Book Title: The Cutting Room
Author: Louise Welsh
Publisher: Harper Perennial Canada
Year: 2002
# of Pages: 294
ISBN- 0-00-639535-X 

Reviewed by: Ashley Hunking (Vancouver Correspondent - Canada)

In her debut novel In the Cutting Room, Louise Welsh molds a story of sadistic crime that leads the reader deep into the dark and dank world of Glasgow's sex industry. Welsh recreates the graphically intriguing emotional life of the gothic underground where society's ignored and the despicable swarm after sundown. She hooks the reader's attention quickly and deeply. Welsh so successfully absorbs the reader's imagination initially that several flat spots through the middle are willingly overlooked. Overall, based on a reading of her first novel, Louise Welsh is on her way to becoming an established storyteller. 

When Rilke, an auctioneer, stumbles across snuff photographs belonging to his deceased client, he decides to personally investigate. Rilke draws on the knowledge of a few friends to help him get to the bottom of the circumstances. That is the plot in a nutshell. Within that context, Welsh develops several themes and their relationships; sex, gender, guilt, addiction, desire, innocence, exploitation and condemnation. The deeper Rilke delves into the crime the more complexity he finds within himself. Welsh evokes our affections for Rilke and also immediately reveals he is gay. Rilke is an easily likeable character and leads a promiscuous life of sordid one-night stands. He is deeply flawed but self-reflective and that is why we like him. Rilke's obvious and growing empathy for those rejected from society attracts trouble, such as, a drunken rage at the sexual exploitation of a call girl which results in a fight. In The Cutting Room is an easy to read, atmospheric, crime adventure interspersed with gay sexual encounters that will make you blush at times (I use "atmospheric crime adventure" advisedly, some audiences, debatably could classify this book in the erotic genre).  

As a reader, I felt the character Rilke was developed in all his complexity but the secondary characters tend toward one-dimensionality. Where this story loses momentum mid-stream, those characters could have been developed more. Surprisingly, as the story winds down Welsh hooks our attention again with a twist. The final ending is somewhat believable but weak. Overall, I am highly intrigued and will seek out her other novels in the future.