Laidlaw

The Dark Remains by Ian Rankin and William McIlvanney

By Paul Burke

19 October, 2021

This novel was one of the publishing events of 2021. Ian Rankin has completed William McIlvanney’s unfinished manuscript of a prequel to the Laidlaw trilogy – the series credited with establishing the Tartan noir subgenre. (If you’re new to Laidlaw, you can read more about…

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The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin

By Paul Burke

3 September, 2021

Laidlaw’s first big case. When William McIlvanney died in 2015, the importance of his Laidlaw novels to Scottish crime fiction was just beginning to be properly recognised. He’s now rightly seen as the godfather of Tartan noir. Intriguingly, McIlvanney left behind a half-written manuscript for…

Features

William McIlvanney's Laidlaw and the Tartan noir revolution

By Paul Burke

31 August, 2021

Ian Rankin is among the elite of contemporary crime writers, his character John Rebus one of the most loved and enduring in detective fiction. Good as he is, there must have been a little tremor in his hand and possibly a frisson of excitement as…

Features

CIS: The classics of Tartan noir

By Mal McEwan

3 September, 2017

Scottish crime fiction has a long and lustrous history. Whether set in Scotland or written by Scots there is a wealth of classics from which to choose. Our feature includes some of the earliest examples as well as modern works by still-active authors – all…

Features

Mal McEwan: The five books that got me hooked on crime fiction

By Mal McEwan

11 July, 2017

I came late to crime fiction after many years of playing the field. My earliest childhood was filled with Famous Five, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries but as I got older the crime dropped away and I dutifully read through classic and modern literary…

Features

CIS: My crime classics by Abir Mukherjee

By crimefictionlover

6 September, 2016

Abir Mukherjee was in the numbers game – an accountant, to be specific. But he’d always wanted to write crime novels and decided to start working on one. When The Daily Telegraph and publishing house Harvill Secker teamed up to run a crime writing competition, Abir…

Features

Raven: The five books that got me hooked on crime fiction

By Raven

4 July, 2015

I became hooked on crime fiction thanks to the encouragement of my mum who started me reading, and gave me the keys to the crime kingdom with her crime and thriller collection very early on. Having quickly rejected the Golden Age – far too dull for my…

Crime Fiction Lover

The Dark Remains by Ian Rankin and William McIlvanney

The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin

William McIlvanney's Laidlaw and the Tartan noir revolution

CIS: The classics of Tartan noir

Mal McEwan: The five books that got me hooked on crime fiction

CIS: My crime classics by Abir Mukherjee

Raven: The five books that got me hooked on crime fiction

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