Having enjoyed last January’s The Second Cut, Louise Welsh’s sequel to The Cutting Room, I couldn’t resist To the Dogs, particularly after visiting Glasgow in June. Welsh’s new novel follows ambitious vice chancellor Jim Brennan, called away from Beijing when his son is arrested on a drugs charge.
He had forgotten how afraid he had been of prison when he was a boy. The building whose walls felt impregnated with ghosts, the men who resided behind the cold bricks, the atmosphere of violence. Studying criminology had smothered the nightmares of dark shadows and clanking metal that haunted him in childhood. The memories returned now like a familiar smell.
Jim’s father was a well-connected gangster, now dead but not much mourned by his son. Jim’s in Beijing for a graduation ceremony at the institute associated with his university. It’s no surprise that Eliot has landed himself in trouble having been a constant source of worry but this time there are repercussions. Jim catches the first plane home, heading straight for the police station before calling in at the Fusilier, his father’s old haunt, in desperate need of a drink where he bumps into Eddie, an old schoolmate, now a solicitor. Jetlag and too many beers take their toll. By the time he wakes up with an appalling hangover, his wife Maggie has engaged Eddie to represent Eliot. They’re a busy couple, Maggie overseeing a challenging new building development, Jim chairing meetings about the university’s new learning hub, schmoozing potential donors while trying to squeeze in an investigation of a Chinese student’s disappearance but Eliot is his priority. Before long, he finds himself dragged back into the world he’d assumed he’d long since left behind while navigating the ethical grey area of university funding. One world might look down on the other but neither, it seems, is squeaky clean.
You do what you have to, professor. But, remember, we’ve got long arms. You might think you’re safe, up there in your ivory tower, but we’re naughty monkeys. We can scale those high walls, nae bother.
I rarely review crime novels and each time I do, I find it tricky, nervous of accidentally dropping in a spoiler, so I’ll keep this brief. From her acknowledgements, it’s clear Welsh has strong views on the theme of university finance, views shared by my very own academic. Her cleverly plotted novel neatly contrasts straightforward crime with the dubious morality of accepting funding from repressive regimes. Corruption can be a slippery thing to define: it takes many forms as Welsh makes clear. Jim is a pleasingly complex character, a good man determined to put the safety of his family before everything else, slipping back into the world he’d turned his back on while finding ways to justify donations from sources others find repugnant in the name of advancing education. I raced through this pacy slice of campus crime. Highly recommended, even if you’re not a crime reader.
Canongate Books: Edinburgh 9781838859817 352 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
I finished this last week. Loved it too. Welsh’s commentary on how Jim’s refusal of his dad’s way of life leads him unwittingly towards corruption of another sort is spot on.
Brilliant, isn’t it? The juxtaposition of two very different worlds, one tainted yet respectable, was so well done.
Have this on reserve at the library.Loved..if you can say that about increasingly grim stories..Cutting Room and Second Cut…so really looking forward to it.
This one’s excellent in a different way. I think she likes writing about morally dubious but apparently respectable institutions and complex characters like Rilke and Jim. She does it so well!
I’ll be reading this one soon so I’m glad it gets your recommendation. It’ll be my first Louise Welsh and it’s partly your enthusiasm for her earlier books that led me to pick it, so no pressure… 😉
Feeling a bit anxious now…
I don’t think of myself as much of a crime/thriller reader either, but I really liked both the Rilke novels and this sounds so tempting! Maybe I am a crime reader 😀
Ha! I think we’re both have the occasional dalliance with the genre.
Like you, I don’t tend to read many crime novels but did enjoy the Rilke novels. So I’ll add this one to my tbe list as the Glasgow setting appeals to me too.
I hope you enjoy it, Helen. Jim’s not quite a match for Rilke but the overarching corruption theme is an interesting one.
I’ve meant to read her for ages, since TCR. And I probably left the same comment on your review of the sequel too.
She’s worth waiting for!