Books by William McIlvanney
Strange Loyalties (A Laidlaw Investigation, 3)
“So searing it will burn forever into your memory. McIlvanney is the original Scottish criminal mastermind.”—Christopher Brookmyre, best-selling author of the Jack Parlabane Thrillers
The original Jack Laidlaw novels that changed the face of Scottish mystery writing.
When his brother is killed in a tragically banal road accident, Jack Laidlaw sets off on a journey through Glasgow’s underworld. There he will discover the truth about his brother and the city he thought he knew better than anybody. He will face some even harder truths about himself. Alive with wit, suspense, brilliant writing, all leading to a shattering climax, this third book in the acclaimed Laidlaw series does not disappoint.
The greatest examples of Scottish crime writing and the founding novels of what has since become known as Tartan Noir, McIlvanney’s groundbreaking Laidlaw books have earned the status of classic crime fiction.
The third Laidlaw novel from the Father of Tartan Noir explores “the ruin of the body, the corruption of the soul and the shattering of society.”—The Wall Street Journal
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The Dark Remains: A Laidlaw Investigation (Jack Laidlaw Novels Prequel) (A Laidlaw Investigation, 4)
by Ian Rankin, William McIlvanney
WINNER of the 2022 British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year
In this scorching prequel, New York Times best-selling author Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DC Jack Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.
Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong kind of people. When his body is found in an alley behind a pub that is known to be under the protective wing of a local crime boss, the fragile equilibrium that has been keeping Glasgow relatively safe for months is shattered. Besides a distraught family and any number of powerful friends, Carter has left behind his fair share of enemies. So who is responsible for his death?
DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks Carter’s death up to the usual rivalries, but Laidlaw knows it can’t be that simple. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, he needs to find Carter’s killer before the whole city explodes.
William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Ian Rankin has finished what McIlvanney started. Here, in The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth.
“Fantastic—like witnessing Scottish noir’s Big Bang creation in the company of its greatest living exponent... Like Maradona and Messi playing in the same team.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers
Copies
No copies available.
The Dark Remains: A Laidlaw Investigation (Jack Laidlaw Novels Prequel) (A Laidlaw Investigation, 4)
by Ian Rankin, William McIlvanney
WINNER of the 2022 British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year
In this scorching prequel, New York Times best-selling author Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DC Jack Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.
Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong kind of people. When his body is found in an alley behind a pub that is known to be under the protective wing of a local crime boss, the fragile equilibrium that has been keeping Glasgow relatively safe for months is shattered. Besides a distraught family and any number of powerful friends, Carter has left behind his fair share of enemies. So who is responsible for his death?
DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks Carter’s death up to the usual rivalries, but Laidlaw knows it can’t be that simple. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, he needs to find Carter’s killer before the whole city explodes.
William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Ian Rankin has finished what McIlvanney started. Here, in The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth.
“Fantastic—like witnessing Scottish noir’s Big Bang creation in the company of its greatest living exponent... Like Maradona and Messi playing in the same team.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers
Copies
No copies available.
Laidlaw: A Laidlaw Investigation (Jack Laidlaw Novels Book 1) (A Laidlaw Investigation, 1)
“So searing it will burn forever into your memory. McIlvanney is the original Scottish criminal mastermind.”—Christopher Brookmyre, international bestselling author
The Laidlaw novels, a groundbreaking series that changed the face of Scottish fiction, are credited with being the founding books of the Tartan Noir movement that includes authors like Val McDermid, Denise Mina, and Ian Rankin. Says McDermid of William McIlvanney: “Patricia Highsmith had taken us inside the head of killers; Ruth Rendell tentatively explored sexuality; with No Mean City, Alexander McArthur had exposed Glasgow to the world; Raymond Chandler had dressed the darkness in clever words. But nobody had ever smashed those elements together into so accomplished a synthesis.”
In Laidlaw, the series’ progatonist Jack Laidlaw—a hard-drinking philosopher-detective whose tough exterior cloaks a rich humanity and keen intelligence—investigates the murder of a young woman, coming into conflict with Glasgow’s hard men, its gangland villains, and the moneyed thugs who control the city. As the gangsters running Glasgow race Laidlaw for the discovery of the young woman’s killer, a sense of dangerous betrayal infests the city that only Laidlaw can erase.
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The Papers of Tony Veitch (A Laidlaw Investigation, 2)
Jack Laidlaw returns in the groundbreaking series. “The Laidlaw books are like fine malt whiskey—the pure distilled essence of Scottish crime writing” (Peter May, international bestselling author).
In this second book in his monumental Laidlaw series, McIlvanney tells the tale of Eck Adamson, an alcoholic vagrant who summons Jack Laidlaw to his deathbed. Probably the only policeman in Glasgow who would bother to respond, Laidlaw sees in Eck’s cryptic last message a clue to the murder of a gangland thug and the disappearance of a student. With stubborn integrity, Laidlaw tracks down a seam of corruption that runs through all levels of Glaswegian society.
★ “Excellent... McIlvanney, the undisputed grandfather of tartan noir, gives reader a complex, existential hero struggling to right myriad wrongs.”—Publishers Weekly(starred review)
“The good news is that Laidlaw is back.”—The Observer
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