William McIlvanney - Laidlaw

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Brilliant

I thought Laidlaw was quite brilliant. I tried it without much expectation but I found it gripping, haunting, thoughtful and outstandingly well written.

First published in 1977, Inspector Laidlaw is a thoughtful, moral detective moving in a thoroughly immoral Glasgow underworld. He has to investigate a horrible sex-killing, while some of Glasgow’s hardest criminal bosses also try to track down the perpetrator. It’s beautifully done: there is a superb sense of time and place, an ever-present atmosphere of suppressed violence (which only becomes graphic reality once, making it shockingly effective) and a thoughtful eye cast over everything.

William McIlvanney’s writing is just superb; almost poetic sometimes and always remarkably evocative. Some typical nuggets include “They drank, considering each other from opposite sides of an attitude,” or “...not so much a pub as a transit-camp to dereliction.” He can also produce the odd simile worthy of Chandler, like “The old man opened the door with all the ease of the Venus de Milo cracking a safe.” Through Laidlaw, McIlvanney also brings a subtle, insightful view of the morals and origins of the people and events. I found it an utter joy to read, in spite of the bleak story and many deeply unpleasant characters.

This is a wonderful discovery for me and I will be reading more McIlvanney in the very near future. Very, very warmly recommended.