The Bullet Trick - Hardcover

Welsh, Louise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841957941 ISBN 13: 9781841957944

Publisher: Canongate U.S., 2006

Synopsis

Crime Writers Association award winner Louise Welsh follows up her hit artworld noir The Cutting Room with a slick literary suspense thriller set among the decadent domains of contemporary Berlin, Glasgow, and London. Meet William Wilson, a foundering so-called mentalist, conjurer, and above all — despite frequently being the opening act for strippers — a master performer. When his agent books him for a string of cabaret gigs in Berlin, he's hoping his luck's on the turn. Among the showgirls and grifters of Berlin's scandalous underground, Wilson can forget his lonely heart, his muddled head, and, more important, his past. But secrets have a habit of catching up with William and as he gets in over his head with a certain brand of lucrative after-hours work, the line between what's an act and what's real starts to blur.

Bringing the seedy glamour of the burlesque scene magnificently to life, Louise Welsh's deft contemporary tale is her richest and most macabre yet. A thundering thriller of Glasgow drinking dens, Soho clubs, and dark Berlin backstreets, The Bullet Trick is also an adults-only suspense, guaranteed to keep you guessing until its final explosive flourish.

About this title

About the Author

Louise Welsh is the bestselling author of The Cutting Room and Tamburlaine Must Die. She was chosen as one of Britain's Best First Novelists of 2002 by the Guardian, won The Crime Writers' Association Creasey Dagger for the best first crime novel, and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award, 2002. Her new novel, The Bullet Trick is published in paperback Feb 2007.

Review

Brilliant second novel. Destined to be even more successful than her half a million copy-selling debut thriller The Cutting Room. The Bullet Trick is both funny and tragic, with an extraordinarily gripping plot and a wonderful cast of shady characters. * * Daily Mirror * * The atmosphere of this novel... is intoxicating. Dark, seductive decadence and nostalgia nestle under a dirty blanket of grim expectation. The two strands of William's life... are spliced together with alternate chapters set before and after his nosedive. This serves to heighten the tension to near-unbearable levels... You want to do the impossible and look away, but to do so would be to miss what could be the best and most intelligent crime novel of the year. * * Waterstones Quarterly * * If your idea of a relaxing read is a thriller that keeps you awake all night, you need to go no further than home-grown talent. Louise Welsh's new novel, The Bullet Trick, is about a down-at-heel conjuror who gets sucked into the seedy glamour of the burlesque scene, with dangerous consequences. * * The Scotsman * * Louise Welsh draws us into the half-light existence of cabaret performers in The Bullet Trick. * * Vogue * *

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate U.S.
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1841957941
• ISBN 13: 9781841957944
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384