Andrew Taylor

For Glasgow – with love and squalor: The Second Cut, by Louise Welsh, reviewed

Welsh’s trouble-prone auctioneer Rilke stumbles on a suspicious death and a cache of recreational drugs in this tough, Glasgow-based crime novel

Louise Welsh. [Steve Lindridge] 
issue 22 January 2022

Never, never kill the dog. It’s rule one in the crime writer’s manual. Cats are bad enough, as I can testify, having once had the temerity to behead a cat — in a novel, I mean —and then crucify the mutilated corpse upside down on a church door. As a general rule, if you kill a domestic pet in your crime story you should expect a hostile postbag of epic proportions.

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