Laidlaw
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Laidlaw
Narrated by:
William McIlvanney
Buy Now for £11.71
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Narrated by:
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William McIlvanney
Meet Jack Laidlaw, the original damaged detective. When a young woman is found brutally murdered in Kelvingrove Park, only Laidlaw stands a chance of finding her murderer from among the hard men, gangland villains and self-made moneymen who lurk in the city's shadows.
WINNER OF THE CWA SILVER DAGGER
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Critic reviews
"The Laidlaw books are like fine malt whisky - the pure distilled essence of Scottish crime writing" (PETER MAY)
"Glittering" (VAL McDERMID)
"Fastest, first and best, Laidlaw is the melancholy heir to Marlowe. Reads like a breathless scalpel cut through the bloody heart of a city" (DENISE MINA)
"A crime trilogy so searing it will burn forever into your memory. McIlvanney is the original Scottish criminal mastermind" (CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE)
"It's doubtful I would be a crime writer without the influence of McIlvanney's Laidlaw. Here was a literary novelist turning his hand to the urban, contemporary crime novel and proving that the form could tackle big moral concerns and social issues" (IAN RANKIN)
"The first of Laidlaw's investigations sets a stunningly high standard ... A world apart from other examples of the genre"
"The Laidlaw books are not just great crime novels, they are important ones. McIlvanney proved that crime writing could have both perfect style and huge ambition. Most of us writing crime fiction today are standing on the shoulders of giants. McIlvanney is one such giant" (MARK BILLINGHAM)
"McIlvanney is the razor king of Scottish crime writing, carving out crackling prose and pounding storylines. His Laidlaw is an enduring hero with the dry wit and insight to make other literary detectives seem two-dimensional" (GORDON FERRIS)
"William McIlvanney paints a world of harsh reality, but does so in language that is strangely beautiful and hauntingly poetic. His work defies pigeonholing in any genre: this is simply great writing from a master of his craft" (CRAIG RUSSELL)
"Deeply understood people, fine descriptive writing"
"In his compelling novel, LAIDLAW, McIlvanney lays bare the soul of Glasgow, capturing every nuance of its many voices" (ALEX GRAY)
"Laidlaw is a fascinating, infuriating and memorable character . . . McIlvanney probes the nature of society and the limitations of human guilt with razor sharpness"
"The best new character in crime fiction for years"
"[MacIlvanney] shows deftly and convincingly why crime fiction is the ideal place for closely-observed social realism, painting a vivid portrait of working-class Glasgow in the 1970s in the extracts from his three novels, all featuring Detective Inspector Jack Laidlaw" (Bram E. Gieben)
"McIlvanney's prose is simultaneously sparse and lyrical. Short sentences, paragraphs and, indeed, chapters give the feel of a thriller to some beautiful writing" (Gareth Watkins)
"His tough, vivid prose combines the sardonic wit and stark economy of Chandler with the authenticity and artfulness of his own much-admired non-genre work. The DNA of all Scottish crime fiction is here"
gave up boring narrator!
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Is there anything you would change about this book?
I found this book very slow and did not really move along.Who was your favorite character and why?
I could not find a character that I could form an opinion of.What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
This book might have been better with a different narrator. The author/narrator had a very strong accent, which I was unable to tune into and found it very hard at times to understand, though he tried to give characters different accents, this failed and again made it difficult for me to follow the story.tedious
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Good read
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Great, Grimey, Glasgow.
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Stick with it
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