The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh

The Cutting Room

Louise Welsh

This is a dark, disturbing but compulsive read. Rilke, a Glasgow auctioneer, is determined to find out if the girl in some Victorian pornographic photos was murdered. Takes the reader on a fast moving journey into the depths of the seedier side of the city, meeting bizarre, unpleasant and curious characters along the way.

Extract
It was an envelope. Just a buff-coloured, thick-papered, document envelope. Straight away I knew it held photographs. I could feel them, the weight, the uniform size, photos not good enough for an album. Two thick rubber bands secured the folds, one pink, one blue ... I pulled the bands off ... and slid the photographs into my hand.
Mr McKindless is wearing a white shirt and bow tie. His hair has lost some of its Brylcreemed bounce, it lies damp and plastered across his forehead. His attention is focused on the young girl in his arms. She is pretty, pale-faced and lipsticked. Her head thrown backwards in his embrace, her dark curls, ringlets almost, tumbling away from her face. She is naked except for suspenders and stockings, and seems almost asleep. McKindless looks as if he is talking, trying to rouse her.
Parallels
  • Hen's Teeth by Manda Scott
  • Dead Souls by Ian Rankin
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Violence
Explicit sexual content