Crime
The explosive first novel in Irvine Welsh's Crime series
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4.3 • 51 Ratings
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
A child-sex predator is on the loose and Detective Lennox, terrified and determined is going to protect the victim at any cost.
Detective Inspector Ray Lennox has fled to Miami to escape the aftermath of a mental breakdown induced by occupational stress and cocaine abuse, and a harrowing child-sex murder case back in Edinburgh. But his fiancée Trudi is only interested in planning their wedding, leaving Lennox cast adrift, alone in Florida.
A coke-fuelled binge brings him into contact with another victim of sexual predation, ten-year-old Tianna, and Lennox flees across the state with his terrified charge, determined to protect her at any cost.
Can Lennox trust his own instincts?
And can he handle Tianna, while still trying to get to grips with the Edinburgh murder?
'Welsh is one of our most interesting writers' Sunday Telegraph
'A disturbing but vital read' Harper's Bazaar
*DISCOVER THE SECOND NOVEL IN IRVINE WELSH'S CRIME SERIES, THE LONG KNIVES, NOW*
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Welsh's most coherent and satisfying novel in a decade showcases the Scottish author's inimitable combination of dark realism, satire and psychological insight. Having been placed on leave after suffering an emotional meltdown, Edinburgh detective Ray Lennox, introduced in Filth (1998), and Trudi, his fianc e, fly to Miami for a few days to relax and plan their wedding, but from the start the trip is a nightmare. Lennox gobbles antidepressants and begins drinking again in a desperate frenzy, but things really tilt out of control when he parties with some locals, who reacquaint him with an old obsession, cocaine. One of his new "friends" has a 10-year-old daughter, who's been targeted by an organized ring of pedophiles. Can Lennox save the girl and redeem himself? The main action alternates with chapters set in Scotland, written from a claustrophobic second-person point-of-view. Welsh offers no easy answers in this complicated, unsettling and at times beautiful novel.
Customer Reviews
Full of Welsh's usual contrivances but well worth a go
This loose sequel to Filth follows Ray Lennox, the one-time cocaine partner and police acquaintance of Bruce Robertson, some six years or so after the original novel. It does well to avoid making its central protagonist as unlikeable as Bruce was in Filth - something that really irked a substantial set of readers. This time around Welsh early establishes that Ray is damaged goods, but that he has a redemptive quality to him. Welsh often tries to give his characters some kind of childhood/early life trauma to explain their actions, and this book is no different. However, he manages to write a more compelling novel than some of his past precisely because his focus seems to be less about drugs than normal. It makes for a welcome change
Outstanding as always
Welsh manages some how once again to own you with his words. And to achieve this style of writing with such a dark, harrowing, yet relevant topic takes an individual skill not many could master. As with all his novels, I zoomed through it as I couldn’t put it down, then regretted reading it to fast cause it ended! That my own problem I have with Irvine Welsh, at some point the books end and the characters can go on and on...would love if there is a third novel with these characters!
Great read
Very dark in places but worth it in the end