Stephanie Jane reviewed Crime by Irvine Welsh
An odd book
3 stars
I was pleased to spot an Irvine Welsh novel at a campsite book exchange because I've heard great things about this author and his books rarely turn up in this way. However, either Crime is a bit of a dud or Welsh just isn't a good author for me. The writing starting out engagingly enough and I liked the presentations of Edinburgh and Miami. Our hero though, Ray Lennox, is that staple of crime thriller fiction - a troubled detective who drinks too much and has dark secrets in his past. Yawn! That coupled with a mostly unbelievable storyline that sees Lennox spuriously driving right across Florida in the company of an unknown child meant I often wondered quite what this book was supposed to be. I kept reading in the hope that the narrative would pick up, but, for me, the plot just kept getting sillier which was very …
I was pleased to spot an Irvine Welsh novel at a campsite book exchange because I've heard great things about this author and his books rarely turn up in this way. However, either Crime is a bit of a dud or Welsh just isn't a good author for me. The writing starting out engagingly enough and I liked the presentations of Edinburgh and Miami. Our hero though, Ray Lennox, is that staple of crime thriller fiction - a troubled detective who drinks too much and has dark secrets in his past. Yawn! That coupled with a mostly unbelievable storyline that sees Lennox spuriously driving right across Florida in the company of an unknown child meant I often wondered quite what this book was supposed to be. I kept reading in the hope that the narrative would pick up, but, for me, the plot just kept getting sillier which was very distasteful given the overriding theme of paedophilia. An odd book and not one that has me encouraged to read this author again any time soon.