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Canongate nabs 'nail-biting’ stand-alone thriller by Welsh
Canongate has nabbed To the Dogs, a "nail-biting" stand-alone thriller by Louise Welsh.
Publisher at large Francis Bickmore acquired world English rights from Sam Copeland at RCW Agency as part of a two-book deal, and will publish the novel in January 2024.
To the Dogs tells the story of professor Jim Brennan whose career and personal life are flying high until the arrest of his son.
The synopsis says: "When his son Elliot is arrested on drugs charges, Jim is approached by men he thought he had left safely in his past. Their demands threaten his family, students and reputation. As the pressure mounts, Jim discovers he is more like his father than he thought. The question is, how far will Professor Jim Brennan go to save the life he built?"
Welsh is the author of 10 novels and two short story collections, and is also a professor of creative writing at the University of Glasgow. The Cutting Room (Canongate Canons), her debut novel, won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award. In 2018, she was named the Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award winner by public vote.
She said: "To the Dogs has been a long time in the making. It is about ambition, love, corruption, and a man who has climbed high and has a long way to fall. Professor Jim Brennan inhabits a dog-eat-dog world, where loyalty and alliances are crucial. He’s a hard man whose only weakness is his family.
"I loved writing this novel. It’s a world I inhabit to various degrees of comfort/discomfort. I hope my university colleagues will enjoy Jim’s ordeals and will not think I have bitten the hand that feeds me. I promise I have never stabbed anyone in the cloisters."
Bickmore added: "Louise Welsh is a true one-off, and her new standalone thriller is sickeningly good, a cocktail of nail-biting crime fiction and up-to-the-minute social commentary. To the Dogs looks at corruption in the seat of power, and pits a man’s love for his family against his moral principles and respectability. I am reminded of Highsmith or Rendell. Louise Welsh is that good."
