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The Blade Artist

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About this listen

Jim Francis has finally found the perfect life – and is now unrecognisable, even to himself. A successful painter and sculptor, he lives quietly with his wife, Melanie, and their two young daughters, in an affluent beach town in California. Some say he’s a fake and a con man, while others see him as a genuine visionary.

But Francis has a very dark past, with another identity and a very different set of values. When he crosses the Atlantic to his native Scotland, for the funeral of a murdered son he barely knew, his old Edinburgh community expects him to take bloody revenge. But as he confronts his previous life, all those friends and enemies – and, most alarmingly, his former self – Francis seems to have other ideas.

When Melanie discovers something gruesome in California, which indicates that her husband’s violent past might also be his psychotic present, things start to go very bad, very quickly.

The Blade Artist is an elegant, electrifying novel – ultra violent but curiously redemptive – and it marks the return of one of modern fiction’s most infamous, terrifying characters, the incendiary Francis Begbie from Trainspotting.

 City Life Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Thriller & Suspense Urban World Literature Marriage Fiction Scotland Exciting Suspense Funny Witty

Critic reviews

Back to his violent best… Dark, gruesome and captivating. (Sam Parker)
It’s a thriller in the mode of Tarantino making war films or westerns; hiding grand themes within genre. (Alan Bett)
Intense, electrifying… Welsh has delivered a tremendously entertaining book – a whodunit, a thriller, and a probing character study – that’s obsessed with conflict, both physical and mental… A surprisingly poignant, evocative read – highly recommended.
In a year when filming begins on Danny Boyle’s sequel of sorts to Trainspotting, it seems perfect timing to revisit its most visceral force.
[Begbie’s] intelligence and instinct make him compelling, and Welsh keep the plot roaring along… This is a dark, guilty pleasure and written with – it seems to me – the cinema screen in mind. (Kate Muir)
Welsh's ear for dialect is superb, and the opportunity to observe Edinburgh's dark underbelly from the perspective of someone used to a gentler lifestyle far away leads to shrewd cultural insights.
While Welsh’s sense of humour is never far from the surface of his writings…this is very much a work of dark crime fiction rather than comedy or social satire with a touch of James Ellroy. (Hannah McGill)
The Blade Artist is lean...clever and propulsive. The shorter length concentrates Welsh’s energy… There is a reason people still read him. (Orlando Bird)
No one writes about violence and class with such wit and insight as Welsh. He’s a social satirist of the highest order and, with its themes of vengeance and redemption, this is a deceptively comic book with a very dark heart.
Welsh may be a reformed character but he's still got it, and The Blade Artist is fab. (Katy Guest)
All stars
Most relevant
I did not really fancy this latest outing into the world of trainspotting characters but after a few chapters I was sucked into the life of the disturbed and emotionally barren mind of 1 Francis Begbie but a very very amusing journey it was also. All the traits and characters that you would expect are present in Irvine Welsh's deconstructed life of frank Begbie and once all thrown into the mix they boil up to the caustic view of life that only Mr welsh can offer .

A look into a disturbed mind

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re-records and accents - but there's a wide range to cope with.

Deliciously descriptive, dark witb multifaceted characters.

De Fantastically written, some slightly ropey...

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brilliant follow on story about Begbie. true Irvine Welsh style, and brilliant narrator.
as you'd expect gets violent and gorey, but great to hear how the character has progressed

another brilliant Welsh book

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Begbie is a sculptor and family man now based in SoCal. He flies to Edinburgh to investigate the death of his astranged son.
For me the plot was rather thin and far fetched even in the world of Begbie and the usual intertwined character stories weren't as convincing as other Trainspotting spin offs. Lacks humour and all becomes a bit silly at times.

A bit far fetched

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Overall a good listen. The American accents by Tam Dean Burn add nothing and make you slightly cringe but when it gets to Begbie you can picture Robert Carlyle saying the words and acting out the scenes. The story flows well.

Picture Robert Carlyle

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