The Blade Artist

Synopsis

Begbie, going by the name of Jim Francis, is now a Scottish expatriate artist in California and returns to Scotland for a funeral. His wife Melanie and their two daughters suddenly realize that Jim has a dark past.

Critical reception

The novel was reviewed in many newspapers. It received mostly good reviews.

In a review for The Daily Telegraph, Orlando Bird called it "lean, clever and propulsive". Meanwhile, Hannah McGill of The Scotsman commended Welsh's perceptive description of the "divisions that rend families, and the minor lies and delusions that sustain relationships"

Writing for The London Magazine, Erik Martiny called it a "resourceful, engagingly lively novel", but stressed that its "main interest derives less from its detective novel scenario than from Welsh’s ability to explore his protagonist’s inner struggle to contain the beast within." In the Oxonian Review, Callum Seddon suggested the novel was "a take on the established trope of ‘the double’ in Scottish literature". Meanwhile, Sunil Badami of The Australian assessed that the novel was "lean and purposeful", and a quick read.

Reviewing it for The Guardian, Sarah Diturn suggested the characters were "unconvincing". She added, "As detective fiction it’s shakily assembled, as a horror novel it can’t outpace cinematic torture porn, and as social realism it routinely sends its own plausibility up in smoke."