David Hughes reviewed The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh
You can take the boy out of the scheme but...
4 stars
A follow up to Trainspotting that focuses on the rehabilitated(?) Begbie; now a successful artist living in California and married with two daughters. When his estranged son is murdered, Begbie returns to Edinburgh for the funeral and to investigate the death. Is the bold Franco a new man? What do you think? It's a shit detective novel and it's ultra, ultra-violent but it's a decent attempt at looking at the roots of violence in the male psyche; in the novel, frequent reference is made to Franco reading A Clockwork Orange on his e-reader, duh! Begbie is a memorable character and it's nice to give him some depth as well as fill in his back story. Nurture or nature? A bit of both. Welsh's reach exceeds his grasp, but it's an entertaining ride. Killer ending too.
