Summary
"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.
William McIlvanney was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland on November 25, 1936. He was educated at Kilmarnock Academy and Glasgow University. He worked as an English teacher and deputy headmaster before retiring in 1975 to become a full time author. His first novel, Remedy Is None, was published in 1966. His other novels included A Gift from Nessus, Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch, Strange Loyalties, and The Kiln. The Big Man was made into a film starring Liam Neeson. He won numerous awards including the Whitbread Prize for Docherty, the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger, the Saltire Award, and the Glasgow Herald People's Prize. He was also a poet, journalist, and broadcaster. He died after a short illness on December 5, 2015 at the age of 79.
(Bowker Author Biography)
