Graeme Macrae Burnet’s BENBECULA has been nominated for the Best International Crime Fiction prize at the Ned Kelly Awards – putting Graeme in contention for the prize for a second year in a row, following his victory in 2025 for the conclusion to the Inspector Gorski trilogy, A CASE OF MATRICIDE.
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. BENBECULA, published by Text Publishing in Australia in November 2025, is recognised in this year’s Best International Crime Fiction category, alongside fellow nominees Tom Baragwanath, Michael Connelly and Abigail Dean. The winner will be revealed during an online ceremony in September.
This latest announcement brings the tally for BENBECULA up to four prize nods, following a shortlisting by the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and longlistings by the Highland Book Prize and the Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger award. BENBECULA was originally published by Polygon in their Darkland Tales series, in which prominent Scottish authors reimagine a striking moment of Scottish history.
Congratulations Graeme!
About BENBECULA
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.
A dark, psychological thriller from the Booker-shortlisted author of HIS BLOODY PROJECT, leavened by moments of black humour and absurdity, BENBECULA was commissioned by Polygon for their Darkland Tales series – where Scotland’s best writers (including Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Alan Warner and others) re-imagine true stories from the country’s past, each bringing the tales up to date with their own unique voice and identity.
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 was 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 is 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, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany, Poland and France, as well as in the UK.
Praise for BENBECULA
‘Graeme Macrae Burnet’s recreation of a macabre incident in 19th-century Hebridean history is unrelentingly disturbing and utterly gripping’ – James Robertson
‘Graeme Macrae Burnet made his name with HIS BLOODY PROJECT… BENBECULA, based on a real murder, shares similarities with that novel. In both he skilfully evokes rural crofting life in the 19th century – and tells the story using narrators who have an uncertain relationship with the truth. An unsettling picture of Malcolm begins to emerge, and an already twisted novel becomes even more deliciously dark.’ – Antonia Senior, The Times, ‘The best historical fiction books of 2025’
‘Some crime writers are successful at creating fully-formed living, breathing characters; others are more adept at playing games with the reader: to an almost unique degree, Macrae Burnet excels at both.’ – Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph, ‘The 21 best crime and thriller novels of 2025’
‘Burnet’s vivid portrayal of a troubled household by a man attempting to explain the inexplicable is dark, intense and utterly compelling.’ – Laura Wilson, The Guardian, ‘The best recent crime and thrillers’
‘A neat and clever tale that beds its roots firmly in the gothic, with themes of madness, isolation and morality at its dark heart. What happens when communities are tarred by association, and is it possible to keep the right side of madness when all around you madness abounds? BENBECULA is as far removed from the recent cosy-crime tradition as it is possible to be: this is claustrophobic crime at its very best, and with so very much to admire.’ – Judges’ citation, Walter Scott Prize
Visit Graeme’s website.
