A sequel to Robert Lewis's acclaimed debut, The Last Llanelli Train. P.I. Robin Llewellyn, the alcoholic, is back, but only just. As Swansea Terminal opens, Robin is homeless in Swansea, just another dosser intent on drinking himself into an early grave.

Dilyniant i nofel gyntaf Robert Lewis, The Last Llanelli Train. Mae'r alcoholig Robin Llewellyn yn ei ôl. Wrth i orsaf Abertawe agor, mae Robin yn ddigartref yn y ddinas, yn grwydryn arall sydd â'i holl fryd ar yfed.

Robert Lewis’s first novel The Last Llanelli Train, also featuring private detective Robin Llewellyn, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Writing, but this is very much the ‘laugh or else you’d cry’ school of humour. Even by black comedy standards, this excellent novel is bleak and yet, thanks to the energy in Robert Lewis’s writing, it stays involving and entertaining.

In Swansea Terminal, Llewellyn is dying of lung cancer, if his alcoholism doesn’t kill him first. He agrees to trace a man for Becca Blethyn only to get cash for drink, with no intention of doing the work, but finds he has taken money from the wrong family. To appease the unstable Blethyns, he has to guard a warehouse of beer and spirits for them, clearly a front for something illegal. Eventually, despite the amount of the stock he drinks while guarding it, Llewellyn can’t resist trying to find out what’s going on.

This is not the glamorous noir world of thrilling violence and femme fatales. This is an unrelenting account of alcoholism and petty criminals, and the fear that everyone else’s supposedly functional lives are just as pointless and joyless. Swansea Terminal is tightly plotted and has vivid, memorable characters, but its real joy is Robert Lewis’s writing – his ability, through observation and description, to invest even the most degrading moments with a sudden unexpected magic. An excellent novel and a worthy member of the Welsh Book of the Year longlist 2008.

Janet Thomas

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.