Saraband signs 'insightful' conclusion to Graeme Macrae Burnet's Georges Gorski trilogy

Saraband has signed A Case of Matricide, a "clever, original [and] moving" novel from twice Booker-longlisted author Graeme Macrae Burnet. 

Publisher Sara Hunt acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. The novel will mark the conclusion of Burnet’s Georges Gorski novels and will be published on 3rd October 2024. 

Set in the French town of Saint-Louis, A Case of Matricide "pierces the respectable bourgeois façade of small-town life". In the town a "mysterious stranger stalks the streets; an elderly woman believes her son is planning to do away with her [and] 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". 

Hunt said: “I was confident I’d enjoy reading Graeme’s latest manuscript, but nothing prepared me for the range and depth of emotion it evoked. A Case of Matricide is insightful, clever, brilliantly original and funny, succeeding in simultaneously providing a fantastic standalone read and an ingenious tying up of the Gorski trilogy. But it’s also profound and in places desperately sad. It deserves its place alongside the classics of existentialist literature.”

Burnet added: “It’s a moment of huge satisfaction to bring the Georges Gorski trilogy to a conclusion with A Case of Matricide. I hope readers will enjoy this final sojourn in the streets and bars of Saint-Louis as much as I have. I’m also delighted to be working once again with Saraband Books who have seen this 10-year project through from its inception with exceptional care and sensitivity. Au revoir, Saint-Louis.”