Bloody Project. www.casestudyGMB.com
Prizes and awards
SHORTLISTED: GORDON BURN PRIZE 2022
LONGLISTED: THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022
SHORTLISTED: NED KELLY AWARDS 2022
LONGLISTED: HWA GOLD CROWN 2022
REVIEWS OF Case Study
βForensic, elusive and mordantly funny β¦ layered with questions about authenticity and the self.β Booker Prize judges
βEncourages us to look more closely at the inherent instability of fiction itself β¦ genuinely affecting β¦ a very funny book.β βNINA ALLAN, GUARDIAN Read more
"Enormous fun β¦ a mystery and a psychological drama wrapped up in one. Case Study is a triumph." β ALEX PRESTON, OBSERVER Read more
"Caustically funny and surprisingly moving, this is one of the finest novels of the year." β CHRISTIAN HOUSE, FINANCIAL TIMES
"Brilliant, bamboozling β¦ Burnet captures his charactersβ voices so brilliantly that what might have been just an intellectual game feels burstingly alive and engaging.β β JAKE KERRIDGE, TELEGRAPH
"A masterclass of diversion β¦ blurring the lines of fiction and reality β¦ serious and witty at once β¦ an enthralling read." β HEATHER MCDAID, THE SKINNY
βUndoubtedly one of the best books of the year.β β ALISTAIR BRAIDWOOD, SCOTS WHAY HAE
"A riveting psychological plot ... tortuous, cunning ... clever." β KATE WEBB, THE TLS Read more
βCompelling β¦ I was hooked like a fish.β β LEYLA SANAI, SPECTATOR Read more
βPoses questions about the nature of the self and the authenticity of identity β¦ He is an uncommonly interesting and satisfying novelist.β β ALLAN MASSIE, SCOTSMAN Read more
βSinister and cleverly done.β β DAILY MAIL
βA page-turning blast, funny, sinister and perfectly plotted β¦ Rarely has being constantly wrong-footed been so much fun.β β JAMES WALTON, THE TIMES Read more
"A wonderful book, very beautifully and intricately written, finely detailed and at times laugh-out-loud funny, populated by satisfying, well-drawn characters." β ARABELLA WEIR
βWhat a book! β¦ a dizzying experience β¦ The characterisation is superb; so rich β¦ The sense of time and place is also wonderful.β β CATHERINE SIMPSON
"A novel of mind-bending brilliance. Graeme Macrae Burnet is a master of muddying the waters, of troubling ideas of truth and identity, fiction and documentary, and Case Study shows him at the height of his powers." β HANNAH KENT
βA thrilling investigation into the nature of sanity and identity.β β ALICE O'KEEFFE, THE BOOKSELLER
βFun and funny, sly and serious, a beguiling literary game that manages to say more about the nature of the self than any number of more self-consciously solemn works.β β DAVID SZALAY
