Butcher

Lou Perlman #3

by Campbell Armstrong, James Bryce (Narrator)

Lou Perlman, officially on sick leave from Strathclyde Police, has hit the lowest point in his life. Barred from the investigation into the recent gangland slayings, and seemingly abandoned by Miriam, the nomadic object of his affection, he's a lost man. Then, cleaning out of his long-neglected house he discovers a decaying human hand in a Ziploc bag... Whose hand is it? Who cut it off? And who put it in Perlman's bedroom? These are questions he alone must answer. They take him on a baffling quest through the strata of Glasgow society, from slum tenements to casinos to New Age Temples, encountering high-flying criminals and freaks...

Genres: Crime

2 pages, MP3 CD

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

aka Thomas Altman, Campbell Black, Jeffrey Campbell (with Jeffrey Caine), Thomas Weldon

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Campbell Armstrong got a degree in philosophy before taking a position teaching creating writing. After his excellent series about counterterrorism expert Frank Pagan, Mr. Armstrong has written several compelling novels of crime and life in his native Glasgow.

Reviews

[Kevin Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very very poor

[Diane Wallis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this on a long car journey to north-western New South Wales. I agree with everything in Sharon Wheeler's review at http://reviewingtheevidence.com/revie... but I was also fortunate to have the narrator James Bryce doing Glaswegian accents I could never imagine. A brilliant production that entertained me during 13 hours of driving.
Trawling through the Internet to find out current information about Campbell Armstrong, I learnt of his death in March of this year. What a tragedy but there are still two other Lou Perlman books I have yet to read/listen to. I don't yet have to draw a curtain on the gritty, brutal underbelly of Glasgow crime and the likeable authority-resistant detective, Lou
Perlman.

[henrys-axe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third Lou Perlman installment is certainly a winner. There are some gruesome moments that might make a stomach churn but fortunately they are appropriately spaced throughout the narrative. The disheveled Sgt Perlman, on extended sick leave after being shot in the shoulder, continues to antagonize his superiors as well as some of his co-workers. Perlman's wry humor is as much a part of him as the zeal he displays to rid Glasgow of a few more criminal elements. The death of author Campbell Armstrong makes a fourth novel unlikely unless another author can pick up where Butcher ends. We can only hope.