Laidlaw (Crime)
By William McIlvanney
ISBN #978-1609452018
250 Pages
Price $12.00
Rating 5-Stars
“Laidlaw Takes The
Reader Through The Dark Streets of Glasgow In This Character Study Of An
Unorthodox Detective.”
In an abandoned
building within a run-down section of Glasgow, a young homosexual boy kills a
girl in a fit of rage, as they are involved in a sex act. Calling his male
lover, he asks for help, and this brings about several forces that will
eventually come together. Part of the police investigative team is Laidlaw, a
detective who moves in odd directions to solve a case, while the other team uses
strict police procedural. The father of the girl wants to kill the boy with his
own hands, while the boy’s lover works to keep him alive and get him out of
town. But the man he calls wants the boy dead also, and hires his own killer.
Can Laidlaw and his partner reach the boy before he is killed? It’s a rush for
one side to bring a killer to trial, while the other side wants to kill a
monster.
There is never a
mystery to the crime, as the reader knows from the start who killed the girl
and why. The main story surrounds Laidlaw, and his, perhaps, strange ways. I
think his wife explains him a little for us. With love long since gone from
their marriage, when he walks into her room, she says to herself, “Introducing in
the red corner.” Laidlaw had been an amateur boxer, and in a way he was still
fighting the world. It was definitely an interesting story, and kept me turning
the pages. For readers who find local dialect charming in a book, I admit its
use here made the dialogue hard to follow for me. Highly recommended for
mystery readers who enjoy characters working outside the norm to solve a murder
case.
Tom Johnson
Detective Mystery
Stories
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