A new book by Louise Welsh is always a must read – she’s possibly my favourite living Scottish author. The Cut Up is her third crime novel to feature Rilke, valuer for Bowery Auctions in Glasgow. The first Rilke novel, Welsh’s debut, The Cutting Room from 2002 was superb, followed by The Second Cut some years later. I love these books.
I’ll say at the outset, Rilke is such a brilliant character. Well-connected with Glasgow’s shadier side, but mostly aloof from its direct influence, he is perhaps the most-nuanced gay man I’ve read on the page. We don’t know his age, but he must be approaching middle-age. He always wears a suit, having a tendency to look funereal, but his ‘gaydar’ is always working despite his devotion to Rose, the owner of the auction house. He has a strong sense of moral justice, and although his methods may be unconventional, he will always help to right a wrong.
With a pint on his mind, Rilke is closing up shop at Bowery Auctions, when he sees a bundle of what could be rags in a corner of the yard. Fly-tipping? As he closes in, he thinks it could be a rough sleeper, but when he gets there, it’s a man, motionless, and what’s more he recognises him:
Someone had pierced Mandy Manderson’s left eye with a Victorian hatpin. The tip was an amethyst decorated with gold oak leaves and seed pearls. It might fetch £95 to £150 in auction. The stem was 14-carat gold and long enough, I knew, to extend beyond his eye socket and into his brain. It was a classic duelling move, displayed in old sword fencing manuals as a perfect coup de grace. I recognised this hatpin, had seen it earlier that day – nestled in my boss Rose Bowery’s shiny, black hair.
Earlier that day, Rose had filmed a segment for the local news programme on Victoriana, featuring the hatpin. But Rilke is sure that although she could have done it, she wouldn’t, but it doesn’t bode well for her. Despite his dislike of Manderson, a jewellery dealer prone to sexual harrassment, Rilke surmounts his disgust and pulls the hatpin out, cleans it and puts it back in its place for the auction tomorrow, making himself an accessory for concealing evidence.
Then to complicate things, Rilke’s childhood friend Les was released from Barlinnie prison on licence after serving his sentence for drug-dealing.
Some men come out of prison pale and doughy from too little sunshine and too much pre-processed carbohydrates. Les was the colour of bone. Six months had carved new lines into his face. He looked older, more ascetic than before, with an edge that invited no japery.
Les wants Rilke to help his new mate Hari, who’s stuck in prison still. Hari had ‘landed six years for beating up the guy who put his kid sister on the game.’ He wants Rilke to talk to Cat, to try to persuade her to leave her pimp, Dickie Bird. Rilke tries to say no, he doesn’t want Ray ‘Razzle’ Diamond, who runs most things around there and an old adversary to find out. But his moral code will not let him leave it.
So we have the two storylines set up, and right from the start there is a link. It was DI Thurso Scanlan that put Les away, and he’s in charge of Manderson’s murder too, and he’s as corrupt as they come as we’ll discover. Soon to retire from the force, DI Jim Anderson, Rose’s boyfriend and straight as a die, will come in useful later, as everything gets more complicated and interconnected and more of Glasgow’s underworld are involved.
All the main characters are brilliantly portrayed, especially the kilt-wearing Les, but the detail goes on down through all the secondary cast, Welsh has a knack of bringing out their personalities see through the narrator Rilke, even if they only have a small part to play. Although this novel’s ending could, in essence, be closing off a trilogy, I really hope she doesn’t end the Rilke books here – he’s not ready to retire yet!
Source: Review copy – thank you! Louise Welsh – The Cut Up – Canongate, 2025, hardback, 320 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link
Canongate is a great indie publisher.
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