by Callum McSorley
SYNOPSIS
Half the Glasgow polis think DI Alison McCoist is bent.
The other half just think she's a fuck-up.
No one thinks very much at all about carwash employee Davey Burnet, until one day he takes the wrong customer's motor for a ride. One kidnapping later, he and the carwash are officially part of Glasgow's criminal underworld, working for a psychopath who enjoys playing games like 'Keep Yer Kneecaps' with any poor bastard who crosses him.
Can Davey escape from the gang's clutches with his kneecaps and life intact? Perhaps this polis Ally McCoist who keeps nosing around the carwash could help. That's if she doesn't get herself killed first.
REVIEW
Davey is a carwash employee, recently separated from his partner and daughter and struggling to find a way to win them back. A snap decision one day propels Davey into the violent Glasgow underworld and sets in motion a series of events that keep driving him further and further into trouble. Meanwhile, Detective Ally McCoist is trying to recover her career after a serious oversight has damaged her reputation with her colleagues. She has her suspicions about the number of strange cases linking back to the carwash, but will her determination to crack a major case end up with her paying with her life?
I had such a strange and immersive experience reading this book. Almost all of the dialogue was written phonetically in strong Glaswegian dialect which meant that I read it in that accent in my head the whole way through. This transported me right into the action, it was as if I was actually there in that carwash as all of the drama unfolded.
Squeaky Clean is a classic 'wrong place, wrong time' crime caper with feeling. For all of his faults you can't help rooting for Davey, desperately hoping that he could find a way out of the tricky situation he found himself in. A fantastic new voice in Tartan Noir, it was gritty, bleak and definitely violent but expertly balanced with plenty of dark humour. I was so thrilled that the story was set up perfectly for a sequel!
Aye. Ye gona want tae read this yn!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Callum McSorley is an author based in Glasgow, Scotland.
His short stories have appeared in New Writing Scotland, Gutter Magazine, and Shoreline of Infinity. SQUEAKY CLEAN is his first novel.
Thanks to Pushkin Press - @PushkinPress and Callum McSorley - @CallumMcSorley for the opportunity to read and review.
Publisher: Pushkin Press Genre: Crime Fiction
ISBN: 978-1782278368
Pages: 384pp
Комментарии