Laidlaw (Laidlaw Trilogy)

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So he turned to the head of the Women’s Royal Naval Service, Vera Laughton Matthews, who seized her moment. I thought Laidlaw was quite brilliant. I tried it without much expectation but I found it gripping, haunting, thoughtful and outstandingly well written.

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 giantTold that the range of a U-boat torpedo was about one mile, Jean Laidlaw had a lightbulb moment – convoys were miles across. The Laidlaw character is a brilliant creation. An unconventional cop with a philosophical approach to police work. He immerses himself in the case, alienating most of his fellow police in the process. There’s so much going on that it’s difficult to write a coherent review. Laidlaw is a depressive who suffers from migraines, and who is defensive about his personal life. He has a philosophical bent, prone to analysing everyone and everything around him.

The most striking thing about him was something Harkness had noticed every time he had seen him - preoccupation. You never came on him empty. You imagined that if a launch arrived to rescue him from a desert island, he would have something he had to finish before being taken off. It was hard to think of him walking casually, always towards definite destinations. Knight errant of the Crime Squad, she reflected bitterly. The trouble was, it occurred to her, that with him you never knew whether you were the maiden or the dragon. Perhaps the weakest character in the book is Laidlaw himself, who hides books by Camus and other philosophers in his desk drawer, cheats on his wife and then discusses his guilt with his mistress, who calls him "John Knox." Still, he's got an interesting viewpoint on both his city and on crime itself, and that kept me going. At one point, he observes, ‘Who thinks the law has anything to do with justice?’ and then supplies the answer, ‘It’s what we have because we can’t have justice.’ The last Laidlaw novel by Mr. McIlvanney was left incomplete upon his death. Several years later Ian Rankin, who is an avid fan of Mr. McIlvanney’s writing, was asked to complete The Dark Remains. 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.)En esta novela aparece el cuerpo de una mujer joven en un parque de Glasgow. Enseguida conoceremos al autor porque lo que interesa en esta historia es conocer el entorno de la víctima y del asesino. El odio religioso protestantes/católicos, el deseo de venganza o la homosexualidad, que en esa época estaba muy mal vista, forman parte de la trama.