Filth

Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson of Edinburgh's police force is facing multiple crises as Christmas approaches. He plans a week in Amsterdam for sex and drugs, but his life is complicated by a missing wife and child, a cocaine addiction, a painful skin condition, and several extramarital affairs. When a racially fraught murder case lands on his desk, Robertson sees it as a chance for overtime and the promotion he wants—despite the complications it brings. He also contends with an intestinal parasite. Robertson is a deeply corrupt officer whose situation deteriorates throughout the novel. Welsh presents him as a misanthropic character in a dark, disturbing, and often darkly comic story about the abuse of people and institutions.