Laidlaw
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

First published in 1977, this reissue of the stunning first volume of McIllvaney's Scottish crime trilogy introduces Det. Insp. Jack Laidlaw. The brooding, philosophical Laidlaw is the odd man out in his Glaswegian police cadre, always the one who's more interested in the "why" than the "how." His latest case involves the rape and murder of 18-year-old Jennifer Lawson, who just happens to be the daughter of a notorious gang figure, Bud Lawson. Laidlaw sifts through conflicting clues, along with his new partner, Det. Constable Brian Harkness, all the while trying to keep one step ahead of both the murderer and his more conventional superiors. Peppered with authentic Scottish slang, with much of the dialogue written in Glaswegian dialect, this is the novel that gave birth to the movement known as Tartan Noir and inspired the likes of Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Denise Mina. For anyone looking for a cop who's more than a badge, Laidlaw is the perfect hero. Agent: Laura Mamelok, Susanna Lea Associates. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Auspicious is the word for this Scottish poet-novelist's debut as a police-procedural craftsman. Laidlaw's the detective--abrasive, literate, angrily compassionate--and his turf is Glasgow, any town's rival for drear-dankness, enervated poverty, and slick newness layered on decaying oldness. A girl's been abused and murdered, and Laidlaw had better find the culprit--a sexually confused adolescent--before the victim's father or a bookie biggie (afraid of what the fugitive might spill about his crooked set-up) lay hands on him. Notwithstanding an excess of metaphor (Laidlaw talks of people spending their ""lives doing a Cook's Tour of their own reality""), McIlvanney's mix of just enough dialect, just enough pathos, and just-right pacing puts him immediately in a class with the Marrics, McBains, and Scandinavians who turn streets into cityscapes and uniforms into people. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.