RESTORATION MAN Out Today

Added at 10:33 on 21 March 2024

With DS Hutton having run his course, retiring happily to live a life free of serial killers, murderous crows and giant, flesh-eating huntsmen spiders, LMP shareholders have been clamouring for a new first person narrative series to take Hutton’s place. And here he is, Sam Vikström, Scottish private detective on the coast of New England.

He drinks less than Hutton, so there’s that. And swears less. And there’s a married girlfriend, but just the one. And he’s not battling PTSD. So, less sex, less booze, fewer uses of the words fuck and cunt, less trauma. We’re about to find out if they were the only reasons anyone read a Hutton novel.

It reminds me of a review for the first Barney Thomson book, a newspaper describing it as being “like Irvine Welsh without the drugs”. The publisher then stuck that quote on the front of the second book, which prompted a reviewer to comment, “What’s left?”

Which may be a little harsh on Irvine Welsh.

Nevertheless, you may be asking yourself the same question about Vikström, shorn of everything that made Hutton Hutton. Only one way to find out, people. Click here to share in the magic.