William Wilson, a Glaswegian boozing conjuror, down on his luck and working the lower cabaret clubs of London, is made an offer he can’t refuse – the chance to work in a Berlin night club. The timing couldn’t be better. William has become embroiled in a missing person case with one Inspector James Montgomery, a corrupt former copper, at its centre. But he doesn’t find an escape route in Berlin. Here he meets Sylve an exotic American who becomes his stage assistant and who tempts him into performing his most daring illusion - the bullet trick – for a mysterious rich client. The result sends Wilson running in total confusion back to his native Glasgow which is where the story begins.
Louise Welsh weaves together the two stories in this gripping thriller, cleverly cutting between the cities of Glasgow, London and Berlin in an act of prestidigitation worthy of her chief protagonist. Much has been made of the idea that Welsh may be the author to cross the genre novel with literary fiction. Don’t let this influence your reading of it. Read THE BULLET TRICK for what it is – a clever, exciting, well-written, thriller – and if it happens to get a Man Booker nomination then good luck to her. But I doubt if it will.
Click here to read an exclusive interview with Louise Welsh
When down-at-heel Glasgow conjurer William Wilson gets booked for a string of cabaret gigs in Berlin, he's hoping his luck's on the turn. There were certain spectators from his last show who he'd rather forget. Like the one who's now a corpse.
Amongst the showgirls and tricksters of Berlin's scandalous underground Wilson can abandon his heart, his head and, more importantly, his past. But secrets have a habit of catching up with him and, as he gets sucked into certain lucrative after-hours work, the line between what's an act and what's real starts to blur.
Louise Welsh is the bestselling author of The Cutting Room and Tamburlaine Must Die. She was chosen as one of Britain's Best First Novelists of 2002 by the Guardian, won The Crime Writers' Association Creasey Dagger for the best first crime novel, and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award, 2002.
