The Second Cut

By: Louise Welsh

Narrated by: Alan Cumming

The Times Crime Book of the Year

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.

©202 Louise Welsh (P)2022 Canongate Books Ltd

Critic reviews

"I doubt I'll read a better book this year." (Val McDermid)

"Compelling, immersive and brimming with life." (Graeme Macrae Burnet)

Impressive, smart and satisfying

Welsh really shines as a utterly humanistic writer in this post-lockdown return to her earlier work. Expert exploration of genre, culture and ethics. Welsh handles the thriller aspects expertly, and grounds it all in a vivid, nuanced sense of place and time. While she invokes familiar crime and LGBTQ characters/conventions/narratives, she also gives them remarkable life and complexity in a very adult manner. Combined with Alan Cumming’s wonderful reading (very friendly to American ears), this audiobook should have a wide appeal to grown-up listeners.