SOURCE: “Loathing in Lothian,” in Times Literary Supplement, No. 4,976, August 14, 1998, p. 7.

In the following review, O’Brien analyzes Filth in the context of Welsh's entire career, calling the novel a return to the serious writing delivered in Trainspotting but missing in Welsh's three subsequent works.

Bruce Robertson [in Filth] is an Edinburgh detective seeking promotion. He is a misogynistic, racist, Jambo (Hearts-supporting) bigot, with the mind of the Daily Sport and the vanity of a Times leader. He knows everything and hates everyone. He is dishonest and cunning, reserving his profoundest contempt and vilest manipulations for his friends and colleagues. His wife has left him. He is an alcoholic, a coke-head, obsessed with heartless sex and burdened with appalling musical taste—Deep Purple, Ozzy Osborne and Michael Bolton (the last may be considered a cruel and unnatural punishment, even for Bruce). His free time, when not used in...