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THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR
'I doubt I'll read a better book this year' Val McDermid
'Compelling, immersive and brimming with life' Graeme Macrae Burnet
Auctioneer Rilke has been trying to stay out of trouble, keeping his life more or less respectable. Business has been slow at Bowery Auctions, so when an old friend, Jojo, gives Rilke a tip-off for a house clearance, life seems to be looking up. The next day Jojo washes up dead.
Jojo liked Grindr hook-ups and recreational drugs - is that the reason the police won't investigate? And if Rilke doesn't find out what happened to Jojo, who will?
Thrilling and atmospheric, The Second Cut delves into the dark side of twenty-first century Glasgow. Twenty years on from his appearance in The Cutting Room, Rilke is still walking a moral tightrope between good and bad, saint and sinner.
About the author
Louise Welsh is an award-winning author of ten novels. The Cutting Room, her debut novel, won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award. In 2018, she was named the Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award winner by public vote. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. In 2022 she published The Second Cut, which was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize for Crime Book of the Year and named by The Times as their Crime Book of the Year.
@louisewelsh00
Summary
A stylish, atmospheric detective story with shades of the Gothic - from the author of the award-winning cult classic The Cutting Room
Additional text
Twenty years is a long time to wait for a "sequel" but Louise Welsh has made the wait completely worthwhile. In Welsh's writing, Rilke's world remains recognisably queer - not sanitised, not tidied, not safe before the watershed - and all the better for it
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I doubt I'll read a better book this year. Dark, funny and humane, Louise Welsh tells the stories that nobody else dares VAL McDERMID