The Bullet Trick

LoveReading Says

This review is provided by bookgroup.info.

William Wilson, a Glaswegian boozing conjuror, down on his luck and working the lower cabaret clubs of London, is made an offer he can’t refuse – the chance to work in a Berlin night club. The timing couldn’t be better. William has become embroiled in a missing person case with one Inspector James Montgomery, a corrupt former copper, at its centre.

But he doesn’t find an escape route in Berlin. Here he meets Sylve an exotic American who becomes his stage assistant and who tempts him into performing his most daring illusion - the bullet trick – for a mysterious rich client. The result sends Wilson running in total confusion back to his native Glasgow which is where the story begins.

Louise Welsh weaves together the two stories in this gripping thriller, cleverly cutting between the cities of Glasgow, London and Berlin in an act of prestidigitation worthy of her chief protagonist. Much has been made of the idea that Welsh may be the author to cross the genre novel with literary fiction.

Don’t let this influence your reading of it. Read THE BULLET TRICK  for what it is – a clever, exciting, well-written, thriller – and if it happens to get a Man Booker nomination then good luck to her. But I doubt if it will.

Click here to read an exclusive interview with Louise Welsh

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About The Bullet Trick

William Wilson is a conjuror fallen on hard times. So when he gets booked for a string of gigs in Berlin, he is hoping his luck is on the turn. Amongst the showgirls, the tricksters and the femmes fatales of Berlin's caberet scene, William can abandon his heart, his head and, more importantly, his past. But somehow secrets have a habit of catching up with him. Louise Welsh's contemporary tale is her riches and most macabre yet, and The Bullet Trick will keep you guessing till its final explosive flourish.

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