Louise Welsh
Autore di The Cutting Room
Sull'Autore
Louise Welsh has published a wide range of short stories and articles. She was chosen as one of Britain's Best First Novelists of 2002 by the Guardian newspaper. The Cutting Room won The Crime Writers Association Creasey Dagger for the best first crime novel as well as The Saltire First Book of the mostra altro Year Award mostra meno
Serie
Opere di Louise Welsh
Mortifications (ROBERTSON) 1 copia
The Night Highway 1 copia
Opere correlate
The Crime Interviews Volume One: Best-selling Authors Talk About Writing Crime Fiction — Prefazione — 2 copie
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome canonico
- Welsh, Louise
- Altri nomi
- Welsh, L.
- Data di nascita
- 1965-02-01
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- UK
- Luogo di nascita
- London, England, UK
- Luogo di residenza
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- Istruzione
- University of Glasgow (Art History)
- Attività lavorative
- Schriftstellerin
- Premi e riconoscimenti
- Waterstones 25 Authors for the Future (2007)
Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award (2004)
Stonewall Book Award (US) (2004)
Hawthornden Fellowship (2005) - Agente
- David Miller (Rogers Coleridge & White)
- Breve biografia
- After studying history at Glasgow University, Louise Welsh established a second-hand bookshop, where she worked for many years. Her first novel, The Cutting Room, won several awards, including the 2002 Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger, and was jointly awarded the 2002 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Louise was granted a Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award in 2003, a Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award in 2004, and a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2005.
She is a regular radio broadcaster, has published many short stories, and has contributed articles and reviews to most of the British broadsheets. She has also written for the stage. The Guardian chose her as a 'woman to watch' in 2003.
Utenti
Recensioni
This Scottish crime thriller begins promisingly but then becomes bogged down with subplots.
Jim Brennan’s life is a success story. The son of a ruthless gangster, he has left behind his childhood in an impoverished and violent home. He is now a respected professor of criminology and university vice-chancellor. He and his accomplished wife Maggie have two children. Things start to go awry when their son Eliot is arrested on drug charges. To help Eliot, Jim becomes involved with shadowy figures in the criminal underworld he thought he had escaped. Various demands threaten his family and his career. As he faces many pressures in both his personal and professional life, will he compromise his principles?
Jim has many conflicts. Should he protect his son by doing as Eliot’s drug bosses demand or should he let him lie in a bed of his own making in the hopes that some time in prison will reform his son? Then he wonders what he should do when a Chinese student at the university’s satellite campus in Beijing goes missing. There’s the issue of funding from Saudi Arabia. Some of Jim’s colleagues and university students object to his accepting money from a regime with a terrible record of abusing human rights. And the suicide of a student leaves him wondering about his responsibility.
Jim is a complex character. There is no doubt that he loves his family. He recognizes that he has not always made the best parenting choices, thereby contributing to Eliot’s irresponsible behaviour. But he admits, more than once, to being willing to kill to protect his family. His attempts to help students seem perfunctory, but he steps up for his family. I could only admire his unconditional love for his son because there is virtually nothing likeable about Eliot; he seems to blame his parents for being absent, not making him their priority, for his bullying, thievery, speeding , drunkenness, and college course failures. The one thing that bothered me is Jim’s lack of understanding of criminals. Despite his upbringing and his degrees in criminology, he seems constantly surprised by their behaviour.
The addition of subplots is problematic. The result is a narrative that becomes disjointed and bogged down. There is little follow-through on some of these so they seem to contribute little to the overall narrative. Is the message that there is coercion and corruption to be found among academics as well as criminals? The author implies that universities have blood on their hands if they align themselves with regimes with deplorable human rights’ records. Is she suggesting that universities are criminal organizations not much different from those found in the criminal underworld?
The plot becomes increasingly convoluted and I found myself becoming annoyed with the constant piling on of Jim’s problems; it felt like they were added just to confuse. The stereotypical characterization of gangsters does not impress. And then the ending seems rushed and leaves unanswered questions.
This book may appeal to others, but I found myself losing interest with the muddled combination of criminal activities and academic politics.
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DCYakabuski).… (altro)
Jim Brennan’s life is a success story. The son of a ruthless gangster, he has left behind his childhood in an impoverished and violent home. He is now a respected professor of criminology and university vice-chancellor. He and his accomplished wife Maggie have two children. Things start to go awry when their son Eliot is arrested on drug charges. To help Eliot, Jim becomes involved with shadowy figures in the criminal underworld he thought he had escaped. Various demands threaten his family and his career. As he faces many pressures in both his personal and professional life, will he compromise his principles?
Jim has many conflicts. Should he protect his son by doing as Eliot’s drug bosses demand or should he let him lie in a bed of his own making in the hopes that some time in prison will reform his son? Then he wonders what he should do when a Chinese student at the university’s satellite campus in Beijing goes missing. There’s the issue of funding from Saudi Arabia. Some of Jim’s colleagues and university students object to his accepting money from a regime with a terrible record of abusing human rights. And the suicide of a student leaves him wondering about his responsibility.
Jim is a complex character. There is no doubt that he loves his family. He recognizes that he has not always made the best parenting choices, thereby contributing to Eliot’s irresponsible behaviour. But he admits, more than once, to being willing to kill to protect his family. His attempts to help students seem perfunctory, but he steps up for his family. I could only admire his unconditional love for his son because there is virtually nothing likeable about Eliot; he seems to blame his parents for being absent, not making him their priority, for his bullying, thievery, speeding , drunkenness, and college course failures. The one thing that bothered me is Jim’s lack of understanding of criminals. Despite his upbringing and his degrees in criminology, he seems constantly surprised by their behaviour.
The addition of subplots is problematic. The result is a narrative that becomes disjointed and bogged down. There is little follow-through on some of these so they seem to contribute little to the overall narrative. Is the message that there is coercion and corruption to be found among academics as well as criminals? The author implies that universities have blood on their hands if they align themselves with regimes with deplorable human rights’ records. Is she suggesting that universities are criminal organizations not much different from those found in the criminal underworld?
The plot becomes increasingly convoluted and I found myself becoming annoyed with the constant piling on of Jim’s problems; it felt like they were added just to confuse. The stereotypical characterization of gangsters does not impress. And then the ending seems rushed and leaves unanswered questions.
This book may appeal to others, but I found myself losing interest with the muddled combination of criminal activities and academic politics.
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DCYakabuski).… (altro)
The Girl on the Stairs is a psychological crime thriller by Scottish author Louise Welsh. Jane and Petra are a lesbian couple who are expecting a baby. Jane is pregnant and has just moved to Berlin to join Petra. She is feeling a little isolated as she has no friends in Berlin and speaks little of the language. Petra is a successful businesswoman who often has to travel for her job. With little to keep her occupied, Jane becomes obsessed with the father and daughter who live next door. She hears arguments in the middle of the night and sees bruises on the 13 year old’s face and becomes insistent that the father is abusing his daughter. She also becomes involved with an older couple who live downstairs, although the woman is suffering from dementia and the man isn’t very welcoming. She hears rumors about the mother of the family next door being either missing or murdered.
The story is gripping and keeps the reader guessing whether any of what Jane suspects is true. Jane is obviously damaged in many ways herself but as soon as one starts to doubt Jane, something happens to escalate her suspicions and bring us back to her side. The atmosphere is dark and tense as Jane explores her neighbourhood that includes a derelict building that overlooks the apartment. Everyone in the book appears to be lying and keeping secrets. Who to believe – who to trust?
The Girl on the Stairs had me rooting for Jane one minute and wanting to force her to give up her poking and prying ways the next. The author maintains a claustrophobic tension throughout the book and the many twists and turns keep the pages turning. The book is unsettling and disturbing to the point that many readers will be uncomfortable. Personally I give it a big thumbs up!… (altro)
The story is gripping and keeps the reader guessing whether any of what Jane suspects is true. Jane is obviously damaged in many ways herself but as soon as one starts to doubt Jane, something happens to escalate her suspicions and bring us back to her side. The atmosphere is dark and tense as Jane explores her neighbourhood that includes a derelict building that overlooks the apartment. Everyone in the book appears to be lying and keeping secrets. Who to believe – who to trust?
The Girl on the Stairs had me rooting for Jane one minute and wanting to force her to give up her poking and prying ways the next. The author maintains a claustrophobic tension throughout the book and the many twists and turns keep the pages turning. The book is unsettling and disturbing to the point that many readers will be uncomfortable. Personally I give it a big thumbs up!… (altro)
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.
I was gripped by the start of this story: Jim gets back from a flying visit to his university's Beijing campus to find his (utterly obnoxious) son Elliot has been arrested for possession with intent to distribute. He goes to his grandfather's old pub to drown his sorrows and meets up with a former schoolmate (Jim has come up in the world) who is a criminal lawyer and goes on to represent Elliot. There are various other pressures on Jim from his role at the university and after a while the temptations to compromise begin to pile up.
I found the rest of the book uncomfortably dark and morally conflicted, although to be fair, that's exactly what the blurb promises.… (altro)
I was gripped by the start of this story: Jim gets back from a flying visit to his university's Beijing campus to find his (utterly obnoxious) son Elliot has been arrested for possession with intent to distribute. He goes to his grandfather's old pub to drown his sorrows and meets up with a former schoolmate (Jim has come up in the world) who is a criminal lawyer and goes on to represent Elliot. There are various other pressures on Jim from his role at the university and after a while the temptations to compromise begin to pile up.
I found the rest of the book uncomfortably dark and morally conflicted, although to be fair, that's exactly what the blurb promises.… (altro)
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Review 1 (1)
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 19
- Opere correlate
- 11
- Utenti
- 2,320
- Popolarità
- #11,063
- Voto
- 3.4
- Recensioni
- 136
- ISBN
- 150
- Lingue
- 10
- Preferito da
- 8
However I didn’t finish, read about one third, as the characters appeared unsympathetic and I didn’t feel any curiosity to find out how matters ended (although badly, I presumed).