The gumshoe is an auctioneer who cuts an ambiguous figure in his investigation of a dark underworld due to his own deviant ways. The trick is to ignore Rilke (Welsh’s protagonist has no first name and what remains is evocative of the poet) and his risky lifestyle (devil may care cruising) and concentrate on the figure of the dead woman. A Glaswegian gothic. Not a bad first novel.

Rilke is a down-on-his-luck auctioneer in Glasgow, Scotland who comes into a estate job that has seriously piqued his interest. In the converted attic of the McKindless residence, hidden among a huge collection of rare and hard-to-find first edition pornography, he finds some extremely disturbing photographs…. Proving that McKindless was more than just a reader, but an actual participant in some very nasty stuff!

I’m glad I found the time to read this. Thank you for allowing me hang on to it longer than usual. I’m not much of a “true crime” reader usually, but the subject matter of this particular book (pornography and other sexual deviations) greatly interested me. ;-) Apparently, this was a first novel from this Scottish author, Louise Welsh, and though I had a slightly difficult time with some of the colloquialisms, it wasn’t anything that took away from the story, and I was usually able to figure out what the author was referring to within a page or two max. An exciting read!

Not a keeper, but a good read and interesting subject matter.