Laidlaw cover art

Laidlaw

A Laidlaw Investigation, Book 1

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Laidlaw

By: William McIlvanney
Narrated by: William McIlvanney
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About this listen

Meet Jack Laidlaw, the original damaged detective.

When a young woman is found brutally murdered on Glasgow Green, only Laidlaw stands a chance of finding her murderer from among the hard men, gangland villains and self-made moneymen who lurk in the city's shadows.

Winner of the CWA Silver Dagger.

©1977 William McIlvanney (P)2013 Canongate Books Ltd Crime Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Fiction

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Critic reviews

"The best new character in crime fiction for years" ( Daily Express)
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It took me a little while to work out it was set in the early 70's-this was because there was a lack of mobile phones, and a David Essex reference confirmed it..
Great accents, good story...if you like tough, and maverick detectives with a touch of strong Glaswegian thrown in..take a chance on this.

Glaswegian..

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It’s the depth of characters. Feel like I’m there among them and their cigarette smoke

My 2nd time. Probably not my last.

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The author reads the book and I feel does not do it justice. The story is straight forward but the writing is full of tangents in the descriptions of things. for me this was distracting .

No ma cup a tea.

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William McIlvanney is simply the greatest of the Scottish crime writers, a tour de force. So much more than a detective novel more a meditation on the human condition.

One of the great crime novels

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Liked this book but do find the pessimistic turn of phrase a little off putting.

Good read

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I'm really struggling with this one. cant really get into the story because of the poor narration. The author should stick. to writing and pass the narration to so.eone else. I would read this book rather than listen.

can't finish it

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Possibly over engineered prose but only slightly and I could see some folk getting a wee bit blindsided by the Glaswegian wit and culture but a great read - pay attention to the detail and it’s possibly even better than that.

Metaphor and simile by the bucket load

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Oh dear story has potential even if set in 1977. But oh dear the narrator sounded like he was struggling with false teeth. Monotone and boring.

gave up boring narrator!

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Is there anything you would change about this book?

I found this book very slow and did not really move along.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I could not find a character that I could form an opinion of.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

This book might have been better with a different narrator. The author/narrator had a very strong accent, which I was unable to tune into and found it very hard at times to understand, though he tried to give characters different accents, this failed and again made it difficult for me to follow the story.

tedious

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My new found author, I love him, he’s so down to earth and very very funny even though I am not sure he’s trying too be. The story line is brilliant and not one of those that try too baffle you with lots of different red herrings and false leads. Just a great story line and great characters. I can’t wait for the next audiobooks. I’m putting him with my other fave’s. JD Kirk, Stuart Macbride. n Dalgleish. Lol , bet I’ve spelt at least one name wrong off top of my head. Get this book it’s a must in Scottish Thriller’s. Love to all readers out there. Stay safe. Patricia Margaret Welsh xxxxx

Must read, didn’t set it down, so too speak, until finished

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