Jack Laidlaw's Glasgow is a city of hard men, powerful villains and self-made businessmen, of big industry and its victims, of enduring women, terrible slums and, one morning, of murder. An unorthodox detective who cloaks compassion with sardonic wit, Laidlaw knows the right questions to ask, threading his way through the pubs and clubs, the bookies' and tenements, trying to find the killer of a young, apparently innocent girl.

Accolades

Winner of CWA Silver Dagger for Fiction 1977.
Shortlisted for Coventry Inspiration Book Awards: Murder, Mystery and Mayhem Category 2014.

Author Biography

William McIlvanney is one of Scotland's foremost writers whose award-winning novels include LAIDLAW, DOCHERTY, which won the Whitbread Award for Fiction, THE PAPERS OF TONY VEITCH, THE BIG MAN, which was made into a film starring Liam Neeson, STRANGE LOYALTIES, and THE KILN. He has also published a volume of short stories, WALKING WOUNDED, three books of poetry and a collection of essays and journalism, SURVIVING THE SHIPWRECK. He lives in Glasgow.