Hard-drinking philosopher detective Jack Laidlaw isn’t the only main character in this eponymous novel—he shares the spotlight with Glasgow itself, in its hard-boiled beauty and brutality.

Decades before Inspector Rebus, Karen Pirie and Jack Laidlaw walked Scotland's mean ... "I would say he is probably one of the grandfathers of tartan noir," he says. "His books created a template ...

William McIlvanney is considered to have written the first actual book of the tartan noir genre in 1977, with the first of his series of books featuring Glasgow DI Laidlaw. This is how one critic ...