Time for another book recommendation. I've been on a non-sf kick at the moment (I need a break) so picked up a couple of interesting novels over the past couple of weeks. One that's particularly impressed my is a first novel by a local writer, Louise Welsh: 'The Cutting Room'. It's essentially a detective story, following a Glasgow auctioneer as he tries to unravel the story behind a series of decades-old photographs found in a dusty attic filled with the treasured porn collection of a recently deceased man with underworld connections. His search - driven by a to him partly inexplicable need to reach through the years to a long-dead woman and try and give her a voice - leads him through Glasgow's darkest alleyways.
I tried to think of a bunch of superlatives to describe why I liked this book so much, but all that really matters is it's hard to put down. Yeah, it's a cliche, but no less true. The flavour is distinctly noir and, being set in Glasgow, features places and names with a strong ring of familiarity. Welsh has a new book out, Bullet Trick - already added to the shopping list.
4 comments:
Gary....If you want a wee laugh you should read Craig Ferguson's Between the Bridge and the River or at the other end of the spectrum...........The Dead Hour by Denise Mina
'Tamburlaine Must Die', her novella about Christopher Marlowe, is also one hell of a read, although the beginning is very tramatic. "No! Don't do that to him! He's CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE! He's a god amongst writers!"
"but all that really matters is it's hard to put down" Which links directly back to my comment about entertainment, Gary.
Anonymous: thanks for the tips. I actually remember seeing Ferguson kicking about Glasgow's west end a couple of times, years ago - and before that, when he was Bing Hitler. I was only vaguely aware he was making some kind of career for himself in Hollywood ... I hadn't realised until I saw a clip of him on Youtube the other day how much he was part of the US television industry now.
Jim - Thanks for the recc. I'm definitely getting more of her stuff - I'm thinking of going on a bit of a contemporary scottish fiction kick, morvern callar and so forth.
Neal .... I hear you, I hear you. I do, and I take it to heart. (Inserts extra explosion and headless computer controlled zombie into Stealing Light. No, really.)
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