Laidlaw (novel) (original) (raw)

Laidlaw is the first novel of a series of crime books by William McIlvanney, first published in 1977. It features the eponymous detective in his attempts to find the brutal sex related murderer of a Glasgow teenager. Laidlaw is marked by his unconventional methods in tracking the killer, immersing himself in a 1970s Glasgow featuring violence and bigotry. When Laidlaw was released in 1977, McIlvanney was known for recently winning the Whitbread Prize with his historical family novel, Docherty; as a complete departure from that genre, it surprised many of his readers.