To the Dogs is a literary thriller that tells the story of how Jim Brennan’s comfortable middle-class life starts to come apart at the seams. Returning from a work trip to China, he learns that his wastrel of a son has been arrested on drugs charges. As the son of a now deceased Glasgow hardman, he has overcome his background to make a name for himself in academia, and is in line for the top job at the university. Suddenly all this is in jeopardy as he has to decide whether to save his family or his career. Characters from his past life, with long memories and a score to settle, now emerge from the shadows and try their best to destroy him.
The descriptions of life at the university are convincing as Louise Welsh actually teaches creative writing at Glasgow University so brings an authenticity to the narrative. Many years ago, I was a student there, and this book brought back a lot of memories as I recognised many of the locations.
The characters are well drawn but few of them are very likeable. There are several strands to the plot, maybe too many, and any one of them could bring him down. The pacing is a bit uneven, but the quality of the writing kept me turning the pages. To the Dogs is a tense and gritty thriller with plenty of twists to keep you guessing who is trying to destroy everything Jim Brennan holds dear.
I really enjoyed The Cutting Room and The Second Cut by this author, this book not quite so much only because I found it hard to warm to the main character. They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but this one is very striking and I like it a lot. I fully intend to read more from her back catalogue, and look forward to reading her next book. Thanks to Canongate and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley. There are parts of it that i thought captured the tension of events but it meandered off course at other times. It felt like the author kept having eureka moments of something else she could crotchet into the plot line. Eventually leading to an unholy mess of plot and counterplot.

There is nothing like Scottish crime fiction to get those nerves crackling. Louise Welsh is a new author to me, but I will be searching out her back catalogue as soon as possible. The fluidity of her words, the nice simple easy language, and scenarios that could easily occur in anyone’s lives, given the right sequence of circumstances. Her writing catapults you into the story with only a few words.

James Brennan is a Professor of Criminology at Glasgow University. He’s earmarked for the position of Principal of the university with his boss being diagnosed with cancer. It’s everything he’s worked for but to be entirely honest, it has come at the worst time. He’s just back from Beijing and he has landed to the news that his son has been arrested. It reminds him of everything that he went through with his father. A crime lord in the city. Things were unstable and Jim Brennan was damn sure his life would be different. That his family's life would be different. It has been, but with his son’s incarceration – it threatens to lead him back down a path that he’d destroyed.

I really enjoyed this story. I’ve been craving a well written Scottish crime novel, and this fit the bill. It’s multi layered with different storylines being juggled throughout. I found it intriguing to see how Jim struggled to come to terms between just letting his son deal with what was coming to him-he did break the law, let him deal with the consequences, to doing everything in his power to protect him. The humanity of difficult decisions really shone through.

A reasonably good thriller, with well thought out main characters but the storyline just seemed a bit much. There was just a bit too much going on with coincidental meetings of people from Jim's past, which although maybe not entirely coincidental as per the story just made it a too far fetched. Throw in the missing Chinese student and I often wondered just what the point of several of these parts were. Enjoyable enough to keep going but definitely not something that would draw me in to further reads.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I love reading books set in Glasgow, my own home city. The plot was intriguing and current, with Jim facing a dilemma that felt realistic involving the politics of academia at the University and his own personal life involving his son. This tension drives the plot forward in a satisfying way that you know you are in good hands.

There was an abudance of unlikable characters. Although, in real life I imagine there are plenty of indivduals who deep down are also out for solely their own self interest. Overall enjoyed the book but I still prefer the grubby honesty of Welsh's Rilke books.

I enjoyed this book. I have read a lot of Louise Welsh’s previous novels and I admire that she tackles different genres. She definitely seems like someone encapsulated within literature. The book swept me along and I did finish it quite quickly. University campus and life in and around Glasgow were very much characters within the story, I did feel that the story reminded me of a tv crime drama at times - Shetland, possibly, and felt a bit rote at points. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend it to readers and not just to readers of crime books.

I enjoyed this book and found it very readable. Jim's dilemma, whether to risk sacrificing his career or his family, produces a lot of suspense. Gritty Glasgow background. Recommended.

To The Dogs by Louise Welsh is a gritty Glaswegian thriller that had me hooked from the first page.
Jim (James) Brennan is a criminologist professor, a vice chancellor of the local university. We meet him as he gets off a flight from Beijing in order to go to his local police station where his son is being held. Jim has tried hard to make his life as different as possible from the one he grew up in: his father was a local legend and hard man. Everyone was scared of his violence. It looks as though Jim’s son is determined to take up from where his grandfather left off.

Things go from bad to worse, when someone is determined to undermine everything Jim has tried to do for himself and his family.

I really enjoyed this. There’s never a dull moment (much to Jim’s detriment!), and Jim finds himself in a terribly awkward situation. He has to decide between his family and his reputation - or is there a way that he can protect both?

This is exciting stuff, and had me guessing up to the last page.

This was my first book by the author and I requested it after seeing it described as dark academia. It was a fast-paced read with an engaging plot and a readable writing style. Definitely won't be my last book by this author.

I thought this started out really well but seemed to slow down after a few chapters. Quite dark at times with characters who weren't exactly likeable. All in all though it was an enjoyable read.

I stuck it out to 40%, during which Jim's son got arrested for dealing drugs, and Jim angsted about it. That's it. I can't even categorise this one. Eliot's crime is off-stage - his criminality and danger merely there to give his father a moral dilemma which he seems incapable of recognising, much less dealing with. But the characterisation is too superficial to class it as straight fiction either. It's one of the emptiest books I've ever read - clichéd dilemma, clichéd characters. As for the Glasgow setting, it's so badly done. Either be realistic or set your story in a fictional city. Why call the prison in Glasgow Linbarley rather than its actual name of Barlinnie? Silly and annoying. This was my first Louise Welsh and I fear it is also my last.

On the face of it this was a well written book showing how far a father will go to protect his family but for some reason I just wasn’t feeling it. Struggled to finish and it seemed slow at times and I didn’t particularly warm to any of the characters.

Thank you for letting me read this advance review copy. I found myself drawn into the story straight away. It brings into question the ethics of accepting funding and help from questionable sources in all aspects of life. The suspense started and built all the way through. Excellent read.

Jim’s son has got into some trouble with the law, how far will a father go to protect his family? Not very far apparently.

This book was not what I expected it to be. The blurb does not do this book justice, and I didn’t find the story interesting enough. A few bits of the book I skimmed over, and found some conversations with the characters to be quite bland and boring - and I often felt myself getting irritated trying to get to the end of the chapters.

The chapters themselves are a mixture of small and really long, I prefer smaller book chapters to have a break when I am reading.

I did like the writing of this book and how the writing flowed, I just found the story itself a little flat and lacklustre which made me want to stop reading a few times, but I saw it through to the end to give an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate Books for giving me this ARC to review, however, on this occasion this book was not for me.

Gripping, complex and gritty!
A well written thriller about a man who will do anything to protect his. The writing of this book had me hooked in from the first chapter. Its descriptive an uou can easily find yourself in the book. Highly recommend reading this book!

Jim Brennan, a respected academic in line for promotion to the top job at his Glasgow university, finds his son's issues with drugs threaten to bring everything crashing down. To try and minimise the problem Jim has to get into bed with the "gangster" element with whom his father was involved many years previously.
So the stage is set and Louise Welsh can draw us in to a gripping story involving the dangerous side of Glasgow where no-one can be trusted and every deal comes with consequences.
This is excellent writing both in terms of plotline and depiction of place. Definitely worth a read.

Jim Brennan has worked hard for his life - a happy marriage, a loving daughter, a comfortable home, and the imminent prospect of taking over the top job at the university where he works as a professor of criminology. It's a far cry from his childhood on one of the city's most deprived and violent estates, living at the mercy of his father, a notorious local hardman. So when his son threatens to ruin everything by getting busted for selling drugs, Jim knows he will do whatever it takes to maintain the status quo.

The premise intrigued me, but unfortunately I was underwhelmed by this one, which felt disappointingly pedestrian and under-developed for an established crime author like Louise Welsh.

Every character is either actively unlikeable (Jim's son Eliot, in contention for Scotland's sulkiest, most entitled middle class petty criminal) or made very little impression. Modest attempts at creating depth for characters such as Eddie Cranston, Eliot's lawyer, and his girlfriend, Becca, felt half-hearted and unimaginative, doing nothing to make them relatable or interesting.

Jim himself is an unsympathetic, vaguely drawn character. He is a renowned, published professor of criminology at a prestigious university, yet he seems to have little understanding of crime and criminals - he is consistently surprised by their behaviour and affronted by their requests - and it is unclear how he has managed to achieve such success in his career. He comes across as disingenuous and lacking in principles; he seems willing to assume any position which might serve his purpose and I finished the novel with no clear idea of his stance on any of the issues superficially covered in the story, such as the disappearance of a Chinese student who may have been critical of his country's government, and the controversy over whether or not the university should accept a donation from a Saudi Arabian royal. Indeed, I couldn't even say for sure whether or not Jim likes his own dog!

These subplots, as well as others concerning administrative corruption, range from dull but relevant to the plot to awkwardly forced into the narrative in an attempt to convince the reader that there are some broader, more important stakes at play than Jim's career and the fate of his awful son. Themes are hinted at and connections touched upon between characters who share similarities, but this all feels underdeveloped and as if the reader should fill in the blanks.

Overall, To the Dogs is a mediocre offering which brings nothing new to the table.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

Gritty, gripping, and complex. A story about a man that will do anything to protect his reputation and family.
I loved the style of writing and the description of the places: from the posh to the seediest in Glasgow.
A well plotted and well done thriller
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was an ok book. It was well written but I didn't feel much sympathy or like for the main character. I could see how someone could get themselves into a mess like he did, but just didn't care very much about him

I loved the premise of To the Dogs and that, combined with the Scottish setting, had my expectations pretty high for this crime novel. Luckily I can confirm it is every bit as gripping, tense and compelling as I’d hoped! The story follows Professor Jim Brennan, a rising star in the university he works at and son of a notorious Glaswegian hardman. Jim has done his best to escape his roots and the shadow of his, now deceased, father. However, when Jim’s son is arrested on drug charges, he finds himself forced to descend back into the world he did his utmost to distance himself from.

I found Jim utterly fascinating as a main character. To the Dogs is very much focused on Jim’s personal reckoning with his legacy and his realisation of how far he is willing to go to protect his family, and the life and career he has built for himself. This is a deftly plotted and genuinely unputdownable book, which looks at morality, fatherhood, corruption and violence set in a modern and gritty Glasgow that uncovers both the dark and the idealistic sides of a city dripping in character. I loved every minute of Jim’s journey into darkness and retribution, as he fights to keep his reputation and more importantly, his family, safe. I couldn’t recommend this outstanding piece of crime fiction more highly and will be adding Louise Welsh to my list of auto-buy authors. A very easy five stars.