Lennox - Craig Russell

The mean streets of Glasgow in the 1950s serve as a fine post-war setting for Craig Russell’s hard-edged noir. A tough no-nonsense Private Investigator, Lennox is more than capable of looking after himself, but it so happens in this case that he has the Three Kings, the crime kingpins who have the city carved up between themselves, watching out for his back. Normally Lennox would be more careful of the company he keeps, but in this case he doesn’t really have much of a choice, not if he wants to keep his toes attached to his feet.

There’s another outfit in town throwing their weight around, picking off some of the smaller players in town, Lennox finding himself involved whether he likes it or not. Nothing however really adds up, and no matter what angle the detective looks at it, it’s a messy business involving blackmail, prostitution, pornography, property and shady import-export dealings. Even some heavy backing might not be enough to keep Lennox from taking a long walk off a short bridge over the Clyde.

This first case is a promising opening for Russell’s new detective, the rough 50’s Glasgow setting not arbitrary or used purely for atmosphere – highly effective though it is and well described by the author – but rather the historical events and attitudes of the post-war period are integral to the case, adding considerable background to the characterisation of Lennox and many of secondary characters. Those actions and attitudes might be brutal and somewhat un-PC, but it’s a hard world and the underlying motivations and behaviour feels authentic. There are no grafted-on hardboiled stylisations here, this is the real-deal.