CRIME FICTION REVIEW: Lennox: A man for Hire but not for Sale - Craig Russell

BOOK BLURB:

Shady private investigator Lennox is a hard man in a hard city at a hard time: Glasgow, 1953, where the war may be over but the battle for the streets is just beginning. It's a place where only the toughest and most ruthless survive. The McGahern twins were on the way up until Tam, the brains of the outfit, opened his door to find two hitmen pointing shotguns at him. The Three Kings, the crime lords who run Glasgow's underworld, all deny ordering the hit, so Tam's brother Frankie turns to Lennox to find out who killed his twin. Lennox refuses. Later that night, Frankie's body is discovered on the road, his head mashed to pulp, and Lennox finds himself in the frame for murder. The only way of proving his innocence is to solve the crime - but he'll have to dodge men more deadly than Glasgow's crime bosses before he gets any answers. Craig Russell combines atmosphere, action and a pitch-black sense of humour with an intelligent and complex character who is a product of the recent war he lived through. The first in a unique and memorable crime series, Lennox is gritty, compelling, and unashamedly neo-Noir.


REVIEW:

As a huge fan of Craig’s Fabel series when I heard of a new project, this time a crime series set in Glasgow in the Fifties, I knew that I just had to read it. As you’ve probably come to expect from Craig by now, the novel is extremely well crafted, the writing is crisp, the structure alluring and above all, the principle protagonist is the sort of character that you just have to learn more about. What made this novel different from his previous fiction was that the book was in the first person without a huge supporting cast to take away any of the pressure that may have caused other writers to buckle under the pressures of telling the tale.

I absolutely had a cracking time reading this, and it really did take me to that older darker city that I’ve only heard friends talk about in hushed whispers. If you like other detective tales such as Rebus or even the darker days of McManus’ Taggert then this book is going to be an absolute must own, you really won’t be disappointed at the quality of the writing, the twists within twists and a tale that will keep you guessing the outcome right up to the Epilogue.