Once upon a time, back in the twenties and thirties, in Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who exist now only in legend and in the memories of a few old men. Their names were Louis Lepke, Abe Reles, Bugsy Siegel. Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky, and they were Jewish gangsters: Jews with guns; tough, fearless Jews who roamed the streets in a time when a Jewish boy could fashion a future that was murderous and daring and wide open.
Rich Cohen's father grew up in that world; his family owned the diner where the gangsters known as Murder Incorporated hung out. In Tough Jews he tells their stories and brilliantly evokes their world a world of street corners and bars and nightclubs; a world where murder was better than cowardice; where killings were planned and executed with precision and finesse; a world of feuds, wars, schemes, where living into middle age was a kind of victory; a world in which, for a brief moment, Jews were among the most important criminals in America.

With the festive season almost upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is winding down at work and gearing up socially - kicking off Christmas with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam. There are irritating flies in the ointment, though, including a missing wife (and the resulting domestic squalor), a nagging cocaine habit, a dramatic deterioration in his genital health, and a string of increasingly demanding extra-marital affairs. The last thing he needs, on top of all this, is a messy murder to solve. Still, it will mean plenty of overtime, a chance to stitch up some colleagues and finally clinch the promotion he craves.

But as this single-minded career cop spirals through the lower reaches of degradation and evil, he encounters opposition - in the form of truth and ethical conscience - from the most unexpected quarter of all: his anus. With such an adversary you can run, but you just can't

hide. Things are beginning to go badly for the Detective Sergeant, but in an Irvine Welsh book nothing is ever so bad that it can't get worse...

In Bruce Robertson, Welsh has created one of the most corrupt, misanthropic characters in contemporary fiction, and has written a dark, disturbing and very funny novel about sleaze, power, and the abuse of everything. At last, a novel that lives up to its name.

Irvine Welsh is the author of Trainspotting, The Acid House, Marabou Stork Nightmares and Ecstasy. He has also written the screenplay for the film of The Acid House.