Book Review: The Cutting Room

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

The Cutting Room     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Louise Welsh
Class/Genre:   Mystery

An extremely dark, atmospheric first novel from Scottish writer Louise Welsh. Set in a wintry Glasgow, the action includes the city as a bleak backdrop to a story of degradation and greed.

The main character Rilke is part owner of an auction house specializing in antiques and estate sales. He is contacted by an elderly woman to catalog and sell the contents of a huge old house. She insists that he himself, working by himself, attend to an upper attic study and that the contents of that room be burned, not sold. Intrigued, Rilke investigates and discovers an extremely valuable collection of rare pornographic books. More disturbingly, he also finds a stash of photographs which appear to record a so called "snuff killing," in which a young woman was bound, tortured, and then killed while the photographer stood by, preserving each moment with his lens.

In part driven by greed, thinking that he can sell the books instead of burn them, and pocket the proceeds; and in part motivated by concern and curiosity for the fate of the young woman in the photographs, Rilke begins to inquire of various people to learn if the photographs are actually of a young woman's death or if they had been modified in some manner to make the scene seem real.

One inquiry leads to a referral to another source, then to another, and another, and so on. Eventually Rilke is warned off of his quest by several of his contacts as well as by a sympathetic policeman, but he persists. Not surprisingly, the entire sequence of events becomes very threatening to Rilke and to his business partner.

Welsh's novel is graphic, dark, pessimistic, erotic, and excellent!

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM