Status
Available
Call number
Description
Ray Lennox es un joven e inteligente inspector de la policía de Edimburgo que ha resuelto un atroz caso de asesinato. La muerta era una niña de siete años, y el culpable, un asesino en serie por cuyos crímenes anteriores habían sido encarcelados varios pringados más o menos inocentes.
Todo ha terminado ya, Lennox ha hecho un excelente trabajo, y ha sido recompensado con unas vacaciones. Que debe tomarse quiera o no, puesto que su desesperada, obsesiva implicación en el caso -que lo remite a un secreto episodio de su pasado- y su depresión posterior han hecho que sus superiores decidan alejarlo por un tiempo, hasta que se recupere. Lennox viaja con su novia Trudi a Miami, se olvida de la cocaína y el alcohol, de los que había abusado en los últimos tiempos, e intenta volver a la normalidad tomando antidepresivos como si fueran caramelos. Trudi es guapa, joven, y se aman, pero comienzan a tener problemas sexuales -puede que por los antidepresivos-, y sociales -ella está demasiado ocupada planeando su boda-. Y, después de una discusión, Roy va a un bar y, tras beber bastante vodka en soledad, se le acercan dos mujeres, Starry y Robyn, con cocaína y muchas ganas de fiesta.
Los tres acaban en el piso de Robyn, y cuando están en plena juerga, entre juegos eróticos y nubes de polvos blancos -e intentando no despertar a Tianna, la hija de Robyn, que duerme en su habitación-, llegan al piso dos amigos de las mujeres y se unen a la fiesta. Uno de ellos desaparece muy pronto y reaparecerá en el cuarto y la cama de la niña, que grita desesperada. Y a la mañana siguiente, tras una brutal pelea, el desbande y la desaparición de la madre, Lennox, que había acabado encerrado con Tianna en la habitación de ella para protegerla, se encontrará a cargo de una precoz lolita de diez años, al parecer amenazada por una oscura, poderosa red de pedófilos. Y, para salvarla, el detective no tendrá otra salida que enfrentarse a su propia vida y a los fantasmas del pasado, y actuar en el lado más oscuro de esa América a la que había llegado como turista.
Todo ha terminado ya, Lennox ha hecho un excelente trabajo, y ha sido recompensado con unas vacaciones. Que debe tomarse quiera o no, puesto que su desesperada, obsesiva implicación en el caso -que lo remite a un secreto episodio de su pasado- y su depresión posterior han hecho que sus superiores decidan alejarlo por un tiempo, hasta que se recupere. Lennox viaja con su novia Trudi a Miami, se olvida de la cocaína y el alcohol, de los que había abusado en los últimos tiempos, e intenta volver a la normalidad tomando antidepresivos como si fueran caramelos. Trudi es guapa, joven, y se aman, pero comienzan a tener problemas sexuales -puede que por los antidepresivos-, y sociales -ella está demasiado ocupada planeando su boda-. Y, después de una discusión, Roy va a un bar y, tras beber bastante vodka en soledad, se le acercan dos mujeres, Starry y Robyn, con cocaína y muchas ganas de fiesta.
Los tres acaban en el piso de Robyn, y cuando están en plena juerga, entre juegos eróticos y nubes de polvos blancos -e intentando no despertar a Tianna, la hija de Robyn, que duerme en su habitación-, llegan al piso dos amigos de las mujeres y se unen a la fiesta. Uno de ellos desaparece muy pronto y reaparecerá en el cuarto y la cama de la niña, que grita desesperada. Y a la mañana siguiente, tras una brutal pelea, el desbande y la desaparición de la madre, Lennox, que había acabado encerrado con Tianna en la habitación de ella para protegerla, se encontrará a cargo de una precoz lolita de diez años, al parecer amenazada por una oscura, poderosa red de pedófilos. Y, para salvarla, el detective no tendrá otra salida que enfrentarse a su propia vida y a los fantasmas del pasado, y actuar en el lado más oscuro de esa América a la que había llegado como turista.
Description
Now bereft of both youth and ambition, Detective Inspector Ray Lennox is recovering from a mental breakdown induced by occupational stress and cocaine abuse, and a particularly horrifying child sex murder case back in Edinburgh. On vacation in Florida, his fiancee Trudi is only interested in planning their forthcoming wedding, and a bitter argument sees a deranged Lennox cast adrift in strip-mall Florida. He meets two women in a seedy bar, ending up at their apartment for a coke binge interrupted by two menacing strangers. After the ensuing brawl, Lennox finds himself alone with Tianna, the terrified ten-year-old daughter of one of the women, and a sheet of instructions that make him responsible for her immediate safety.Lennox takes her across the state to an exclusive marina on the Gulf of Mexico, and quickly suspects that he has stumbled into a hornet's nest- a gang of organized paedophiles, every bit as threatening as the monster that haunted him back in Edinburgh. His priority is to protect the abused girl, but can the edgy Lennox trust his own instincts? And can he negotiate her inappropriate sexuality, as well as his own mental fragility, while still trying to get to grips with the Edinburgh murder and the emotions it unleashes in him?A novel about the corruption and abuse of the human soul and the possibilities of redemption, Crime is a thrilling journey into the bright glamour of the Sunshine State and a seething underworld of utter darkness.… (more)
Collection
Publication
ANAGRAMA (2010)
User reviews
LibraryThing member picardyrose
Scottish cop comes to Fla for vacation, rescues girl. Line "Burn Notice," but not as exciting.
LibraryThing member spaceball
Excellent read, and possibly the most accessible Irvine Welsh I have read. a copper (who worked with Robbo in Welsh's previous novel "Flilth") goes to Miami on holiday and comes up against a paedophile ring. Disturbing, but thrilling and will have you very involved by the end.
LibraryThing member simondavies
A good story hiding behind horrible, painful punctuation. Irvine - please use speech-marks to indicate the beginning and end of speech please! It would make it 100% easier to read, if you were to do so.Also make sure that you're up on the latest Scottish slang.
LibraryThing member steffiek
Welsh is to literature what Miles Davis is to Jazz and Sid vicious to the Punk movement he knows how to do it right read the book it's frickin hard .
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
In this book, a sort of Rebus-meets-Lolita, Hearts-supporting copper Ray Lennox is on holiday in Florida with his fiancée. He is traumatised by a harrowing murder investigation and the sacking of George Burley (probably in that order)and is supposed to be relaxing. Instead he gets involved with
It’s intelligently written, serious as befits its subject matter, in places exceptionally grim and –for a parent – it makes disturbing reading. It was more measured than other books I have read by Irvine Welsh, and though it does feature drugs (almost inevitable, really), they are not sprinkled over every page – more like a discreet nostril-full.
I did think the narrative dragged in paces – particularly in the second half, where a good proportion of the story was resolved and very little was left to sort, and yet a good hundred pages remained. Some was taken up with flashbacks to the main character’s childhood, which were excellent, but the Miami side of the action seemed to take an age to conclude even though the direction was clear from early on.
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some serious American low-lifes and sets out to prove that smashing paedophile rings is not incompatible with leaving rants on football message boards.It’s intelligently written, serious as befits its subject matter, in places exceptionally grim and –for a parent – it makes disturbing reading. It was more measured than other books I have read by Irvine Welsh, and though it does feature drugs (almost inevitable, really), they are not sprinkled over every page – more like a discreet nostril-full.
I did think the narrative dragged in paces – particularly in the second half, where a good proportion of the story was resolved and very little was left to sort, and yet a good hundred pages remained. Some was taken up with flashbacks to the main character’s childhood, which were excellent, but the Miami side of the action seemed to take an age to conclude even though the direction was clear from early on.
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LibraryThing member diatom
Hard to read because of the crimes involved (sexual abuse of children) and the unsparing vivid portrayals of poor and/or criminal persons, but I couldn’t put it down. The character of the Edinburgh policeman is very well drawn, the plot is full of turns.
LibraryThing member Daftboy1
This is the tale of Detective Ray Lennox who is on sick leave from Edinburgh CID with his fiancée Trudi in Miami. They are planning their wedding.
Lennox goes on a bender meets some very unsavoury characters one of the ladies he meets has a young girl who is the victim of sexual abuse her name is
Lennox vows to rescue her they travel to other parts of Florida to escape and meet her Uncle Chet.
One of their pursuer is a Policeman.
It turns out their was a large network of paedophiles and Lennox is determined to bring them down.
He grows fond of Tianna.
With a little help from Uncle Chet, Trudi and some old friends Lennox is able to save the day.
He also has his own issues he is member of Narcotics anonymous, dealing with the death of his Father and the guilt he has for not rescuing his friend from abuse when they were young boys.
Overall a good read.
Lennox goes on a bender meets some very unsavoury characters one of the ladies he meets has a young girl who is the victim of sexual abuse her name is
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Tianna.Lennox vows to rescue her they travel to other parts of Florida to escape and meet her Uncle Chet.
One of their pursuer is a Policeman.
It turns out their was a large network of paedophiles and Lennox is determined to bring them down.
He grows fond of Tianna.
With a little help from Uncle Chet, Trudi and some old friends Lennox is able to save the day.
He also has his own issues he is member of Narcotics anonymous, dealing with the death of his Father and the guilt he has for not rescuing his friend from abuse when they were young boys.
Overall a good read.
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LibraryThing member zmagic69
I just could not get into this book. It started off with all of the standards of an Irvine Welsh book, but it got, boring. Not something I expected from the author. The subject matter was also a little too disturbing. Heald way through I just decided to skip through the rest of the book. Definitely
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not one of his better books. At least not for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member Opinionated
The first two thirds of this accessible, fast paced, novel are excellent. It balances the trauma and PTSD being suffered by Det Lennox in the wake of a horrific child abduction, rape and murder and the sheer banality of its perpetrator. As the novel unwraps it's clear that there are other incidents
A night of drug fueled and frankly quite dull sounding indulgence (Welsh as always is great on the the sheer unbridled need driving excessive drug use - not much fun, lots of hard work and hustling, danger and uncertainty ever present) leads him to the young Tiana, who is a best laxly parented and at worst the repeated victim of paedophiles.
Is Lennox just triggered to be over sensitive to preying nonces? He decides he can't take a chance and takes off with Tiana across Florida to the care of "Chet" who may, or may not be Tiana's uncle. In this section Welsh reduces the pressure for an amusing travelogue of central Florida as the nearly middle aged Lennox, and the precocious Tiana get to know each other, Lennox well aware that to the passerby, it might like him who is the abductor of a child.
So far, so engrossing. Child abuse must be an extraordinary difficult subject to write about, and Welsh does an admirable job of doing it without the reader wanting to slam the book shut in disgust. Never is the abuse voyeuristic - never are the paedophiles less than slick and convincing. But the denoument isn't convincing; this isn't to suggest that abuse rings don't exist, but that its hard to believe they operate in the way described here.
So this is well worth reading, but not perfect. But Welsh deserves huge credit for tackling an impossible subject and turning it into a credible human story rather than a diatribe
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that have led him to be the wrecked addict that he is, but also the most (over?) zealous defender of children. A night of drug fueled and frankly quite dull sounding indulgence (Welsh as always is great on the the sheer unbridled need driving excessive drug use - not much fun, lots of hard work and hustling, danger and uncertainty ever present) leads him to the young Tiana, who is a best laxly parented and at worst the repeated victim of paedophiles.
Is Lennox just triggered to be over sensitive to preying nonces? He decides he can't take a chance and takes off with Tiana across Florida to the care of "Chet" who may, or may not be Tiana's uncle. In this section Welsh reduces the pressure for an amusing travelogue of central Florida as the nearly middle aged Lennox, and the precocious Tiana get to know each other, Lennox well aware that to the passerby, it might like him who is the abductor of a child.
So far, so engrossing. Child abuse must be an extraordinary difficult subject to write about, and Welsh does an admirable job of doing it without the reader wanting to slam the book shut in disgust. Never is the abuse voyeuristic - never are the paedophiles less than slick and convincing. But the denoument isn't convincing; this isn't to suggest that abuse rings don't exist, but that its hard to believe they operate in the way described here.
So this is well worth reading, but not perfect. But Welsh deserves huge credit for tackling an impossible subject and turning it into a credible human story rather than a diatribe
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LibraryThing member zmagic69
I just could not get into this book. It started off with all of the standards of an Irvine Welsh book, but it got, boring. Not something I expected from the author. The subject matter was also a little too disturbing. Heald way through I just decided to skip through the rest of the book. Definitely
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not one of his better books. At least not for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
Jaded Edinburgh cop and substance-abuser (probably a redundant descriptor in an Irvine Welsh novel...) Ray Lennox has been granted compassionate leave after a particularly traumatic child-murder case leads to a breakdown, and he is spending some time relaxing in Miami with his fiancée. Within 48
Despite the obviously contrived setup, this turns out to be a very engaging, disturbing book, whose brutal plot somehow manages to deal with the fraught subject of sexual abuse of children in a sensitive and often surprisingly subtle way. Although it is probably a book you will want to read quickly to get it over with...
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hours of landing in the US, however, he finds himself in a situation where a young girl needs his protection from sexual predators, in circumstances where he can't very well turn to the proper authorities for help, and of course all the doubts and questions flying around in his mind from the recent investigation come back to haunt him. Despite the obviously contrived setup, this turns out to be a very engaging, disturbing book, whose brutal plot somehow manages to deal with the fraught subject of sexual abuse of children in a sensitive and often surprisingly subtle way. Although it is probably a book you will want to read quickly to get it over with...
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Subjects
Call number
118
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
2008
ISBN
8433975455 / 9788433975454
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