Summary

The novel opens with a preface narrated by the author. He explains that the book consists of documents related to the case of Rodrick Macrae, a seventeen-year-old convicted of triple homicide, who lived in Culduie, Ross-shire, located in the Scottish Highlands. The author goes on to say that the majority of the work is made up of Roderick Macrae’s own written account of the events leading up to the crime that he wrote while awaiting trial. The author makes note that the account is unusual, as it has high literary merit, especially since it came from the mind of an uneducated peasant farmer. The author notes that the document’s authorship is debatable for this reason. The author ends by explaining that it is not the point of the novel to convince the reader of Roderick’s...