Laidlaw (Laidlaw Trilogy)

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Each of the many people who walk through the story has a set of goals and issues, and McIlvanney gives us hints of their depth no matter how short a time they’re on the stage. There’s Laidlaw’s partner in the case--a relative newbie to the profession; his understandably cranky wife; his nemesis on the police force; the perp; the victim; the perp’s parents; the victim’s parents; crime bosses; the perp’s lover …

The Royal Navy mainly viewed female staff as typists and car drivers, but Vera had been recruiting the cream of the crop as Wrens – women such as mathematicians, linguists and sporting stars, some as young as 17.Before Visit Scotland sues me, I’d just like to point out that Glasgow has changed now and is a wonderful, sophisticated place full of welcoming, warm-hearted, friendly and non-violent people!! Honest! The battle for convoy ONS 5 in May 1943 was extra stressful for her, as her then-fiancé John Lamb was first lieutenant of the escort destroyer HMS Oribi, tasked with employing Jean Laidlaw and Gilbert Roberts’ tactics. Though I'm a noir fan, I otherwise tend to dislike mysteries and detective fiction, and the only thing I know about Glasgow is what I saw walking from one of the city’s train stations to another several decades ago. A love of this genre and knowledge of the city might have added that fifth star to my rating, because McIlvanney’s writing is splendid.

Christian, who recently published her memoir Beyond the Sea: A Wren at War, says: “If you were a Wren, you wanted to be something useful, and if you could be in touch with the enemy, you would be certainly much more useful to anybody.” The crime in Laidlaw is the murder of a young girl who disappeared after going to the disco one evening. Her family and friends are questioned by the "polis.". Several Glasgow hard men are suspects, as well, and the reader is introduced them and their machinations. (Be aware that there is a certain amount of vividly described violence here.) William McIlvanney was a Scottish writer of novels, short stories, and poetry. He was a champion of gritty yet poetic literature; his works Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch, and Walking Wounded are all known for their portrayal of Glasgow in the 1970s. He is regarded as "the father of 'Tartan Noir’" and has been described as "Scotland's Camus". The book took me a while to read because very little of it is done in dialogue, and what dialogue there is is often written using Glaswegian dialect, which can be hard to interpret. It took me about half the book to figure out that when someone says, "What's the gemme?" they meant "what's the game?" as in "What are you up to?" But what is interesting about the book is the historical context of the novel. This is a tough one though, because I really only have the books blurbs and copy to go by, and it’s quite possible that copy intending to sell a product to someone might not be the most critically accurate viewpoint. But I’m going to assume that the good folks at Europa and Val McDermid aren’t pulling the wool over my eyes (too much).The First World War saw women engaged in military services. But the view after 1918 was that there would never be another conflict like it, so the female services were disbanded. Lynch approached McIlvanney’s publisher Canongate to see if they could do anything with it, and the publisher asked Rankin if he would be interested in finishing it. “Ian is the writer Willie would have chosen,” said Lynch. The last Laidlaw novel by Mr. McIlvanney was left incomplete upon his death. Several years later Ian Rankin, who is an avid fan of Mr. McIlvanney’s writing, was asked to complete The Dark Remains. Told that the range of a U-boat torpedo was about one mile, Jean Laidlaw had a lightbulb moment – convoys were miles across. Laidlaw non smentisce il suo cognome: è un poliziotto che "spiana" la legge, la semplifica, la adatta al suo modo di agire, vivendo ogni caso di cui si occupa come se fosse un fatto personale. Poliziotto esistenzialista?

He was potentially a violent man who hated violence, a believer in fidelity who was unfaithful, an active man who longed for understanding … He knew nothing to do but inhabit the paradoxes.”

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This isn't a crime writer who decided to get 'all literary'. McIlvanney is a deeply authentic Scottish (Glasgow) writer and poet who decided in the late 1970's (after having written some successful and gritty novels) that he could talk about existential decay now through the device of a crime sequence. He wrote two more of these Laidlaw books, and it became a trilogy. (Laidlaw is the first). Then, when the books were a big success, and his publishers told him that the pot of gold was there for the taking, if he'd only churn out one a year or so, he stopped and turned to poetry. Laidlaw is very beautifully written with some wonderful lines. Glasgow is unquestionably the star of this novel and, having lived there, I can confirm this really evokes the place. Laidlaw also powerfully evokes an era. The brutality of the 1970s is here in spades. Some books can be enhanced by a top-class narrator, but in this case I would recommend the written word over the audiobook. It’s narrated by the author, but he’s not a professional at this and makes mistakes. At one point a voice even breaks in to tell McIlvanney he’s made a mistake and he has to repeat the previous sentence (he responds with an affecting “Oh my!” by way of an apology). Sunday in the park - it was a nice day. A Glasgow sun was out, dully luminous, an eye with cataract. Some people were in the park pretending it was warm, exercising that necessary Scottish thrift with weather which hoards every good day in the hope of some year amassing a summer.

Mr. Rankin is most well known for his Inspector Rebus novels usually set in Edinburgh. His Rebus stories are notable contributions to the tartan noir genre. This wonderful crime novel shows the City’s dark shadows and how sometimes you need to operate in them to achieve real success. This is a wonderful book with an original defective detective who solves the crime his way which is certainly not how the rest of the Police Force would do it, but he does succeed. Harkness is a willing voyeur on this journey through the harsh Glasgow criminal world on a learning curve and finally respecting Laidlaw.This story is equally hard, edgy and full of angst. Paddy Collins is in hospital, having been stabbed. He was supposed to meet a man at the train station who’s on a mission. Laidlaw was the character that helped McIlvanney establish himself as the genius who defined the tartan noir genre. Through his Laidlaw character, McIlvanney infused his knowledge of Glasgow and it’s old-school cultural misogyny, class angst, rugged masculinity, and an environment that is decaying by the hour to create the dark- noir-theme novels that became hugely popular. Stunning. Possibly the best-written crime novel I've read. It continually astounded me with its depth and surprising metaphors. There are noir tropes here, their meaning and resonance vastly amplified; I said similar about Ian Rankin a few months ago when I first read him, but this was like Rankin tripled, quadrupled - this, published in 1977, was one of the inspirations for Rebus. In his compelling novel, LAIDLAW, McIlvanney lays bare the soul of Glasgow, capturing every nuance of its many voices