Writer as Illusionist: Louise Welsh on her new novel

All writers are illusionists who conjure up words on a blank page. Good writers and illusionists must also be skilled entertainers, using their arts to bewilder and amaze their audiences. With her second full-length novel, Louise Welsh has proven herself to be one of the most skilled writers and illusionists around.

'The Bullet Trick' tells the story of William Wilson, a down-at-heel master of theatrical magic, who accepts an offer to perform in a Berlin cabaret, hoping to outrun his bad luck and find a bit of money and fame in Germany. Once in Berlin, William realises that the theatre where he is supposed to perform, the "Schall und Rauch" ("Smoke and Noise"), offers its audience a very special form of entertainment: an "erotic cabaret." Finding himself out of his depth among sexy acrobats and sensually glamorous dancers, William enlists the help of the mysterious and beautiful Sylvie, restructuring his act into a kinky burlesque-meets-illusion show. He wins the hearts of his audiences thanks to a special "bullet trick". But right when things start going well for William, a mystery hidden in an envelope summons him back to his native Glasgow, where murder and crime mix with memories of a bullet trick that might have left behind a victim.

The final result is an amazing book, a thrilling story of magic, illusion and death that takes the reader through the streets of London, Glasgow and Berlin, weaving a web of fear and suspense using smooth prose tinged with dark humour.

"I think it is always hard to know where an idea for a book comes from," says Welsh. "For a while I had in my head a central image of a man, the performer of the bullet trick, a woman and a gun, and this novel grew out of that. I wanted to know how they got together and how they got to that point."

Welsh's first novel, 'The Cutting Room', won the 2002 Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award and the British Crime Dagger Award, and was also nominated for Best First Book of 2002 by the Guardian. That book was followed in 2004 by a novella, 'Tamburlaine Must Die'. According to Welsh, there aren't many differences between writing her debut novel and her most recent: "When I was writing 'The Cutting Room' I had this idea that, once I finished it, I wouldn't know how to write another book. But of course that's not the case because each book is different. I think while I was writing this book I concentrated more on the rhythm of the story."

'The Bullet Trick', in a way, is a composite story made of different elements: it has the thrills and the perils of crime stories and the sensuality and glamour of decadent literature, all spiced up by the burlesque irreverence of cabaret: "I think it's difficult to describe 'The Bullet Trick'," says Welsh. "To me the book is the book, but hopefully it is entertaining and it is a good read. With this book I wanted to do something different from 'The Cutting Room'. Indeed the structure of this new novel is a move forward for me, and it also resembles a journey. In the parts where William walks around Glasgow, he moves out of the dark and into the light; in the Berlin sections, he moves out of the light and into the dark and when the two parts come together there is some kind of explosion."

Welsh has been living in Hamburg for a few months now and is presently at work on a play. A few years ago, she told me during an interview that she didn't consider herself a novelist, but as someone who had written one book and needed to write another. I ask her if she now feels like a novelist: "I do now. It's taken a long time, but I do, and it's quite a breakthrough for me." But after reading 'The Bullet Trick' it is clear that Welsh is also an accomplished illusionist.