David Hughes reviewed Lennox by Craig Russell (Russell, Craig, 1956- Lennox -- 1.)
Fails to transcend the cliches of the genre
2 stars
The eponym is a hard-boiled Canadian ex-serviceman plying his trade as a private dick in early 1950s Glasgow. He's also a gangland gopher for the three bosses who run crime in the city. When a second-tier gangster with aspirations is murdered, Lennox investigates. Femme fatales, thuggish cops, morally ambiguous heroes; the author rummages through the big bag of noir tropes to serve up a bland and convoluted tale with too high a body count. I didn't find the period setting authentic and do Canadians really play "ice" hockey? The constant dissing of Glasgow, the Scots and Scotland was very tedious and the distal good guys were not to my taste. Lennox has potential and the first in a series always suffers from the world-building that has to be done. Reading subsequent books in series might be a worthwhile journey, but not one I'll be undertaking.
