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For Glasgow – with love and squalor: The Second Cut, by Louise Welsh, reviewed

22 January 2022

9:00 AM

22 January 2022

9:00 AM

The Second Cut Louise Welsh

Canongate, pp.384, 14.99

Never, never kill the dog. It’s rule one in the crime writer’s manual. Cats are bad enough, as I can testify, having once had the temerity to behead a cat — in a novel, I mean —and then crucify the mutilated corpse upside down on a church door. As a general rule, if you kill a domestic pet in your crime story you should expect a hostile postbag of epic proportions.

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