Laidlaw

I still have my treasured original copy of Laidlaw by Willie McIlvanney, and also the more recently published edition. Laidlaw, as Willie said, is first and foremost a man, who just happens to be a policeman. My father was a detective, working on the front line, and we often saw the effect that had on him. So Laidlaw rang true to me, in its questioning, Who is the true monster among us? In its voice and rhythm, which sounded undeniably Scottish, and most of all, in its humanity. 

Laidlaw inspired me to write my book. It also inspired me… show more.

If you were to read only one novel on my list, make it Laidlaw by William McIlvanney, the godfather of so-called Tartan Noir. When written, crime fiction was thought of as a lesser form of fiction, but McIlvanney’s lead, Jack Laidlaw, rises from the pages as a complex, very human character, to rival any writer’s protagonist, and is never a stereotype.

Re-reading the novel, at a time when I began writing my first book, it was the delivery of reality within fiction that informed me first, and then I realised that McIlvanney’s secondary characters were not hollow walk-on cast… show more.