'A Case of Matricide demonstrates literary talent of the highest order … few writers can rival Burnet.’ The Spectator

Chief Inspector Gorski returns … 

In the unremarkable French town of Saint-Louis, a mysterious stranger stalks the streets; an elderly woman believes her son is planning to do away with her; a prominent manufacturer drops dead. Between visits to the town’s hostelries, Chief Inspector Georges Gorski ponders the connections, if any, between these events, while all the time grappling with his own domestic and existential demons. 

Graeme Macrae Burnet once again pierces the respectable bourgeois façade of small-town life in this, the concluding part of his trilogy of Gorski novels. He injects a wry humour into the tiniest of details and delves into the darkest recesses of his characters’ minds, but above all provides an entertaining, profound and moving read. 

‘A very literary novel. Not only for the crisp prose it is written in, but also for the many literary allusions within its pages … Burnet shows real mastery of his material, and it’s no wonder his second novel, His Bloody Project, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016. This new offering is dark, but playful … a pleasing, if disturbing doll’s house.’

‘[A Case of Matricide] serves up a tantalizing blend of psychological thrills and small-town life in Saint-Louis, France… the novel delivers a convincing depiction of bureaucratic and provincial rot. Fans of the series will be pleased.’

‘A Case of Matricide is a work of fine artistry; craftsmanship too … The atmosphere of the unremarkable and gloomy town is beautifully evoked … [Burnet is] a master of artifice.’

'A Case of Matricide is a deeply imagined and perfectly realised novel, and reading it is a dizzyingly immersive experience. Macrae Burnet’s Gorski novels were already a significant achievement, but the concluding part is breathtaking – tragic, cinematic, propulsive – and marks a new standard in contemporary crime fiction. For anyone looking for genuinely ambitious crime fiction, this book is a gift.’

‘A Case of Matricide demonstrates literary talent of the highest order … few writers can rival Burnet.’

‘This quirky blend of psychological thriller and smalltown life is both thought-provoking and entirely convincing.’

Graeme Macrae Burnet is one of the UK’s brightest literary talents. His second novel, His Bloody Project, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2016, won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award 2016, and was shortlisted for the LA Times Book Awards 2017. It has been published around the world. His fourth novel, Case Study, was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022. The two previous novels in Graeme’s Gorski trilogy have also received widespread critical praise and have become cult-like classics in several countries for their multilayered references and metafictional elements.