Crime

Starred review from July 28, 2008
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 fiancée, 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.

August 15, 2008
A little R & R is just the ticket: take it easy, see new sights. Thus Edinburgh policeman Ray Lennox, a supporting character in Welsh's "Filth", is aboard a transatlantic flight bound for Florida along with his fiancée, Trudi. Ray carries a lot of baggage for which he'll have to pay extra: his last case involved the murder of a girl who had been sexually molested, and his failure to save her has fueled his chemical dependencies (this is a Welsh novel, after all). Once in Florida, Ray hooks up with a couple of fast Floridians, one of whom (surprise!) has a daughter targeted by a pedophile ring. Ray feels compelled to rescue her. Welsh, who now divides his time among Scotland, Ireland, and Florida, manages to inject interest into what is admittedly a recycled plot and adopts a mid-Atlantic dialect that should add to the book's appeal on this side of the pond. Never noted for his finesse, he comes up short against Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River". Still, this is recommended for all larger public libraries because of name recognition (Welsh wrote "Trainspotting") and because it is the perfect accompaniment to your next transatlantic flight. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 5/1/08.]Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2008
With so many of his countrymen cashing in, maybe its inevitable that Welsh would, in his unique fashion, turn to crime. Hes written about criminals, of course (usually junkies and petty offenders), and policemen, too (in the challenging Filth, 1998, which was partly narrated by an intestinal parasite), but Crime is as close to an Ian Rankin novel as Welsh seems likely to write. Edinburgh Detective Inspector Ray Lennox (one of the supporting characters in Filth), crippled by anxiety after his apprehension of a pedophiliac killer, travels to Miami for some recuperative time with his fianc'e, Trudi. But he never visits the beach. After a fight with Trudi, Ray finds himself well off the wagon, drinking and doing cocaine with two local women. After he rescues one womans 10-year-old daughter, Tianna, from being raped, he makes it his mission to protect her. Its like Lolita in reverse: this European man takes to the highways of the South not to escape the law but to protect a vulnerable young girl from other men. But between flashbacks to previous traumas and a general sense of disorientation, Ray cant help but wonder whether his damaged psyche is making him misread other mens intentions. Surely they cant all be looking at Tianna like that? Welsh applies his singular artistic gifts to a more conventional story line and succeeds admirably. Recommend this dark, intense tale to readers who found his earlier works too difficult, daunting, or foreign.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)