Review of The Bullet Trick by Louise Welsh

The Bullet Trick is Louise Welsh’s long awaited follow-up to The Cutting Room, here seedy, melodrama about one man’s search for a snuff movie.

The Bullet Trick is a bit of a gothic crime story. It’s set in Glasgow, London and Berlin and tells the seedy story of William Wilson, a conjurer down on his luck and running for his life at the start of the story.

The tale is told in flashback. The background tells us that Wilson has been a conjurer for most of his adult life and it is something that he is very good at it. Unfortunately, he has his demons, drink, wanton women etc.

At the start of the story he is doing a gig at a club in Soho for a retiring policeman. During the night he gets involved in a long standing murder/missing person story and he is entrusted to an envelope by the club owner, Bill.

After the gig he travels to Berlin to work in one of the city’s erotic cabarets. Just after arriving he finds out that his pal has been found dead I the club with his lover, Sam. Wilson suspects foul play, in particular he knows Chief Inspector Montgomery who was retiring is involved.
He’s glad to be in Berlin and away from the spotlight.

In Berlin, he meets Sylvie, a bit of a vamp if ever there was one. She aids him in his act and leads him down the garden path eventually getting him into all sorts of bother. Ultimately, he gets asked to go one last version of his famous Bullet Trick to make a wad of cash. This he believes, ends in tragedy and he runs back to Glasgow to drink away his misery.

Fortunately, back in Glasgow there is something of a renaissance for young Wilson and it is there in the old Pantechnicon theatre that the story plays out.

This book is very well written and has an engaging though dour leading character in Wilson.
It reads in a very similar way to the Cutting Room and in some ways is a similar kind of book.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and do look forward to the next Louise Welsh story.