Strange Loyalties

This third book in the series begins with Jack Laidlaw’s despair and anger at his brother’s death in a banal road accident. His questions as to the dynamics of his bother’s death lead to larger questions about the nature of pain and injustice about meaning of his own life. Laidlaw is determined to learn more about the circumstances surrounding Scott Laidlaw’s death. His investigations will lead to a confrontation with his own past and a harrowing journey into the dark Glasgow underworld.

Strange Loyalties (Murder Mystery/Scottish Noir)

By William McIlvanney

Europa Editions www.europaeditions.com

ISBN #978-1609452537

Price $13.35 (paperback)

256 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

Jack Laidlaw is trying to come to terms with his brother’s death. Apparently, while drunk; Scott Laidlaw walked in front of a car, some saying suicide, others that it was just an accident, but Jack wants to find out what led up to that night, and his brother’s rendezvous with sudden death

His investigation starts uncovering problems in Scott’s life, including a failed marriage, and a mysterious night in college when Scott’s life seemed to change to a darkness that Jack never suspected. While he’s on a personal search, his police team is searching for a killer that may connect in some way back to Scott.

This was another interesting look into the Glasgow underworld where drugs and murder are the normal way of life, and where Jack seems to be pulled deeper into it’s bottomless pit of darkness and inhuman savagery, while his own family drifts apart. Although most of the story surrounds Jack’s family and friends, the book kept my interest, and is another deep look into the dark underworld of Glasgow. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories

Laidlaw

Laidlaw (Crime)

By William McIlvanney

ISBN #978-1609452018

Europa Edition www.europaeditions.com

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