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The Dark Remains

The Sunday Times Bestseller and The Crime and Thriller Book of the Year 2022

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The Dark Remains

By: Ian Rankin, William McIlvanney
Narrated by: Brian Cox
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. NARRATED BY BRIAN COX

'Fantastic' Lee Child
'Absolutely brilliant' Mick Herron

If the truth's in the shadows, get out of the light . . .

Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong type of people. Now he’s dead and it was no accident. Besides a distraught family and a heap of powerful friends, Carter’s left behind his share of enemies. So, who dealt the fatal blow?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks the violence up to the usual rivalries, but is it that simple? As two Glasgow gangs go to war, Laidlaw needs to find out who got Carter before the whole city explodes.

William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Now, Ian Rankin is back to finish what McIlvanney started. In The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth.

 Crime Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Private Investigators Suspense Thriller & Suspense
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Critic reviews

"Two maestros for the price of one! All fans of quality crime fiction are in for a rare treat. McIlvanney and Rankin at the very height of their powers" (PETER JAMES)
"Fantastic – like witnessing Scottish noir's Big Bang creation in the company of its greatest living exponent" (LEE CHILD)
"McIlvanney and Rankin are the dream team. To have Rankin completing an unfinished McIlvanney novel is a crime fiction fan’s dream come true" (MARK BILLINGHAM)
"The journey through 1970s Glasgow, its grotty tenements and genteel suburbs, makes for a gripping and atmospheric novel"
"Absolutely brilliant. I was excited by this partnership the moment I heard it was happening, and it absolutely lives up to expectation. The Dark Remains is a triumph" (MICK HERRON)
"The personality of the tough, intelligent Laidlaw leaps off the page as readily as it did in the first novel that bore his name"
"Mean, moody and menacing. Perfect synchronicity from two of the best crime writers of our time" (SUE BLACK)
"Two legends of Scottish crime fiction blended like a deluxe whisky" (CHRIS BROOKMYRE)
"[Rankin's] dialogue has the same spiky wit [as McIlvanney's], he adjusts to gangster-ridden Glasgow with aplomb, and the deft period context – politics, pop, telly, football, booze brands, language, family and marital mores etc – is the most compelling reason to read the book besides its charismatic existentialist sleuth"
"By turns cynical, hardboiled and philosophical, Jack Laidlaw is the quintessential crime fiction protagonist, and Ian Rankin delivers a wholly satisfactory homage"
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A good book, but it's not up to the excellence of either author. A little cumbersome.

A whole not as good as its parts.

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The story is ok- but the narration is so bland. It’s impossible to differentiate between the characters . I got to the end but still didn’t know who was who

Brian cox reads a story

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I’m a big fan of Rebus books and was looking forward to discovering a new detective character from Rankin especially when narrated by BRIAN Cox. I’m sorry to say I was disappointed for as great as Cox’s voice may be when it comes to narration it lacked any change in tone or accent making it very difficult to distinguish between the characters. This made story and plot difficult to follow and you really had to pay attention to keep up with evolving plot

Spoilt by narration

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It is October 1972 and the body of Bobby Carter, the lawyer aligned to Cam Colvin’s gang in Glasgow, is found stabbed to death behind the Parlour pub. A pub on rival John Rhodes’ gang’s turf. Newly arrived DC Jack Laidlaw is partnered with DS Bob Lilley to investigate. All sorts of theories for Bobby Carter’s death abound. Was it Rhodes? Was it someone within Colvin’s own gang, maybe envious of the status that Carter held as right-hand man or even Colvin himself when he heard rumour of Carter wanting a piece of Glasgow? Was it another rival, Matt Mason, or even one of the teenage gangs like the Gorbals Crombie? Maybe it was the father or jealous ex-boyfriend of a young girl that Carter had been messing around with? A panicked killer or a cold-blooded plan? Who stands to benefit from the death of Bobby Carter?
There’s a war brewing, and it’s up to the detectives to stop it as the retaliation starts but just how many sides are involved in the battle for supremacy?
It was a tough time for coppers and Laidlaw is certainly a product of that era, often difficult to handle which has gained him a reputation even before he joined his current post. He takes no prisoners, even amongst his own side, and definitely works best doing things his own way but he gets results and doesn’t care who he upsets and can also be quite cerebral on the quiet. There are plenty of the typical gritty characters that would be expected on the mean streets of Glasgow gangland, with smashing names like Panda Patterson and Spanner Thomson, and the bleakness of the city comes across well. The story itself is quite slow, mirroring the pace of detective investigations at that time without modern technology and forensics, most of the time involving a lot of legwork and talking to witnesses who are safer seeing nothing at all. It has the feel of an early episode of Taggart and I enjoyed it immensely.
Brian Cox's narration is faultless and brings the characters to life very well.

Enjoyed it immensely

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I’m afraid I was completely underwhelmed by the narrator. With sentences split up in unnatural ways and questionable emphases on words, the overall effect was rather irritating. The storyline was interesting enough but overall not a good choice.

Not a fan

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