The Long Knives

Irvine Welsh, Jonathan Cape, £18.99

In the second instalment of this crime trilogy – now a TV series starring Dougray Scott – an MP has been left to bleed to death in a Leith warehouse. As Detective Ray Lennox lurches from Edinburgh to London and back, falling back on drink and drugs, he ponders the issue of gender identity, both in the case and closer to home. As the casualties stack up, a question emerges: who are the real victims here? Sharp and fearless but not for the faint-hearted.