Graeme Macrae Burnet’s acclaimed conclusion to the Inspector Gorski trilogy, A CASE OF MATRICIDE, has been shortlisted for this year’s Ned Kelly Awards. Run by the Australian Crime Writers Association, the Ned Kelly Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious honours for the best crime fiction and true crime writing published in Australia. A CASE OF MATRICIDE, published by Text Publishing in Australia in October 2024, is recognised in this year’s Best International Crime Fiction category, alongside fellow nominees Michael Bennett, David McCloskey, Charity Norman, Jacqueline Bublitz and Michael Connelly. The winner, who will follow in the footsteps of recent honourees Adrian McKinty, Chris Whitaker, Nita Prose and Louise Candlish, will be revealed in September.

A CASE OF MATRICIDE – in which small-town French police inspector Georges Gorski must investigate the overlapping paths of a deceased business magnate, a shadowy stranger with no apparent reason to be there, and the titular threat of familial murder – sees Graeme receive his second nomination at the Ned Kelly Awards, having also been recognised for his Booker-longlisted standalone CASE STUDY in 2022.

Alongside Text Publishing, A CASE OF MATRICIDE was published in North America by Biblioasis and, most recently, as a paperback in the UK by Saraband in May 2025. The audiobook edition is published by Bolinda, and rights have sold to Impedimenta in Spain. Graeme will return this autumn with his new novella BENBECULA, the latest entry in Polygon’s Darkland Tales series, in which Scotland’s best writers reimagine moments from the country’s past – Polygon, Biblioasis and Text will all publish in October 2025.

Congratulations Graeme!

About A CASE OF MATRICIDE

In the unremarkable French town of Saint-Louis, a mysterious stranger stalks the streets; an elderly woman believes her son is planning to do away with her; a prominent manufacturer drops dead. Between visits to the town’s bars, Chief Inspector Georges Gorski mulls over the connections, if any, between these events, while all the time grappling with his own domestic and existential demons.

Graeme Macrae Burnet pierces the respectable bourgeois façade of small-town life in this deeply human story. He draws a wry humour from the tiniest of details and delves into the darkest recesses of his characters’ minds to present a fascinating puzzle that blurs the boundaries between suspect, investigator and reader in an entertaining, profound and moving novel.

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, and the trilogy was completed in 2024 with the ‘tragic, cinematic, propulsive' (Martin MacInnes) A CASE OF MATRICIDE.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize. It has been published in over twenty languages. CASE STUDY was published in 2021 by Saraband (UK), Text (ANZ) and Bolinda (UK audio) to wide critical acclaim. The North American edition was published in 2022 by Biblioasis. It has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 and the Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Ned Kelly International Crime Prize. It has been published in fifteen languages.

Graeme was named Author of the Year in the 2017 Sunday Herald Culture Awards and has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany, Poland and France, as well as in the UK.

Praise for A CASE OF MATRICIDE

‘A dizzyingly immersive experience. Macrae Burnet’s Gorski novels were already a significant achievement, but the concluding part is breathtaking – tragic, cinematic, propulsive – and marks a new standard in contemporary crime fiction.’ – Martin MacInnes, Booker-longlisted author of IN ASCENSION

‘Burnet plays metafictional games, but the book pulls off the rare double of being emotionally involving as well as teasingly tricksy.’ – Jake Kerridge, 5* review, The Telegraph

‘Brilliantly weird.’ – Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

‘I’ve long appreciated the way Burnet’s novels are in conversation with earlier times… min[ing] the postmodern era without pretense and with deep respect… You can gulp down A CASE OF MATRICIDE in one sitting, as the prose style seems to demand. But linger over Burnet’s novel, and its real pleasures emerge.’ – Sarah Weinman, New York Times

‘A CASE OF MATRICIDE demonstrates literary talent of the highest order… Details of place are especially rich, and the subtle mores of the small town are reflected in Gorski’s misguided incorruptibility… few writers can rival Burnet.’ – Andrew Rosenheim, The Spectator

‘Macrae Burnet brings a slyly playful quality to his reimagining of the classic police procedural… and here delivers a wickedly funny novel that owes as much of a debt to Albert Camus as it does to Georges Simenon.’ – Declan Burke, Irish Times

‘Burnet has proved to be a durable talent, and A CASE OF MATRICIDE continues his upwards trajectory… this final book in a trilogy is a triumph.’ – Barry Forshaw, Financial Times

‘Graeme Macrae Burnet’s A CASE OF MATRICIDE finished up his Gorski trilogy with all the Kafkaesque shenanigans, paranoia and observational bathos you could wish for. It’s an incredibly fun, cleverly crafted novel that works on so many levels I can even forgive him for being a postmodernist.’ – Eimear McBride, The New Statesman, ‘Books of the Year 2024’

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We are delighted that Biblioasis have clinched a deal for North American rights to CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet and will publish in the US and Canada on 1 November this year. Dan Wells acquired rights from Blake Friedmann’s Isobel Dixon, with an offer made before the news of CASE STUDY’s longlisting for the UK’s prestigious Booker Prize. Graeme will visit Canada and make a couple of festival appearances (details to be confirmed shortly) around the time of publication.

CASE STUDY was published by Saraband Books in the UK and Text in Australia, with the audio edition released by Bolinda. It has already been the recipient of numerous accolades, in addition to the Booker longlisting, including being chosen as a Book of the year in 2021 by The Spectator, The Scotsman and Waterstones. It is shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2022, shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award, and was one of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s favourite books of 2021. To date, translation rights have been sold in 12 further countries.

Dan Wells says: ‘We're delighted to be the North American publishers of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s CASE STUDY, a fabulously playful novel of psychological intrigue that kept us guessing from the first pages through to the last. A joyful puzzle of a book, brilliant and funny, it's no surprise to us that it has made the Booker longlist: our congratulations go out to Graeme, and we look forward to introducing readers to the world of Collins Braithwaite and Rebecca Smyth (or whoever she may in fact be).’

Isobel Dixon says: ‘It’s a delight to welcome Dan Wells and Biblioasis to Graeme Macrae Burnet’s excellent indie publisher ranks and to know that Graeme’s dazzling CASE STUDY will go out to North American readers published with such energy and care. Biblioasis is an excellent home for this brilliant book and readers in Canada and America are in for a treat.’

Graeme Macrae Burnet says: ‘I feel that CASE STUDY has found its perfect North American home with Biblioasis, such an exciting indie with a great track record. I’m thrilled, and really looking forward to working with Dan and his team.’

CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet

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 suspects charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite of involvement in a death in her family. Determined to find out more, she becomes a client of his under a false identity. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything.

In CASE STUDY, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents both sides: the woman’s notes and the life of Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling, page-turning and wickedly humorous meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

Praise for CASE STUDY

‘A mystery story – or is it? – that takes us into the heart of the psychoanalytical consulting room. Or does it? Interleaving a biography of radical ’60s “untherapist” Collins Braithwaite with the notebooks of his patient “Rebecca”, a young woman seeking answers about the death of her sister, “GMB” presents a forensic, elusive and mordantly funny text(s) layered with questions about authenticity and the self.’ – 2022 Booker Prize Jury Statement, Longlisted.

‘A twisting and often wickedly humorous work of crime fiction that meditates on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself.’ – Gordon Burn Prize Jury Citation, Shortlisted.

‘A provocative send-up of mid-century British mores and the roots of modern psychotherapy … brisk and engaging.’ – Kirkus

‘Brilliant, bamboozling… In addition to CASE STUDY’s ludic pleasures, Burnet captures his characters’ voices so brilliantly that what might have been just an intellectual game feels burstingly alive and engaging.’ – Jake Kerridge, 5-star review, Sunday Telegraph

‘Consistently inventive, caustically funny and surprisingly moving, this is one of the finest novels of the year.’ – Christian House, Financial Times

‘Enormous fun to read, a mystery and a psychological drama wrapped up in one – CASE STUDY is a triumph.’ – Alex Preston, Guardian, ‘Book of the Day’

‘This is a novel which, like Macrae Burnet’s previous ones, holds the attention, develops an insidious narrative interest, and poses questions about the nature of the self and the authenticity of identity . . . Macrae Burnet writes with an admirable lucidity, at the same time being able to probe and shed light on the dark places of the mind. … He is an uncommonly interesting and satisfying novelist.’ – Allan Massie, The Scotsman

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was brought up Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London. He has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as in the UK. He has also been shortlisted for European and American literary awards.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, the year he won Author of the Year for the Sunday Herald Culture Awards.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards. It has been published to great acclaim around the world and film rights have been optioned by Synchronicity.

His latest novel CASE STUDY is longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize in the UK, as well as being shortlisted for the Australian Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction 2022.

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