Rating: ๐๐๐๐
Publisher: Text publishing.
Genre: Fiction, psychological thriller.
Review in one word: Perky
#BookReview: Case Study by #Scottish writer Graeme MacRae Burnet who is the author of one of the best Scottish crime novels ever written His Bloody Project, which I have reviewed on this blog before #ContentCatnip 4 stars
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Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of one of the best Scottish crime novels ever written His Bloody Project, which I have reviewed on this blog before. Burnet’s new book is yet another step back in time and another psychological thriller. There is a similar focus on retrospective analysis of the personality and motives of the protagonist, a faulty narrator and an unsolved crime at the heart of the book.
Compared to His Bloody Project, the era and setting is completely different though. Case Study takes place in 1965 and features a charismatic and sociopathic psychotherapist named Collins Braithwaite, a naive young woman who is driven to her death by way of a railway bridge and the woman’s sister who later investigates what happened.
The sister has a fractured sense of self and so goes by the name of “Rebecca Smyth”. She is a slightly paranoid, deeply insecure and uptight young woman about her appearance and manner. Her insecurities and ways of seeing the world reflect the social attitudes of the 1960’s and the shift in consciousness of that time. This is a darkly funny book and it totalled absorbed me from start to finish. The mental, emotional and sexual jousting between Rebecca and Braithwaite were quite interesting and exciting and kept me hooked. I can’t give away too much more of the plot without giving away too many of the unexpected plot twists. I would definitely recommend giving this one a go!
Rating: ๐๐๐๐
Content Catnip 