I picked up this, Louise Welsh's third novel, having found her debut "The Cutting Room" a very enjoyable and darkly sleazy crime thriller with, in the form of Rilke, a highly original investigator.

William Wilson is a down on his luck conjuror whose agent offers him a lucrative gig in a Berlin cabaret club. The timing is handy as the proprietor of the Glaswegian club where Wilson's last gig, for the retiring Chief Inpsector Montgomery, has just been shot dead. Montgomery appears to have known the dead man's father, as Wilson has in his possession a photo of him with Montgomery picked from the policeman's pocket at the club, and may also have been involved in his death and the disappearance of his father's girlfriend Gloria Noone, so naturally he is after Wilson. In addition, all does not go well for Wilson once he is in Berlin.

Sad to say "The Bullet Trick" is a pale shadow of its predecessor. Without a creation such as Rilke at its centre, "The Bullet Trick" is otherwise peopled by rather stock characters - innocent abroad Wilson and his dear old Mum, Montgomery the bent cop, Sylvie the tart with a heart - with the exception of the shady Uncle Dix in Berlin whom Welsh doesn't make nearly enough of. It also makes it rather hard to care what happens.

Welsh has made this demi-monde her own and still relishes in describing it, unfortunately sometimes to the detriment of the novel's dynamic. "The Bullet Trick" is also on less sure ground describing London and Berlin than the author's native Glasgow. Here is an author re-treading her obsessions for a lesser return. ( )

This is my 33rd book this year. It has some terrific writing, but a storyline that does not match up to it.

To be fair, when I started reading this book I was quickly hooked, and felt that it might even become one of my absolute favourites. Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed, was pretty predictable and let down the book.

Still, it was a worthwhile read. The main character - and the narrator - is William Wilson, a down-on-his-luck conjuror from Glasgow. Hoping to make his fortune, he takes a job in Berlin and ends up recruiting a mysterious American girl named Sylvie as his assistant. The story flicks back and forth between Berlin and Glasgow, as it slowly reveals the dark events that took place in Berlin, and how they have brought William to his present state of despair. To say much more would be to give too much of the story away. One minor gripe is that there was a seemingly unnecessary sub-plot regarding a decades old disappearance of a lady, which Wilson ends up becoming embroiled in. The loss of this particular storyline would have not affected the book in any way, although it was in itself not an unenjoyable diversion from the main story.

I gave this book 3.5 out of 5. ( )

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/... ( )

A down-at-heels conjurer gets a gig in a seedy Berlin club and takes on an intriguing American woman as his assistant. The story switches back and forth between Berlin and a later time period in Glasgow, where the conjurer is even more down-at-heels. Wonderful writing expended on a plot that doesn't deserve it. ( )

Kedelig, ikke overbevisende personkarakteristikken. ( )