Louise Welsh (2024) To the Dogs.

It’s mandatory to namecheck Louise Welsh’s debut novel, The Cutting Room, which won just about everything. This is her tenth novel. It’s set in much the same place as her first. In and around Downhill, Partick and the West End of Glasgow. The protagonist is Jim Brennan. He’s a Professor at Glasgow University, his speciality is criminology. Louise Welsh is a Professor at Glasgow Uni too. Her speciality is Creative Writing. I take it she’s not going for the top job, running the University and all that entails. Brennan is a case study in embourgeoisement thesis.  

His grip is on the top rung to the greasy pole. He has a beautiful wife who is an architect, a son and a daughter. Throw in a pedigree mongrel. We all know what’s going to happen next. He’s going to slip.

Elliot, his son, brings him down. His parents have tried the usual middle-class tricks like college and setting him up with a flat. Elliot blows it. He plays the big man and uses the money ostensibly set aside to buy a van to help with his DJing. He becomes a drug dealer.

Jim Brennan’s dad was the real deal. Not to be messed with. A Glasgow hardman. Elliot doesn’t have a clue. He’s been caught in a hardplace by hardmen who want their money back with added interest. And he’s going to prison. Someone is out to get him. Jim Brennan (and the reader) has got to found out how and why.

What would you do for your own?

‘What are you trying to do Jim? Weigh suffering?’

Yep. Read on.  

Unleash the Beastie! https://bit.ly/bannkie