The Heretic cover art

The Heretic

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Heretic

By: Liam McIlvanney
Narrated by: Angus King
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 From the award-winning author comes a much-anticipated sequel to the Scottish Crime Book of the Year The Quaker…

Glasgow 1975

A deadly fire
An arson attack on a Glasgow warehouse causes the deaths of a young mother and child.
Police suspect it’s the latest act in a brutal gang warfare that’s tearing the city apart – one that DI Duncan McCormack has been tasked with stopping.

A brutal murder
Five years ago he was walking on water as the cop who tracked down a notorious serial killer. But he made powerful enemies and when a mutilated body is found in a Tradeston slum,
McCormack is assigned a case that no one wants. The dead man is wearing a masonic ring, though, and Duncan realizes the victim is not the down-and-out his boss had first assumed.

A catastrophic explosion
As McCormack looks into both crimes, the investigations are disrupted by a shocking event.
A bomb rips through a pub packed with people – and a cop is killed in the blast. The cases are stacking up and with one of his own unit now dead, McCormack is in the firing line.

But he’s starting to see a thread – one that connects all three attacks…

©2022 Liam McIlvanney (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Crime Crime Fiction Historical Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Fiction Murder Scary Suspense

Listeners also enjoyed...

 A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller cover art
Artefacts of the Dead cover art
The Bonnie Dead cover art
The Turning of Our Bones cover art
A Long Time Dead cover art
The Hope That Kills cover art
No Man's Land cover art
Dead Man’s Grave cover art
Laidlaw cover art
Northwind cover art
Return to Evil cover art
Lost Cause cover art
Out in the Cold cover art
Starvation Lake cover art
Grimm Up North cover art
Rich Men, Dead Men cover art
All stars
Most relevant
A brilliant sequel to the equally brilliant Quaker and Angus King's narration is perfect as always.

Brilliant!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book from start to finish and the author has to be congratulated for his portrayal of Ayrshire and Glasgow in the early 1970s

Excellent from start to finish...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Love it love it, love it. Great for a Glaswegian! Great story and narration. Fabulous xx

Love this guy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Liam McIlvanney does not need to worry about living in the shadows of his author father; he is an excellent crime writer in his own right.
Set in the seventies in Scotland's Glasgow this book is a good reminder of many freedoms we take for granted today. Mcilvanney is not afraid to tackle harsh subjects such as religious bigotry homophobia, women's rights and much more. Not in a banging the drum way but in a way that is a true backdrop to police working conditions during this period.
This gritty taie has many strands, with many likeable and unlikeable, naive and cruel people. If there are links between the strands it is not immediately clear. So it is great that in this book we have DI McCormack return to Glasgow (who despite his own demons which are not allowed to overrun the central storyline) to help us through the mire. Sadly, what is found in the mire is not too fantastical and continues to this day. Nevertheless McCormack takes heart and fights to interrupt the cycle.
A great riveting read that bring that takes you through many emotions, a lot of that is anger to a few moments when there is respite with some quiet joy.
Narrator Angus King captures the nuances of this tale and with that gives the characters their own space.
I for one hope that we see more of Di McCormack.

Of its' time

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great listen from start to finish. Memories of old Glasgow warts and all. Looking forward to the next instalment

Nostalgia without the rose tinted specs

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews