To the Dogs - Louise Welsh

 A new book from Louise Welsh is always a treat.  I really enjoyed this immersive thriller. Page turner is a much bandied expression particularly in thriller and crime novels but it was applicable here for much of the book. It’s a fine example of story telling.

I had a fleeting sense of disappointment that I wouldn’t be renewing my acquaintance with Rilke the auctioneer from  The Cutting Room and The Second Cut but that regret didn’t last long as I became enmeshed in the life of Jim Brennan.

Professor Jim Brennan is flying high, the son of a Glasgow hard man, he’s risen to the heights of academia, tipped for a promotion to a top job.

But it’s not easy to escape the past, and those Jim’s left behind have been keeping tabs on him. As the threats mount, he discovers he’s not so different from his father, but how far will he go to protect his family, his students and his reputation?

 

To The Dogs is a darkly comic, gritty novel from the award-winning author of The Cutting Room, exploring organised crime, institutional corruption, and moral compromise.

 

It’s a complex plot and you need to stay focused to understand the threads linking events and situations with such sustained coercion, duplicity and bullying almost. And the narrative speeds along gaining momentum for the most part with one or two dips here and there. 

Jim is an engaging character and at times he seemed to be what I like to call a ‘Highsmith Hero’* where no matter what he does events just seem to overtake him and spiral out of control even if he appears to be acting on the side of the moral and the just. 

I found it fascinating to consider that Jim had seemed to throw off the constraints of his past in terms of parents and upbringing to become an almost stereotypical pillar of society until his son goes badly off the rails and you start to contemplate whether the sins of the father skips a generation. If you’re looking for something to think about that is more than just a story then Ms. Welsh allows us the opportunity to ponder the privilege and wealth of academia which nestles neatly alongside the paradox of the criminal underworld.And as ever the underbelly of society is explored which could be a bleak place to inhabit for the reader with its brutality but there is something darkly funny that offers an element of relief. 

A thoroughly enjoyable read and my thanks to Canongate Books for a gifted copy.

 

 

*In the manner of some of Patricia Highsmith’s characters.