Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2008
320 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
In the wake of a nasty child-murder case, Detective Inspector Ray Lennox of the Edinburgh PD has suffered a full-scale breakdown. He's been placed on leave for mental retuning and takes off for a few days of sun in Miami.
From there, Crime becomes an unmistakably Welshian blend of the macabre and the psychologically astute, as Lennox faces a dwindling supply of antidepressants, a bridal-magazine-toting fiancée who wants him to think seriously about floral arrangements, and some coke-happy locals who lead him back into old habits.
Is he really in the right shape to be playing knight-errant to a terrified ten-year-old girl? Will his best instincts and worst judgments get them both killed, or find him the redemption he seeks?
"A good man in a very bad world, Lennox deserves a thematically richer novel." - Kirkus Reviews.
"Starred Review. Welsh offers no easy answers in this complicated, unsettling and at times beautiful novel." - Publishers Weekly.
"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." - Library Journal.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Irvine Welsh was born in the great city of Edinburgh, Scotland. His family moved from their tenement home in Leith, to the prefabs in West Pilton, and then onto Muirhouse's maisonette flats.
Welsh left Ainslie Park Secondary School when he was sixteen and had various jobs but did not really like work any more than he did school. Welsh eventually returned to Edinburgh where he worked for the city council in the housing department. He went on to study for an MBA at Heriot Watt University.
In Edinburgh, Welsh started to write. Digging out some old diaries, Welsh did a draft of what would become Trainspotting. Welsh published parts of this from 1991 onwards in DOG, the West Coast Magazine, and New Writing Scotland.
When Trainspotting was published in 1993, Welsh shot to fame. Despite ...
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