In “Benbecula,” Graeme Macrae Burnet sets a challenge for himself by giving away the events of the entire story in the first chapter, really the first page.

The novel, based on true events, is set in the mid-19th century on a small Scottish island where most residents live a kind of subsidence existence. It is narrated retrospectively by Malcolm MacPhee, who informs us that he’s telling us the story because “he’s the only one left.” His brother and sister have departed after another brother, Angus, killed their father, mother and aunt, “all in the most brutal and purposeful fashion.”

The story moves between Malcolm’s remembrances of the past, the events leading up to the killings and their aftermath, and his present circumstances, living alone in the crumbling house he once shared with h

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