The Bullet Trick By Louise Welsh
Canongate, £12.99

SUSPENSE in seedy Berlin and down-and-out Glasgow is the name of the game in this crime thriller.

William Wilson, a struggling magician, gets in deep in the corrupt underworld populated by showgirls, tricksters and gangsters.

As the narrative cuts between Germany and Scotland, at one stage Wilson ends up with blood on his hands quite literally.

There's a fog of deception hanging over the whole plot as Welsh wonderfully evokes the world of the burlesque scene.

You wonder where it's all leading to. The line between fiction and reality, past and present becomes increasingly blurred.

All building up to an explosive finale.