- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd; First Edition edition (20 July 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841958034
- ISBN-13: 978-1841958033
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 725,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Sometimes an author can make a considerable mark with their first book (as Louise Welsh did with The Cutting Room and almost immediately lose momentum with their next outing. The Bullet Trick is proof that Welsh is no one-trick pony, and this highly entertaining (if, at times, baffling) novel will be gratefully received by those who like their fiction eccentric and unabashed--Welsh doesn’t shy away from presenting us with the more extreme forms of human behaviour, sexual or otherwise.
The protagonist here is a Glaswegian conjurer who has seen better days. Those who know their literature of the Gothic (and Louise Welsh is certainly of that number!) will no doubt spot that the author has christened her anti-hero William Wilson--the same name, in fact, as the luckless hero of the Edgar Allen Poe tale of sinister duality. Welsh’s Wilson is desperate to escape from his crushing existence in Glasgow, and jumps at the chance to perform his conjuring tricks in the cabarets of Berlin. Leaving behind people who he most definitely wants out his life in this free and easy foreign city seems like the best move of his career. But Welsh implies that (like the Poe character with whom he shares his name), Wilson’s real problems lie within himself, with the external danger he encounters a manifestation of the sickness in his own soul.
If the above makes The Bullet Trick sound like a depressing read, nothing could be further from the truth. This is exuberant stuff, floridly plotted and crammed full of the kind of over-the-top characters that we encounter far too little these days in most parochial fiction. It's also worth noting the Welsh's second novel could not be more different from its predecessor, and if she is going to come up with something quite distinct with every new book, that alone is going to mark her out from most of her contemporaries.
--Barry Forshaw
Review
"In Louise Welsh crime fiction has one of its few real literary writers... Crime fiction may have its prize-winner at last." Independent "Brilliant... Every vignette, every minor character, every sight, sound and smell, has the ring of truth." Sunday Telegraph "Bold, imaginative, vibrant." Daily Telegraph "Welsh's prose manages to be both tight and lyrical, suspenseful and poetic, compelling. Catapult[s] Welsh straight into the superstar league." The Times"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Welsh's third novel is a really good offering.
William Wilson is a struggling magician who gets caught up in a missing person's and double murder case which he feels compelled to investigate.
The novel is set in three locations; London,Berlin and Glasgow. The structure is interesting as the novel slips backwards and forwards in time, however it remains easy to keep up with and more intriguing as a result.
The themes are similar to those we saw in her first novel 'The Cutting Room'; perversion, murder, intrigue and the darker side of life. Yet having sections of the book set in Berlin on the Burlesque circuit give it a Cabaret-esque feel. It's gritty without ever being gratuitous.
Really worth a read if you enjoyed The Cutting Room, but I did deduct one star for the ending which I felt was a bit of a let down.
William Wilson is a struggling magician who gets caught up in a missing person's and double murder case which he feels compelled to investigate.
The novel is set in three locations; London,Berlin and Glasgow. The structure is interesting as the novel slips backwards and forwards in time, however it remains easy to keep up with and more intriguing as a result.
The themes are similar to those we saw in her first novel 'The Cutting Room'; perversion, murder, intrigue and the darker side of life. Yet having sections of the book set in Berlin on the Burlesque circuit give it a Cabaret-esque feel. It's gritty without ever being gratuitous.
Really worth a read if you enjoyed The Cutting Room, but I did deduct one star for the ending which I felt was a bit of a let down.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Welsh's third novel is a really good offering.
William Wilson is a struggling magician who gets caught up in a missing person's and double murder case which he feels compelled to investigate.
The novel is set in three locations; London,Berlin and Glasgow. The structure is interesting as the novel slips backwards and forwards in time, however it remains easy to keep up with and more intriguing as a result.
The themes are similar to those we saw in her first novel 'The Cutting Room'; perversion, murder, intrigue and the darker side of life. Yet having sections of the book set in Berlin on the Burlesque circuit give it a Cabaret-esque feel. It's gritty without ever being gratuitous.
Really worth a read if you enjoyed The Cutting Room, but I did deduct one star for the ending which I felt was a bit of a let down.
William Wilson is a struggling magician who gets caught up in a missing person's and double murder case which he feels compelled to investigate.
The novel is set in three locations; London,Berlin and Glasgow. The structure is interesting as the novel slips backwards and forwards in time, however it remains easy to keep up with and more intriguing as a result.
The themes are similar to those we saw in her first novel 'The Cutting Room'; perversion, murder, intrigue and the darker side of life. Yet having sections of the book set in Berlin on the Burlesque circuit give it a Cabaret-esque feel. It's gritty without ever being gratuitous.
Really worth a read if you enjoyed The Cutting Room, but I did deduct one star for the ending which I felt was a bit of a let down.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Make no mistake, Louise Welsh is a very good and intelligent author. She creates sympathetic characters and brings an underlying eroticism to her story-telling. These factors combine to make the book a page turner. The problem is that I couldn't suspend disbelief. The plotting isn't tight enough and the resolution of the various plots is particularly weak.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Atmospheric writing and an engaging plot
I really enjoyed Welsh's two previous novels so sought this one out as soon as it was published. I think the novel works best in portraying the down-at-heel, some what sordid... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Laurence O'Neill
Readable
A readable slice of lite pop lit, territory that Kate Atkinson has made her own over the last few years. Good for planes, trains and hotel rooms.
Published 8 months ago by Frootle
A Thrilling Gothic Mystery
I picked up this book from my library, the picture first caught my eye and then the title, and when I read the blurb and noticed that some of it was set in Berlin ...... Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2010 by Mrs. C. Colbert
Ranking if not Rankin
Louise Welsh has come up with a fresh slant on the crime novel in this engaging and cleverly pitched story set partly in Glasgow and London and partly in Berlin. Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2009 by Eileen Shaw
It went somewhere ... then fell down.
The Bullet Trick is Louise Welsh's second novel, which deftly follows up on her first The Cutting Room. Read more
Published on 23 May 2009 by Richard Kunzmann
The Bullet Trick
Interesting plot set-up but the book is defeated by the awkward prose. Images don't often come easily to life making the events sometimes difficult to visualise. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2008 by Rich
"Meine Damen und Herren. Mesdames et Messieurs...."
The Bullet Trick was BBC Radio Scotland's Book Club book of the month earlier in the year and having coincidently watched Caberet on DVD just a few days before I found myself a... Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2007 by Claptout
A step down from the Cutting Room
I like Louise Walsh, the Cutting room was excellent and Tamburlaine Must Die intriguing. This novel is in the same style as the Cutting Room, and if you liked that, then this is... Read more
Published on 7 April 2007 by York8500
pap
How did this book manage to get such good reviews? It's not the intelligent or engaging novel that the cover quotes would have you believe. Read more
Published on 3 April 2007 by Danny Marsh
Seedy glamour and gritty realism
I'm not a big reader of crime novels, but as I enjoyed The Cutting Room, I picked this up too. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a pacy, compelling read that offers more than a... Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2007 by Hazel Martin
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