Well, it had to happen. Sooner or later I was going to read a book I'd read before and forgotten all about. Now is that time. Below is what I wrote back in January 2014.
"The second novel in Russell's 'Lennox' series sees the eponymous Canadian gumshoe chasing a Vietnamese Dragon (as opposed to a Maltese Falcon) round the extremely mean streets of early 1950s Glasgow. Lennox is a brilliant idea - modern Tartan Noir with a hero straight out of 1940s US cinema noir. One criticism: not having read the first, I was some way in before I realised it was supposed to be 1953-4. Once I realised, though, I was hooked. Russell works all the classic tropes - rival gangs, women of dubious virtue, boxing - and comes up trumps. I didn't guess the final twist and that's all you really need from a detective plot. There are now four in the series, and I'll be reading them all."
Well I haven't read any more. In fact when I was reading this the second time I knew I'd encountered Lennox before and thought I must have read the first, albeit references to it here didn't trigger any memories. It's still a good read. This time through I did guess the denouement but there's probably a reason for that. And albeit I found the writing a little sloppy for my eight-years-more-mature taste, I would still be perfectly happy to read others in the series - but hopefully not this one for a third time!
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