The Cutting Room

When Rilke, a dissolute and promiscuous auctioneer, comes upon a hidden collection of violent and highly disturbing photographs, he feels compelled to unearth more about the deceased owner who coveted them.

What follows is a compulsive journey of discovery, decadence and deviousness . . .

'Astonishingly, this is a fi rst novel, catapulting Welsh straight into the superstar league, while establishing Rilke as a classic original.'
The Times

'In Louise Welsh crime fiction has one of its few real literary writers. The Cutting Room is a hugely commendable debut, assured and memorable. Crime fiction may have its prize-winner at last.'
Independent

'This elegiac, elegant and atmospheric book is an original and compelling first novel. Rarely can such gothic material have been treated with such subtlety.'
Daily Telegraph

'One of the most intriguing, assured and unputdownable debuts to come out of Scotland in recent years.'
Sunday Times

Winner of the Crime Writers Association John Creasey Dagger 2002

The Saltire Society First Book Award 2002

The BBC's Underground 2003 Award, Writer Category