Recommendations based on His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macraeby Graeme Macrae Burnet

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The North Water

    by Ian McGuire
    A gruesome, dark journey on a whaling ship to the icy north, uncovering the depths of human depravity.

    A ship sets sail with a killer on board . . . 1859. A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Underground Railroad

    by Colson Whitehead
    An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.

    The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Secret History

    by Donna Tartt
    A small group of misfit college students uncover a sinister secret and their lives become entangled with dangerous consequences.

    Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the ... (Goodreads)

  4. Station Eleven

    by Emily St. John Mandel
    Post-apocalyptic exploration of a world drastically changed after a pandemic.

    An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse,, Station Eleven, tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of ... (Barnes & Noble)

  5. Wolf Hall

    by Hilary Mantel
    A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

    England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Paying Guests

    by Sarah Waters
    A forbidden affair between two women in 1920s London, amidst an era of social change.

    It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now ... (Goodreads)

  7. Ghostwritten

    by David Mitchell
    A series of interconnected stories spanning across the globe, exploring the lives of seemingly unrelated characters and their impact on each other.

    This section details the actions of Quasar, a member of a millenarianist doomsday cult , attempting to evade capture after releasing nerve agents into a Tokyo subway train. He believes himself to be ... (Wikipedia)

  8. The Sympathizer

    by Viet Thanh Nguyen
    Vietnam War refugee returns to his homeland and struggles to reconcile conflicting loyalties.

    It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Children Act

    by Ian McEwan
    A family court judge must make a difficult decision between the law and her conscience.

    Fiona Maye is a respected High Court Judge specialising in Family Law and living in Gray's Inn Square. While reviewing a case, she is approached by her husband, Jack, who tells her that because of ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Mothering Sunday

    by Graham Swift
    A young woman's emotional journey of self-discovery as she grapples with a tragic secret.

    A luminous, intensely moving tale that begins with a secret lovers' assignation in the spring of 1924, then unfolds to reveal the whole of a remarkable life. Twenty-two-year-old Jane Fairchild has ... (Goodreads)

  11. Burial Rites

    by Hannah Kent
    A woman awaits her execution in 19th-century Iceland, reliving her story of hardship, loss and faith.

    Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a servant in northern Iceland who was condemned to death after the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer, and became the last woman put ... (Wikipedia)

  12. I Am Pilgrim

    by Terry Hayes
    A former operative is called back into action to track down a terrorist plotting a global attack.

    A breakneck race against time...and an implacable enemy. An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid. A father publicly beheaded in the ... (Goodreads)

  13. Norse Mythology

    by Neil Gaiman
    Epic tales of the gods and goddesses of Norse mythology, set in a world of giants, dwarfs, and monsters.

    “Remarkable.… Gaiman has provided an enchanting contemporary interpretation of the Viking ethos.”—Lisa L. Hannett, Atlantic Neil Gaiman, long inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical ... (Barnes & Noble)

  14. Hot Milk

    by Deborah Levy
    A woman's quest for answers to her mysterious, chronic illness.

    Sofia, a young anthropologist, has spent much of her life trying to solve the mystery of her mother's unexplainable illness. She's frustrated with Rose and her constant complaints but utterly ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Essex Serpent

    by Sarah Perry
    A woman's spiritual journey of faith and doubt, set against the backdrop of a mysterious sea-serpent.

    After being widowed when her wealthy, abusive husband dies of throat cancer, Cora Seaborne decides to ignore the trappings of her London society life and take up amateur palaeontology. Vacationing in ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Loney

    by Andrew Michael Hurley
    A haunting tale of a pilgrimage to a desolate stretch of the English coastline, where dark secrets and supernatural forces lurk.

    "If it had another name, I never knew, but the locals called it the Loney - that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Sense of an Ending

    by Julian Barnes
    An exploration of memory and its impact on the present, looking at the choices we make in life.

    By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Muse

    by Jessie Burton
    A young woman's exploration of identity and artistry, set in the 1960s England and Spain.

    From the #1 internationally bestselling author of, The Miniaturist, comes a captivating and brilliantly realized story of two young women—a Caribbean immigrant in 1960s London, and a bohemian woman ... (Barnes & Noble)

  19. The Sound of Things Falling

    by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
    An exploration of the history and consequences of the drug trade in Colombia.

    Juan Gabriel Vásquez has been hailed not only as one of South America’s greatest literary stars, but also as one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. In this gorgeously wrought, ... (Goodreads)

  20. Gentlemen and Players

    by Joanne Harris
    A tale of secrets and lies, as two men battle a deadly game of chess.

    As the new school year starts in September, Roy Straitley is looking forward to his 100th term at St Oswald's, where he has been teaching for 33 years. Having never married, he lives alone and has ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Sellout

    by Paul Beatty
    An outrageous satire of race and civil rights in modern America.

    The novel concerns a narrator, referred to by his childhood nickname "Bonbon" or his last name, "Me," who attempts to reintroduce segregation and keep a slave named Hominy in Dickens, his Los Angeles ... (Wikipedia)

  22. The Line of Beauty

    by Alan Hollinghurst
    The story of a young gay man in Thatcher's England, navigating his identity and sexuality.

    The novel is set in Britain in three parts, taking place in 1983, 1986 and 1987. The story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest. Nick is middle-class and from the fictional market town of ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Bear and the Nightingale

    by Katherine Arden
    A folktale of a brave girl who defies the dark forces threatening her village.

    At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a ... (Goodreads)

  24. Do Not Say We Have Nothing

    by Madeleine Thien
    A family saga spanning generations of musicians in China, exploring the impact of political upheaval on their lives and art.

    The novel begins with a girl named Marie living with her mother in Vancouver , Canada. The year is 1991, and the addition to their household of a Chinese refugee fleeing the post-Tiananmen Square ... (Wikipedia)

  25. The Reader

    by Bernhard Schlink
    A man's journey of understanding, uncovering a dark secret from his past.

    Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Silkworm

    by Robert Galbraith
    Detective investigates the murder of a novelist, uncovering shocking secrets.

    Several months after solving the Lula Landry case , Cormoran Strike is asked by Leonora Quine to locate her novelist husband Owen, a former literary genius whose attempts to recreate his past success ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Things We Lost in the Fire

    by Mariana Enríquez
    A collection of horror stories, exploring society's dark and disturbing aspects.

    In these wildly imaginative, devilishly daring tales of the macabre, internationally bestselling author Mariana Enriquez brings contemporary Argentina to vibrant life as a place where shocking ... (Goodreads)

  28. The Wonder

    by Emma Donoghue
    A nurse is sent to a small Irish village to observe a girl who claims to have survived without food.

    In this masterpiece by Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of, Room, an English nurse is brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle — a girl said to have survived without ... (Barnes & Noble)

  29. Eileen

    by Ottessa Moshfegh
    Eileen, a disturbed young woman, works at a boys' prison and becomes involved in a crime. A dark and unsettling character study.

    The story of an unhappy 24-year-old woman named Eileen who works at a prison, and what happens to her during a bitter Massachusetts winter in 1964. The novel was well received by, The New York Times, ... (Wikipedia)

  30. All Things Cease to Appear

    by Elizabeth Brundage
    A family moves into a haunted farmhouse, and the husband is accused of murder. The past and present collide in this chilling mystery.

    A dark, riveting, beautifully written book—by “a brilliant novelist” according to Richard Bausch—that combines noir and the gothic in a story about two families entwined in their own unhappiness, ... (Goodreads)