Reviews

Dark, violent. Set in 1970’s Glasgow. The Scottish slang, cultural nuances abound. The textual dialogue of some characters in, I can only assume, Glaswegian dialect was hard to follow at times. Tension within the police. Criminals competing to find and kill the murderer of a teenage girl so as not to get the police wise to all their activities. Homosexual element to the plot. Not sure I’ll read anymore by this author. His narrative of the identification of remains in the morgue was well done.

annieb123's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Laidlaw is a re-release of the original police procedural by William McIlvanney. Originally published in 1977, this re-formatting from Canongate on their Black Thorn imprint was released in paperback and ebook format April 2nd 2020.

There has been an ocean of commentary on tartan noir (and Scandi-noir and all their siblings). I have heard Laidlaw (there are three books in all) referred to as Scottish noir (or at least a precursor) and while that might be strictly speaking true, it is certainly gritty and brooding and Scottish, it's much more than that. I love crime novels with imperfect protagonists, Laidlaw is that in spades.

One of the things that sets this one apart is that McIlvanney was a remarkably adept writer, precise and masterful. There is not one fumble in the book. There is a spareness to the prose (the author was also quite well known as a poet). The characterizations are rich, varied, and precisely rendered. This might be the best crime novel I've read; it's certainly one of the best at any rate.

That being said, this is a relentlessly dark book. It's violent, with raw language and brutality. It had been a decade or more since I read it last and though quite unflinching, it has aged surprisingly well. It's a beautifully written book. I'm glad to see it being presented to a new generation of readers.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.