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Loading... Crime: A Novel (original 2008; edition 2009)by Irvine Welsh
Work InformationCrime: A Novel by Irvine Welsh (2008)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I just could not get into this book. It started off with all of the standards of an Irvine Welsh book, but it got, boring. Not something I expected from the author. The subject matter was also a little too disturbing. Heald way through I just decided to skip through the rest of the book. Definitely not one of his better books. At least not for me. The first two thirds of this accessible, fast paced, novel are excellent. It balances the trauma and PTSD being suffered by Det Lennox in the wake of a horrific child abduction, rape and murder and the sheer banality of its perpetrator. As the novel unwraps it's clear that there are other incidents that have led him to be the wrecked addict that he is, but also the most (over?) zealous defender of children. A night of drug fueled and frankly quite dull sounding indulgence (Welsh as always is great on the the sheer unbridled need driving excessive drug use - not much fun, lots of hard work and hustling, danger and uncertainty ever present) leads him to the young Tiana, who is a best laxly parented and at worst the repeated victim of paedophiles. Is Lennox just triggered to be over sensitive to preying nonces? He decides he can't take a chance and takes off with Tiana across Florida to the care of "Chet" who may, or may not be Tiana's uncle. In this section Welsh reduces the pressure for an amusing travelogue of central Florida as the nearly middle aged Lennox, and the precocious Tiana get to know each other, Lennox well aware that to the passerby, it might like him who is the abductor of a child. So far, so engrossing. Child abuse must be an extraordinary difficult subject to write about, and Welsh does an admirable job of doing it without the reader wanting to slam the book shut in disgust. Never is the abuse voyeuristic - never are the paedophiles less than slick and convincing. But the denoument isn't convincing; this isn't to suggest that abuse rings don't exist, but that its hard to believe they operate in the way described here. So this is well worth reading, but not perfect. But Welsh deserves huge credit for tackling an impossible subject and turning it into a credible human story rather than a diatribe I just could not get into this book. It started off with all of the standards of an Irvine Welsh book, but it got, boring. Not something I expected from the author. The subject matter was also a little too disturbing. Heald way through I just decided to skip through the rest of the book. Definitely not one of his better books. At least not for me. no reviews | add a review
Now bereft of both youth and ambition, Detective Inspector Ray Lennox is recovering from a mental breakdown induced by occupational stress and cocaine abuse, and a particularly horrifying child sex murder case back in Edinburgh. On vacation in Florida, his fiancee Trudi is only interested in planning their forthcoming wedding, and a bitter argument sees a deranged Lennox cast adrift in strip-mall Florida. He meets two women in a seedy bar, ending up at their apartment for a coke binge interrupted by two menacing strangers. After the ensuing brawl, Lennox finds himself alone with Tianna, the terrified ten-year-old daughter of one of the women, and a sheet of instructions that make him responsible for her immediate safety.Lennox takes her across the state to an exclusive marina on the Gulf of Mexico, and quickly suspects that he has stumbled into a hornet's nest- a gang of organized paedophiles, every bit as threatening as the monster that haunted him back in Edinburgh. His priority is to protect the abused girl, but can the edgy Lennox trust his own instincts? And can he negotiate her inappropriate sexuality, as well as his own mental fragility, while still trying to get to grips with the Edinburgh murder and the emotions it unleashes in him?A novel about the corruption and abuse of the human soul and the possibilities of redemption, Crime is a thrilling journey into the bright glamour of the Sunshine State and a seething underworld of utter darkness. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Despite the obviously contrived setup, this turns out to be a very engaging, disturbing book, whose brutal plot somehow manages to deal with the fraught subject of sexual abuse of children in a sensitive and often surprisingly subtle way. Although it is probably a book you will want to read quickly to get it over with... ( )