Two crime-writing legends join forces for the first ever case of DI Laidlaw: the original gritty Glasgow detective who inspired an entire genre

William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw trilogy changed the face of crime fiction in the 1970s and 1980s, inspiring an entire generation of crime writers including Mark Billingham, Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre – and Ian Rankin.

When McIlvanney died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case – his first new novel in 25 years. Now, Ian Rankin is back to finish what McIlvanney started. 

In The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and the relentless quest for truth.

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William McIlvanney’s three Laidlaw novels are classics of the crime genre, the touchstone for ‘Tartan Noir’, gritty, realistic depictions of Glasgow’s criminal underbelly. The Laidlaw novels have inspired many crime-writers, including Val McDermid, Alan Parks, one of my current favourites, whose Harry McCoy series really takes up the Laidlaw mantle, and, of course, Ian Rankin, whose Rebus novels can stand alongside McIlvanney’s on the top plinth. That said, I was still nervous about Rankin reviving Laidlaw. I should not have worried.

THE DARK REMAINS takes us back to Laidlaw’s early days, some time before LAIDLAW, when McIlvanney’s DI is just starting out. Ian Rankin apparently worked from notes and drafts left by William McIlvanney when he sadly passed and is is to his credit that it is impossible to tell just how much of each author is in the finished book. I suspect that there may be more Rankin than McIlvanney but I could be completely wrong, because this feels like a Laidlaw novel; the tone is the same; 1970s Glasgow feels exactly the same; the dialogue is as witty and the humour as dark as in the original trilogy. Laidlaw is younger, less sure of himself, but he is recognisably the same character, albeit feeling his way into his career, setting out on his mission, bending the rules where necessary.

The city of Glasgow is as much a character in the novel as Rebus’s Edinburgh is in Rankin’s own series, and he captures it perfectly, the grime, the poverty, a Glasgow unsure of its direction prior to the City of Culture cleanup. Jack Laidlaw is a complicated character, driven, playing by his own rules, tortured by his calling, literate yet tough; I love the character and revisit the Laidlaw novels often. It is tribute to Ian Rankin that I will be including THE DARK REMAINS in my regular re-reads.

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William McIlvanney is the author of the award-winning Laidlaw trilogy, featuring Glasgow’s original maverick detective. He died in December 2015. 

Both Laidlaw and The Papers of Tony Veitch gained Silver Daggers from the Crime Writers’ Association, while the third in the series, Strange Loyalties, won the Herald’s People’s Prize. 

The McIlvanney Prize, named in his honour in 2016, is awarded annually for the best Scottish crime novel of the year.

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Ian Rankin is the number one bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus series. The Rebus books have been translated into thirty-six languages and are bestsellers worldwide.

He is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards, including the prestigious Diamond Dagger, and in 2002 he received an OBE for services to literature. He lives in Edinburgh.

@beathhigh | ianrankin.net