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

Mr. McIlvanney didn’t churn out his Laidlaw novels and the gap between stories was torture for his fans. Six years later he gave us The Papers of Tony Veitch. Though I'm a noir fan, I otherwise tend to dislike mysteries and detective fiction, and the only thing I know about Glasgow is what I saw walking from one of the city’s train stations to another several decades ago. A love of this genre and knowledge of the city might have added that fifth star to my rating, because McIlvanney’s writing is splendid. The crime in Laidlaw is the murder of a young girl who disappeared after going to the disco one evening. Her family and friends are questioned by the "polis.". Several Glasgow hard men are suspects, as well, and the reader is introduced them and their machinations. (Be aware that there is a certain amount of vividly described violence here.) McIlvanney is not the first author whose character has continued after their death: Sophie Hannah has written a number of new Hercule Poirot novels; Anthony Horowitz, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffrey Deaver have continued the James Bond thrillers; and Eoin Colfer wrote a final novel in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide series.

There are bookable group study rooms in all the libraries, individual postgraduate study rooms on level 13 of the Edward Boyle Library, and accessible study rooms are also available. Book a group study space What you need to know The technique of indirect presentation works very well, with the aided bonus of also easing the reader into the more unsavoury elements of Glasgow criminal gangs ('tearaways' in the local jargon). There are several more changes in the point of view, done in an unobtrusive and convincing way, mostly fleshing out secondary characters like the girl's abusive father, the mentally unbalanced killer, several bosses and underlings of what looks to me a criminal structure almost as well organized as the infamous Mob.

In a strange twist of fate, it’s Ian Rankin who completed this novel, as William McIlvanney had passed away before completing the manuscript. It was fascinating trying to work out where Rankin “took over”, as it’s quite seamless. There were one or two moments where I thought “Hmmmm…did people really speak like that then?”as a few phrases seemed more current. But that was only the briefest doubt. It’s such a wonderful merging of two incredible crime Writers, at the top of their profession.As a crime story it’s not that good. I found there to be little suspense, I kind of saw the whole resolution coming as easily as a lazy right hook from a gassed fighter. (Gotta try to make this shit manly, right?)