When his brother dies stepping out in front of a car, Jack Laidlaw is determined to find out what really happened. Laidlaw begins an emotional quest through Glasgow's underworld, and into the past. He discovers as much about himself as about the brother he has lost, in a search that leads to a shattering climax.
Acclaimed for its corrosive wit, dark themes and original maverick detective, the Laidlaw trilogy has earned the status of classic crime fiction.
It's doubtful I would be a crime writer without the influence of McIlvanney's Laidlaw -- IAN RANKIN His Laidlaw is an enduring hero with the dry wit and insight to make other literary detectives seem two-dimensional -- GORDON FERRIS The Laidlaw books are not just great crime novels, they are important ones -- MARK BILLINGHAM Transfixing -
Sunday Times -
He kicked the door open so the likes of Ian Rankin, Denise Mina and me could sneak through behind him -- VAL McDERMID The pure distilled essence of Scottish crime writing -- PETER MAY A crime trilogy so searing it will burn forever into your memory. McIlvanney is the original Scottish criminal mastermind -- CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE The good news is that Laidlaw is back -
Observer -
In a class of his own -
Guardian -
Reads like a breathless scalpel cut through the bloody heart of a city -- DENISE MINA -
Author
About William Mcilvanney
William McIlvanney's first novel, Remedy is None, won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and with Docherty he won the Whitbread Award for Fiction. Laidlaw and The Papers of Tony Veitch both gained Silver Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association. Strange Loyalties, the third in the Detective Laidlaw trilogy, won the Glasgow Herald's People's Prize.
