Got a problem? Odds against you? Call 0141 552 1472
Contemptuous, guilt-ridden and disgusted by the treachery and hypocrisy of their profession, Owen and Doolan know how to deal with männliches verbrechen (‘maskulinekrime’) as relentlessly and single-mindedly as a shark. They specialise in keeping villains on the streets and out of the Glasgow Project Room. Their enlightened artisanal activities muster the definitive personas of honourable gentleman, souls of decency, always polite and impeccably dressed, who struggle to maintain their own personal dignity in an amoral and corrupt Modern Athenia. Despite the fact that they hail from different ends of Edinburgh New Town, they play essentially the same parts, world-weary artists with a conscience, a steely-eyed gaze and danger in their rueful laughter. His gas mask decorated by Her Majesty, the boy Owen is one who dared and won, disposing of dangerous men through bribery, blackmail, frame-ups or, in the last resort, painting. Masquerading as a preacher, Doolan, in the interim, hid out from those godamm conservative cops in the imperialist subterfuge of The Dome; brooding, solitary, and friendless except for his grubby cane. After all these years of penance, Owen and Doolan have only two personal weaknesses: they are rebellious and they care. Still, perhaps … and, despite some uneven writing, Woodwardians are always compelling gets as they expiate their sins.
Robert McCall, April 2001
