I’ve just read Lennox by Craig Russell, published by Quercus books. Being me I read a library copy. I’ve just finished it and it was fantastic, highly recommended.

Lennox is a Canadian private dick who washes up in Glasgow after demob. Emotionally savaged by the war, Lennox decides to put off returning to his comfortable family background and instead gets down and dirty with Glasgow’s organised crime scene as the private investigator who reaches the parts others can’t – or won’t. Plots are tight, research is excellent, period detail brings everything to life and the humour had me snorting away late into the night.

The eponymously titled first book in the Lennox series deals with a gun-running plan that involves prostitution, switched identities and money-laundering. Willie Sneddon, one of the three Glasgow crime bosses known as the Three Kings, backed up by his bolt-cutter-wielding muscleman Twinkle Toes McBride and massive minder Tiny, engages Lennox to unravel the murders of identical twins Tam and Frankie McGahern. Lennox finds himself embroiled in the parallel investigations of the apparent disappearance of ‘Lillian Andrews’, the fatal car accident of her husband John, and the murder of brothel-owner Arthur Parks. While getting to the bottom of these inter-related cases Lennox has to keep the Three Kings sweet while bouncing from one life-threatening situation to the next, all while trying to avoid Glasgow CID, led by 6’6″ charm void Detective Superintendent Willie McNab and his Highland-bred slap-happy uniforms.

Gene Hunt wouldn’t last five minutes in the seamy, violent scenarios Craig Russell paints so vividly. It’s a nasty world Lennox operates in, but the books are rivetting reading. I’m just waiting on the next one from the library, The Long Glasgow Kiss. In the meantime, I’m going to start on Lindsey Davis’ Falco series with The Silver Pigs.