SQUEAKY CLEAN by Callum McSorely | Book Review*


Published: 2 Mar 2023 | Format: Hardback | Pages: 384 | Publisher: PushkinPress

 

Hello and welcome to my blog! It's my day on the Squeaky Clean blog tour and I'm so excited to share my thoughts about this book with you! It's also WORLD BOOK DAY!

I'm quite fond of Detective stories and jumped at the chance to read this book. *I'd also like to thank Pushkin Press for providing an uncorrected proof copy for reviewing.

The premise of this book follows DI Alison McCoist, the least popular detective in Glasgow and car wash employee, Davey Burnet. Davey stupidly takes the wrong customers motor for a ride after realizing he is late for an important meeting and finds himself kidnapped and taken in by Glasgow's criminal underground to do some dirty work to keep his kneecaps. 

You've got gangsters, a female detective, a gritty and violent storyline and our detective describing a man as Ross Kemp whilst raiding a puppy farm. What more could you want?

Alison is my favourite main character, she is just trying to get her family and career back on track. At the beginning when we get a bit more of an introduction from her; its not off to a very good start when she pinches a puppy from a puppy farm on a raid to give to her kids as a Christmas gift but her heart was in the right place and that's what makes her likable as the story goes on. 

Davey reminds me of every lad I know who does drugs in my neighborhood but wants to get his life back on track but everything they do seems to have dire consequences and it messes everything up even more because they act before they think.

I felt for these characters and their struggles, even if at times I wanted just grab them out of the book and give them a good slap. 

 

Absolutely no spoilers in this post but during a chapter in the car wash; Davey is valeting a car and the customer leaves her kid in the backseat. That paragraph got a massive chuckle from me as did many others. McSorely has put just the right amount of comedy into his novel but Squeaky Clean is anything like the title suggests, it's violent and action packed but full of wit and dark humour. If this is for you, then I suggest adding it to your TBR list.

 

 

Despite it being set in good old Glasgow, I would have assumed the author would have just chosen to not write in Scottish dialect but alas I was wrong. I'm sorry but this is just a personal preference of mine. It slows the flow down for me as I have to stop and carefully read what the characters have said in case I miss any important information. Now don't get me wrong, during the strong dialect paragraphs I really felt as if I was immersed in a Gerald Butler film but the book is formatted to swap between Davey and Alison through the chapters and Alison herself doesn't speak strong dialect all the time and I found I was devouring Alison's chapters more than Davey's story but they do merge once Alison digs deeper into the car wash situation. If you don't mind that writing style then this book should flow quiet easily for you. 

 

 

I do however love the shorter chapters. It doesn't make me feel overwhelmed and I feel as if I want to read more. 

Overall I really enjoyed this book!  

 

Author Callum McSorely is a writer based in Glasgow, who's short stories have appeared in Gutter Magazine, Monstrous Regiment and New Writing Scotland. Squeaky Clean is his debut novel. 

 

Out 2 March 2023

You can purchase over at Amazon | WH Smith | Pushkin Press

 

- Jessica

 

Please check out the rest of the tour! 



2 Comments

  1. Interesting book and happy world book. That's awesome you enjoyed this book. It's new to me and will check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds really interesting, my Dad likes crime novels so I'll add it to the list of potential Father's Day gifts!

    ReplyDelete

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