A real page-turner! I hadn't read The Cutting Room but absolutely loved the character of Rilke and his dark sense of humour. A flawless plot, brilliant descriptions of Glasgow and a very interesting reflection on how its gay scene has changed over the years. I'll certainly be reading more of Louise Welsh's books in the future.

What a wonderfully unexpected and glorious book.

I had never heard of the author and took this on trust - which was not unfounded.

I was drawn in immediately by the quality of the writing, the evocative descriptions of wonderfully drawn characters and the detailed description of Glasgow and its lower life.

A fantastic read which I devoured and I will be reading the prequel very shortly.

Highly recommended.

I haven't read "the cutting room" but have heard about it so was interested to read this book. The story was very readable as a stand alone novel and was a real page turner covering a wide range of contemporary issues with a light touch rather than preaching. I hope to hear more of Rilke and Rose
Thank you to netgalley and canongate for an advance copy of this book

I found this book to be quite slow in its build up but the overall execution was sound. The chacaracer development was masterful and the overall plot was sound

It is very well written and covers issues unusual in this kind of fiction. It is a return book for auctioneer Rilke and his boss Rose. He is part of the Glasgow sex and drugs scene which is used brilliantly as the background for the story. The story is mainly about the death of Rilke’s sort-of-friend Jojo who is found dead in a doorway, drugged and drunk. That, though, is only part of the interest of the book Pick up this book you won’t regret it!

This book is quite unlike anything I have read before, and I really loved it. Following the fortunes of auctioneer Rilke in the aftermath of the death of an acquaintance, this book explores many themes around friendship, drugs, greed and sexuality. Written in wonderful prose, this is an author I shall begin to follow avidly.

The Cutting Room is one of those books that I’ve always meant to read but never got round to. If you’re in the same position - remedy this immediately! I read it in a few sessions over Christmas, and it’s a stunning book. Then straight into the sequel!

Firstly, I admit to being a bit bemused by the timeline as only four or so years have passed, but it’s very much modern day (Covid, lockdowns, residual mask wearing etc), and The cutting room felt very much of its publication time too. As the book develops this adds a curiously timeless quality to Riike, Rose, Les and to a lesser extent Anderson - they are both very much in the 2022 moment but also intrinsically of the 80s and 90s, and this duality is really effective. No idea if intended, but it really worked for me…

The story itself is suitably fascinating- mixing antiques, chemsex, art, drugs and the underworld to great effect with a clear modern sensibility. I want to spend more time in this world (from a literary perspective!) and hope there are more stories to come..:

I discovered The Cutting Room on my school library shelves around 20 years ago and it’s been a pleasure to rediscover Rilke. This is a gritty, seedy peek into Glasgow’s Merchant City where shady deals abound. Sex, drugs, violence and art mix in this striking sequel.

In The Second Cut we revisit the world of Rilke, who readers first came across in Louise Welsh’s fantastic debut The Cutting Room. Rilke works for Bowery Auctions, and he’s given a tip by a friend, Jojo, that there’s a house clearance sale coming up that his firm might want to get involved with.

Rilke jumps on the opportunity, but then Jojo dies in circumstances that Rilke finds a little unlikely. Yes, his sort-of friend liked to party a bit too hard, but being found dead in a Glasgow alley doesn’t seem quite right.
In the meantime, there’s a bit of a question mark being raised over the house clearance. Is Rilke really to believe the family members who are selling the contents of the property to support the elderly relative in her retirement in Thailand? Or is something else going on?

Slowly Rilke gets dragged into a seedy side of Glaswegian gangland criminals even as he finds himself just trying to help people out.

The group of characters we meet are colourful and believable, almost as much as Rilke’s personal lifestyle – full of casual sex and dating apps.

Having also recently read Denise Mina’s The Less Dead, there is a through line into the heart of dark underworld of Glasgow in Welsh’s fine new novel. I was fully captivated by these characters, and you never know where things are headed.

It is worth noting that you don’t need to have read The Cutting Room to enjoy this new book. But if you haven’t, you probably should go back and read it, just because it’s really good book!

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC.

A storyline in which Rilke,, an auctioneer, takes the lead in solving a series of murders. It all starts when Rilke's friend Jojo turns up dead in an alleyway in Glasgow seemingly the victim of a drugs overdose. From this point on Welsh draws numerous threads together to generate a remarkably gripping yarn.
Supported by the other members of the Bowery Auction House team, Rilke escapes numerous dicey situations and ultimately gets a result. Along the way we are entertained both by the lively and esoteric crowd of Glaswegians with whom he mixes as well as by the shenanigans which the auction house practises in order to get business.
Welsh gives a dimension to her characters that draws the reader in and her fluid writing style will ensure your attention is held right to the end.

Wow, well worth the 20 year wait! I’m so behind with Christmas prep now, because I had to keep going off to read “just another chapter “.
I remember the first book being so different to a lot of crime I was reading and it was interesting to read a bit about the background in the Afterword of The Second Cut.
Rilke is still being gloriously, unapologetically, Rilke, attracting Trouble reluctantly, but just as reluctant to let it go by him unchallenged. At heart there is a cracking mystery, with a missing woman, a Big House stuffed with potential treasures and some subtly nasty villains. The dialogue is vibrant and the characterisations just spot on. Some contemporary social commentary reflected without making it overt and all the more powerful for that. Good to read an After Pandemic novel that tips its hat to the times we are in but puts the actual virus in the past (masks at an orgy a nice touch).
I want more Rilke novels but then again, he isn’t a policeman or a detective so I’m not sure how many more nefarious deeds he could stumble across in his career as auctioneer without it becoming a bit unrealistic, so I would hate to see him become the Hetty Wainthrop of Bowery. I don’t think he’d like that, either….

Auctioneer Rilke gets a tip from his old friend Jojo of a wealthy old lady wanting to clear her ancestral home, Ballantyne House, and sell up. But then Jojo mysteriously dies and when Rilke goes to visit the old lady he finds her missing and two men, one of them claiming to be her son, in the home instead. And then an acquaintance of Jojo’s dies in similar circumstances and known gangsters are seen in Ballantyne House’s grounds. As much as Rilke’s auction house needs this sale to go ahead after all the covid lockdowns caused economic hardship, he can’t help but look into what’s really going on behind the scenes…

Twenty years after her debut novel, The Cutting Room, was published, Scottish author Louise Welsh returns to Rilke’s shady Glaswegian world of auctions and death in the sequel, The Second Cut. I never read the first book but you don’t need to have either - this works fine as a standalone piece - and it’s not a bad read either.

Of the two storylines that comprise this novel, I was much more interested in the mystery of the missing old lady and events surrounding the Ballantyne House auction, rather than the death of Rilke’s mate Jojo. That’s mostly because the latter doesn’t seem to warrant so much attention given how Welsh sets up the character: Jojo is an older man who’s into a very rough lifestyle, taking all sorts of hard drugs and partying constantly. Yeah, he died - that’s what happens when you live that recklessly!

I feel like it was forced so that Welsh could write extensively about the Glasgow gay scene and society’s perception of sexuality in the 2020s as a contrast to how things were back in the early 2000s, particularly as she’s a gay author herself. Which is fine - and it is informative - but also mostly irrelevant to the overall story, especially given its underwhelming and pointless resolution.

But Welsh writes the Ballantyne House storyline well, constantly throwing in enticingly dark elements to build up the tension. It’s only really undercut by the alternate switching to the less compelling storyline, which makes the book a slower read. Although, similar to the Jojo storyline, the ending to this isn’t great but not wholly unsatisfying either.

The cast are a colourful bunch of fully-realised characters - Rilke’s bossy boss Rose, her police beau Anderson, the young upstart gangster Jamie Mitchell and the established gangland boss Ray Diamond, the questionable cousins Alec and John Forrest, the young artist Sands, and Rilke’s other dirtbag mate, Les. Like the whole book, they’re well-written with distinctive voices and strong personalities.

Rilke too is a captivating protagonist. The description of his lanky cadaver-like appearance is instantly striking in your mind’s eye, and he’s an intriguing mix of polished middle-class professionalism with an extensive, canny knowledge of, and sometimes participant of, the Glasgow underworld of drugs and sex. It makes a refreshing change as well to have a non-police character in the main role of a crime novel. It means Welsh has to be more creative in the narrative and she pulls this off admirably well.

The Second Cut is a decent crime novel. It’s not the most fast-paced or gripping read but the writing is accessible, the storytelling is often engaging, and it’s peopled with fun and unusual characters. Though uneven, it’s a solid book that will probably appeal to patient readers of crime fiction.

The return of Rilke is very welcome. The Cutting Room was a fine book and Louise Welsh returns to his world in this excellent sequel. Two dead men found in nearby alleys, a quantity of dubious bottles, a country house auctions with some worrying elements. Add in the local organised crime groups and it is a powerful mix that Rilke should avoid but, of course, he won't. Well crafted and plotted - a good read.

A great read; grown-up writing that's been skilfully edited to produce a novel I can read without grinding my teeth at poor grammar, clumsy red herrings or thin characters. I can think of nothing negative to say about The Second Cut - and that's rare for me!
Auctioneer Rilke is an interesting and multi-faceted character, harbouring doubts about his own chosen lifestyle and his individual moral code. Rilke's unintentional slide into the dark side of crime through contacts inside and outside his professional life is credible and interesting. The twists and turns of the story are slick and never far-fetched.
The novel stands alone well (although it is worth being aware that it is a partner for an earlier book The Cutting Room and you might want to read that first) and made me want to explore Welsh's back catalogue immediately. Her smooth but brisk style of writing and knack for conveying subtle detail pull the reader in quickly; before you realise it, half the book has gone. There's a dry wit threaded into the story, dialogue and characters and the "adult content" is presented well without being sensationalist, judgemental or overly graphic. This is clever writing that's a pleasure to read.

The Second Cut is Louise Welsh’ follow up to the hugely acclaimed ‘The Cutting Room’. The two books are set in Glasgow some 20 years apart and although the gay scene has changed dramatically over that time, the LGBTQ+ community still wrestles with inequality, stereotypical attitudes and judgement. Welsh cleverly draws the readers attention to this by destroying many a misconception and painting a picture of Glasgow’s gritty underbelly that is as unashamed as it is graphic.

To be honest I didn’t think I was in the mood for gritty and The Second Cut is definitely that but one chapter in and I was hooked. I mean to say anyone who uses the phrase …

‘… but the imp of the perverse that has ruled so much of my life intervened’

just has to be read. Absolutely brilliant, thanks so much to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I did not expect to like this book but I so did. I didn’t want it to finish – and with a bit of luck we’ll hear again about Rilke (the main character) and his adventures. This is Louise Welch’s second book that centres around this character who grew on me with every page I turned. I’d love to read more about him and the world he inhabits.

Rilke is quite a character. He works for a small Glaswegian auction house that operates on the brink of bankruptcy and is therefore prepared to countenance the kind of deals that verge on the edge of legality. Rilke is a man with a history, which I guess is revealed in the earlier book The Cutting Room, but never quite explained here. He is streetwise, sharp, cynical, but also equipped with a big heart and a social conscience, always navigating a fine balance between good and bad.

He takes the reader into Glasgow’s underbelly, the shady and seedy areas of the city, into the twilight zone that lies between the just permittable and the unthinkable.

This is a book inhabited by big characters who I enjoyed meeting, the good as much as the bad and the ugly. It tells the seemingly straight forward story of the auctioning of Ballentine House, which turns out to be anything but simple, with the plot getting entangled with issues of migration, modern slavery and drug crime. It also dives deep into Glasgow’s LGBTQ world and it does this without any signs of being judgmental, staying true to Welch’s own feelings that she shares with the reader in her afterword: ‘Like Rilke, I have been judged too much myself to start judging others’. The question that surfaces with every turn of the plot is, what does it take to make a life a good life - and there are as many answers as people looking for it.

I loved it all.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Canongate Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The main character in this book is Rilke, a gay auctioneer who lives and works in Glasgow. The gay scene is one of the main settings in this book and is described in all it's glory. If the description of wild sex parties is likely to offend you this is not the book for you. There are also a couple of mysteries/crimes where Rilke becomes involved.
Rilke is, at times, an obnoxious character and this is illustrated by some of his interactions with others. He has dealings with others on both sides of the law and his adventures are well described. His associates are many and mostly portrayed in a couple of sentences. This mostly gives a good impression of the characters though minor characters are somewhat two dimensional.
All in all I enjoyed this book , I don't shock easily and am quite broad minded and would definitely read more from the author.
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Dark, funny but disturbing. You need a strong stomach to read this book but if you are not easily offended this is a fantastic novel.

An interesting story dealing with the world of auction houses and the work of dealing with the clearance of an old family mansion. But what happened to the elderly owner and are her two relative dealing with the disposal hiding some secret and why has the old friend who tipped the chief auctioneer about the opportunity ended up dead. Most of the characters involved are gay and so intimate insights into their private lives and sexual urges are dwelt with as a background to a well written tale, perhaps less to the liking of those not of that ilk.

High quality writing, gritty and realistic plot and interesting characters all combine to make this an intriguing read. It’s funny, cruel, compassionate and complicated. Really enjoyed it and I will be reading The cutting room next to have more time with Rilke and friends.