With medical background, he enjoyed the seemingly accurate details of the post mortem and the discussion of criminal anthropology, a “science” which has since been discredited. The description of the hard life of the crofters contrasted strongly with the privileged on the estate. The characters came across strongly although some were possibly rather stereotyped.

On a positive note he liked the layout of the book as found documents and the clever writing which made the events seem real. His great grandfather worked as a ground officer on a large estate in Sutherland, a little bit like the constable.

Brought up in Dingwall and a frequent visitor to Applecross, he felt an affinity of place. I opened my copy of the book but couldn’t find the significance of hats in the plot or character development, so I wondered what prompted this debate. (Shouldn’t that be manners? Ed.) One of our number was once known as ‘Digger’ because he had once worn an Australian hat (with corks?). He recorded mention of stetsons, deerstalkers, panamas, fedoras, bowlers, a fez, top hats, berets, bobbles, flat caps and so it went on. Intent on preparing for the cut and thrust of literary discussion, and distracted in opening an ale, your scribe regained attention to find an animated discussion of hats. Phew! Fortunately, your scribe had two bottles of Scottish ale with him to stimulate the ‘grey matter’. Was Roddy Macrae guilty as charged or were his actions guided either by mental instability or somehow justified by the social conditions of his time? Told as a collection of unreliable accounts from Roddy himself, his legal team, expert (or not so expert) medical witnesses, his neighbours in the village, and even the popular press, we were asked to assemble these disparate accounts to form an understanding of the mind of a murderer, of contemporary society, of the role of the media, of mid-19 th century thinking on psychology and the vagaries of the Scottish legal system. However, this was not so much a ‘whodunnit’ but rather a ‘whydunnit’ as the perpetrator was known from page one. No, we hadn’t gathered together on an unseasonal April evening to discuss Taggart, the longest running crime drama on UK television, but the Scottish literary sensation shortlisted for the Booker prize of 2016.

His bloody project review