From its absolute cracker of an opening scene to the sharp, unpredictable ending, noir saga Lennox has been the most delightful surprise of my reading month. Set in a cold, violent, postwar Glasgow teeming with cold violent, postwar people, this first in a promised series introduces sharply dressed Canadian ex-soldier Lennox, wrestling with his demons while eking out a living as a private-eye-cum-fixer in a country far from home. As befits his line of business, there are many who want Lennox out of the picture – from the cops who pin an underworld murder on him, to the wealthy businessman who hastily pays him off to stop investigating the disappearance of his attractive young wife.

As the plot twists and turns and Lennox’s life becomes even more precarious, Russell deftly reworks all of the noir clichés – rapid-fire dialogue, lone-wolf investigator, hardboiled ice princesses, perpetual rain and fog – into a period piece that’s refreshingly modern.