Tony R Cox is an ex-provincial UK journalist. The Simon Jardine series is based on his memories of the early 70s - the time of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll - when reporters relied on word of mouth and there was no internet, no mobile phones, not even a fax machine.
The pinnacle of Criminologist Professor Jim Brennan’s career is within his grasp. Arriving home in Glasgow from an important university event in Beijing, he finds that his son, Elliot, is in trouble and in police custody. All that he has worked for seems to be slipping away because of the crimes of his drug dealer son.
This absorbing, addictive novel moves seamlessly from a prison visit through the lethal world of drug dealing into high level corruption, violent organised crime gangs and family relationships that could tear several lives apart. Jim Brennan’s dad was a hard man for powerful criminals. Will his son, a now highly respected academic, fall into a violent, corrupt past he left many years ago to save his career, his son’s life and his family?
Louise Welsh takes the reader effortlessly along a violent, menacing, path that draws the reader inexorably through a chain of events. Through deft use of language, the incredible becomes natural as crimes and criminals, linked to the city’s menacing, terrorising underworld, dictate the course of the professor’s future. Smartly-suited, financially well-upholstered characters populate comparative stratosphere of business and academia, whilst dangerous youngsters gather in seedy pubs.
Questions arise about Jim Brennan. Is he a pawn on the verge of personal and familial armageddon or a vicious, sharp-toothed pike in a lake of evil, where his role is to devour other murderous sealife, watched by ‘anglers’ whose desire is to control the waters?
To The Dogs is a surprisingly easy read by an author who masters the language of a violent city as well as that of university life, whilst maintaining a beguiling flow. Louise Welsh wins literary awards – this latest crime novel demonstrates why she is so admired.
