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#559154 in Books 2015-04-07 2015-04-07Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.25 x .85 x 5.28l, .0 #File Name: 1609452534256 pages | File size: 23.Mb

William McIlvanney : Strange Loyalties: A Laidlaw Investigation (Laidlaw Trilogy) before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Strange Loyalties: A Laidlaw Investigation (Laidlaw Trilogy):

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Guilt and LossBy prisrobFinding this trilogy of Jack Laidlaw was a true find. The author, William McIlvanney is a brilliant wordsmith, the combination of his writing skill and his characterizations are pure gold.Detective Inspector Jack Laidlaw, is a policeman in the Scottish police of . He has asked for some time off to research his brother's death. Scott was a lovable man with many demons, but his death was too soon. Jack needed to find out for himself what his brother's death was all about. His life as a detective brings him certain skills, and he is able to track down those who will be helpful. It's a mess as they say. At the same time he is involved in a murder case with his assistant. He is able to function in all capacities with the help of others and a little scotch.His relationships with women are heavy and problematic. He needs stability. But does it need him? As he is dealing with guilt and loss, other feelings come to the fore, and he is able to look at himself with new eyes. He can gauge his losses and on to the wins. A fabulous novel, one of the best. Even though it was written in 1991, it bears great relevancy.Highly Recommended. pris rob 07-21-14.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. "I was certainly one strange searcher for justice - the polluted avenger, knight of the rusted sword."--Jack LaidlawBy Mary WhippleJack Laidlaw has never been one to hold back in his assessments, even in his assessments of himself and his problems, and in this third novel of William McIlvanney's Laidlaw trilogy, published in 1991, after Laidlaw (1977) and The Papers of Tony Veitch (1983), main character Laidlaw faces himself, square-on. A detective with the Glasgow police, he is divorced, alienated from his teenage children, at a crisis in his relationship with a new woman, and addicted to the possibilities of escape through alcohol. When he learns that his troubled younger brother Scott, a teacher, has died in a pedestrian accident, Laidlaw concludes that "The world [is] a bingo stall," and he feels an inexplicable sense of guilt.Laidlaw, a thinker, philosopher, and reader, has always believed that the cases he investigates have their roots in institutional, fiscal, and political injustices, that they are more than "merely" legal offenses. Now, however, his "personal harpies" have come home to roost, "fouling [his] sense of his own worth," and he is frantic, knowing he must resolve the issues of his brother's death because it feels "unjust." He leaves Glasgow to investigate Scott's death.What follows is a story that, in its depth, bears more thematic resemblance to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment than it does to other noir novels. The main characters of both novels must to come to terms with the personal and ethical impact of their own behavior, and both engage in intense self-analysis and second- guessing from the outset. At the same time, however, Laidlaw also feels the obligations and sense of mission felt by Dostoevsky's police investigator, Porfiry Petrovich, making Strange Loyalties doubly intense for the reader since Laidlaw must assume two responsibilities - what he owes to himself and what he believes he owes to the public.McIlvanney differs dramatically from Dostoevsky (and from most modern noir writers) in his sense of humor, however. Without sacrificing his intellectual honesty and his well-earned literary credentials, McIlvanney writes from a breezy, irreverent, and often profane point of view, creating in Laidlaw a character whose flaws often get in the way of his personal success but whose sense of absurdity bubbles to the surface, no matter the circumstances. Gradually, he broadens his conclusions about everyday life, often expressing these in wry aphorisms. His use of symbols deepens the characterizations and the themes, especially the symbol of the "man in the green coat" from one of Scott's paintings.Despite the large number of characters and the complex interrelationships among them, the novel provides a perfect ending, tying up the details of the themes and the action at the same time that it suggests an appropriate coda: "And the meek shall inherit the earth, but not this week." Memorable for its literary values, its creativity, and its intelligence, as much as for its themes and dramatic action, the Laidlaw trilogy has achieved the status of a classic during the author's own lifetime.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. DisappointedBy Paul RooneyThis is the third of the Laidlaw's and I was disappointed, it is not a 'cop' story, more a 'family' story.Its still very well written but it was a major deviation from the first two and that annoyed me personally.But I read recently that the series has been resurrected after thirty years and a new Laidlaw is on its way, so I'm hoping he goes back to the beginning.

This third book in the series begins with Jack Laidlaw’s despair and anger at his brother’s death in a banal road accident. His questions as to the dynamics of his bother’s death lead to larger questions about the nature of pain and injustice about meaning of his own life. Laidlaw is determined to learn more about the circumstances surrounding Scott Laidlaw’s death. His investigations will lead to a confrontation with his own past and a harrowing journey into the dark Glasgow underworld.

From Publishers WeeklyThis extraordinary and beautifully written novel, the third to feature Glasgow police detective Jack Laidlaw ( Laidlaw and The Papers of Tony Veitch are the others), sets a high standard among contemporary thrillers. It begins not with a crime but with Laidlaw's despair at his brother's death in a traffic accident. He has a burning need to make some sense of that death: "Where did the accident begin? That's what I want to know. In the middle of the road? At the kerbsic ? In the pub before he went out? In the fact that he drank too much? When did the accident begin?" Jack's inquiries into how Scott Laidlaw came to his untimely end lead to much larger questions about the nature of pain and injustice and--not least of all--about the meaning of his own life and how it encompasses the impending failure of his relationship with the woman he loves. Trying to piece together the events of his brother's final days, Laidlaw embarks upon a journey into moral darkness. The investigation eventually ties in with a case being pursued by Jack's partner in his absence, but the real secret, hinted at in the paintings that Scott left behind, lies in a tragic event long past and in the sadness of Jack's youthful innocence, which he has lost but not forgotten. Strange Loyalties, like its detective hero, is captivating and unforgettable. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.From Kirkus sThe third outing for Glasgow police detective Jack Laidlaw (Laidlaw, 1977; The Papers of Tony Veitch, 1983) starts off with the most understated premise imaginable: Given that the driver who ran down Jack's brother Scott wasn't looking to kill him, why should Scott have died just then? Laidlaw's hunch that Scott's death, though accidental, was more than an accident leads him to painful scenes with Scott's drop-dead wife Anna, the drinking buddies linked in one of Scott's paintings to a spectral man in a green coat--a man whose existence they vehemently deny--and a spreading circle of petty, violent criminals. It's all fleshed out, like Laidlaw's hopeless attempt to rekindle his affair with his restaurateur girlfriend Jan, with the depressive exactness of a mortician cosmetologist. Structurally a detective story with more solution than mystery, but really a grimly effective novel like Chandler's The Long Goodbye, about the detective's loyalty to the dead. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. “This extraordinary and beautifully written novel…sets a high standard among contemporary thrillers. Like its detective hero, Strange Loyalties is captivating and unforgettable.”—Publishers Weekly “The Laidlaw trilogy is one of the finest things in modern fiction, in the Chandler and Simenon class.”—Spectator “Starts on the streets and ends up in the soul.”— “A grimly effective novel like Chandler’s The Long Goodbye about the detective’s loyalty to the dead.”—Kirkus s “Allan Guthrie probably comes closest to McIlvanney in his mix of humor and compassion, but even that top-flight crime writer doesn’t do it with the same concentration.”— Peter Rozovsky, Detectives Beyond Borders

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