Louise Welsh chats to Paul about her new novel The CUT UP, Rilke, Glasgow, Scottish PEN, The Cutting Pen, academia and being decent people.

THE CUT UP: It's hard to be good when living is expensive. And times are tough on the streets these days. Luckily for Rilke at Bowery Auctions the demand for no-questions-asked cash is at an all-time high, and business is booming.
When Rilke hears his old acquaintance Les is fresh out of prison, his inclination is to stay well out of his way. Letting sleeping dogs lie is one thing - but when one of Bowery's customers winds up dead on their tarmac, Rilke needs a bit of help from his friends to tidy things up. If only his friends didn't have such a habit of making things worse.

Louise Welsh is an award-winning author of ten novels. The Cutting Room, her debut novel, won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award. In 2018, she was named the Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award winner by public vote. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. In 2022 she published The Second Cut, which was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize for Crime Book of the Year and named by The Times as their Crime Book of the Year.
@louisewelsh00

Recommendations Kate Summerscale The Peepshow, Denise Mina The Long Drop, Merlin Holland After Oscar, Neil M Gunn Blood Hunt, Pat Barker.

Paul Burke is editor of Aspects of Crime and Crime Time FM, CWA Gold Dagger Judge.

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