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Random
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About the author
Craig Robertson
41 books250 followersDuring his 20-year career with a Scottish Sunday newspaper, Craig Robertson has interviewed three recent Prime Ministers; attended major stories including 9/11, Dunblane, the Omagh bombing and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann; been pilloried on breakfast television, beaten Oprah Winfrey to a major scoop, been among the first to interview Susan Boyle, spent time on Death Row in the USA and dispensed polio drops in the backstreets of India.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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March 25, 2025A new serial killer is on the loose in Glasgow. The media have dubbed him the Cutter for his habit of cutting fingers from his victims. Over many years, six victims have all fallen to him. There are no links between any of them, and they have the police baffled.
Add in a crime reporter with a hunger to make a name for himself, and you have the ingredients for a chilling look at the life of a psychopath. Only, in this case, the teller of the tale is the murderer, the Cutter, telling the reader how they do the things they do but not telling anyone why they do them.
The streets of Glasgow are well-drawn, the seemly underbelly mixing with the well to do Lawyers, of which the first victim is one. Chosen, simply because his business card was in a café, his death is one of swift violence, as are all of the ones that follow. The grotesque nature of their demise a particularly visceral part of the story. Some deaths are public. Some are private. Some are people high up in society, and some are shop workers or fringe members of the criminal fraternity.
However, as the novel reaches its denouement, we realise that they are not as random as they first appeared to be. One of them was the driver of the car that mowed down the Cutter’s daughter. In a twist of authorly cunning, the last one was the crime reporter Keith Imrie, who, instead of collecting the Cutter’s trophies, was found with them by Alec Kirkwood, a dangerous man to get on the wrong side of.
Random is not the most pleasant of books in terms of its subject matter. The Glasgow it inhabits is well-drawn. The characters are all believable. The trauma that the narrator went through does explain some of his actions, and the fact that someone else would take the blame, and be remembered for it, is some form of karmic justice.
Glasgow is as much a character as Edinburgh is for Ian Rankin. The Cutter is the villain. We see things from his point of view, and in a twisted way, we can sympathise with his motives; if not, his methods lifts Random above the usual crime procedural and gives it a unique hook.
Add in a crime reporter with a hunger to make a name for himself, and you have the ingredients for a chilling look at the life of a psychopath. Only, in this case, the teller of the tale is the murderer, the Cutter, telling the reader how they do the things they do but not telling anyone why they do them.
The streets of Glasgow are well-drawn, the seemly underbelly mixing with the well to do Lawyers, of which the first victim is one. Chosen, simply because his business card was in a café, his death is one of swift violence, as are all of the ones that follow. The grotesque nature of their demise a particularly visceral part of the story. Some deaths are public. Some are private. Some are people high up in society, and some are shop workers or fringe members of the criminal fraternity.
However, as the novel reaches its denouement, we realise that they are not as random as they first appeared to be. One of them was the driver of the car that mowed down the Cutter’s daughter. In a twist of authorly cunning, the last one was the crime reporter Keith Imrie, who, instead of collecting the Cutter’s trophies, was found with them by Alec Kirkwood, a dangerous man to get on the wrong side of.
Random is not the most pleasant of books in terms of its subject matter. The Glasgow it inhabits is well-drawn. The characters are all believable. The trauma that the narrator went through does explain some of his actions, and the fact that someone else would take the blame, and be remembered for it, is some form of karmic justice.
Glasgow is as much a character as Edinburgh is for Ian Rankin. The Cutter is the villain. We see things from his point of view, and in a twisted way, we can sympathise with his motives; if not, his methods lifts Random above the usual crime procedural and gives it a unique hook.
July 30, 2025
This was a tough read. I started it on the plane home from holiday and quickly read through several chapters, I liked the idea of the book and was keen to keep reading. That was short-lived, however, when it turned into mad ramblings of a deranged Scotsman, and it became quite 'samey'. After being stuck on this for several weeks, I had hoped for a great ending although I had debated how he was going to be able to finish in a way that would save how I felt about the book, and (SPOILER) the guy simply kills himself. It had the potential to be great, but under-delivered.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2023
just kinda meh, don't really like the narrator's internal monologue. I know it's meant to sound deranged but I'm not gonna sit through pages of unhinged rambling
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews