In this, the second book featuring Detective Inspector Jack Laidlaw, he is summoned to the hospital bed of Eck Adamson, a dying alcoholic vagrant, and once again he is travelling the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland. In this world, titled ladies, down-and-outs and middle class students mingle with the hard men of the Glasgow underworld. Alliances shift and change as Laidlaw tries to find Tony Veitch, a young student who may have killed the vagrant and a criminal. There don't seem to be any heroes in this story, not even Laidlaw himself, who is laid even more bare by the perceptions of Harkness, his partner, than in the first book. But a hero does emerge; in Laidlaw's view, and in McIlvanney's, the real heroes are working class middle aged to elderly women, the ones who hold family and home together, in the face of overwhelming change and outside pressures. John Steinbeck recognised these heroes and has Ma Joad in 'Grapes of Wrath.' McIlvanney's personification of these heroes is Jinty Adamson, grieving for her dead brother, but who had been his family, his rock on whom he could depend during his disparate life. In many ways a rehashing of 'Laidlaw' but an engrossing read, and it's literary subtleties transcend the police procedural plot.

The book "Shades of Grey Glasgow 1956-1987" is a wonderful tribute to Glasgow and her people. The book begins with the short story "Where Greta Garbo Wouldn't Have Been Alone" by William McIlvanney. This story is a collection of McIvanney's memories of Glasgow. At times it is funny and touching. It is clear from his writing that McIlvanney respects and admires Glasgow.

The photographs of Oscar Marzaroli follow McIlvanney's writing; these pictures were taken between 1956 and 1987. Marzaroli captures the essence of Glasgow. His photographs are, like McIlvanney's writing, memories of Glasgow. While some may say that the photographs of Marzaroli's Glasgow are depressing, I disagree. His photographs are true to life. "Hingin Oot The Windae" on page 67 brought a smile to my face. This happened a lot in Glasgow. I have pictures of myself doing the same.Page 71 contains a photograph that made me laugh so hard I almost cried. It pictures three little boys wearing high-heeled shoes, playing in the street. Marzaroli's picture of Kelvingrove Park took me by surprise,I was very moved by it. The picture brought back memories of being in the park on day like that. It made me homesick, in that good way.

While Marzaroli, and McIlvanney were not born in Glasgow their love for the city is very evident in the book. I would reccomend this to anyone. Both men made me very proud and happy to be a daughter of Glasgow.

If you haven't yet read McIlvanney, get on it! This man is brilliant. His detective, Jack Laidlaw, remains one of the most intriguing characters in fiction. "Strange Loyalties" charts Laidlaw's quest to discover meaning after his brother is killed. The characters that we encounter, as well as the questions that are raised, help shed light on so many aspects of our own lives. The depth present in this particular novel made me want to weep at the conclusion. The truth McIlvanney expounds in both his characters and their dealings in life, makes the beauty of this book complete. This is one of those stories that long after you've put it down, you feel its presence and its insight growing inside of you. I just hope that McIlvanney one day gets the credit he so much deserves.

McIlvanney's essay, "The Sacred Wood Revisited", takes T. S. Eliot to task for the introduction of elitist tendencies into poetry, and discussions of it. The long narrative poem that follows, "Weddings and After", returns poetry to the people by concentrating on their lives, their concerns. This is high art, melodic and readable, with McIlvanney's compassionate imprint

A young woman, Jennifer Lawson has been found brutally murdered. She has been strangled and then sexually assaulted. Her body has been dumped in Kelvingrove Park in the western part of Glasgow. The author also tells the reader who the killer is and hints at a motive for the killing. It remains for Detective Inspector to find the killer from a confusing set of clues he gleams from the victim's family and relatives and their friends. Laidlaw is not a conventional cop of the Glasgow police force. Indeed, he draws clear parallels between himself and his associates. Of one named Milligan, Laidlaw makes the following observation. "I think false certainties are what destroy us. And Milligan's full of them. He's a walking absolute. What's murder but a willed absolute, an invented certainty? An existential failure of nerve. What we shouldn't do is compound the felony in our reaction to it. And that's what people keep doing. Faced with the enormity, they lose their nerve, and where they should see a man, they make a monster. It's a social industry. And Milligan's one of its entrepreneurs." What keeps emerging from this book is the intricate understanding the author McIlvanney imparts about the characters that populate this book. In this next passage, Laidlaw and his assistant Detective Constable Harkness are questioning Mr. and Mrs. Stanley, friends of the murder victim and her family. Laidlaw discerned the tension between husband and wife, the former reluctant to come forward with information, the latter determined to do so. The Stanley's stared across at each other. "Laidlaw and Harkness sat silent. It wasn't the kind of look to interfere in. That stare was about twenty years of marriage and it was carrying more complicated traffic between them than the M1 (motorway). It was no longer about a dead girl or policemen's questions. It was about other kinds of death. It was about how much a woman had never got out of a relationship and the decency she had maintained in spite of it. It was about how much a man had hidden from promises he perhaps didn't even know he had made. It was about pride kept and pride lost." This book is also about Glasgow, the other city in Scotland that has always lived in the shadow of its far more cosmopolitan sister Edinburgh (pronounced "Ed-in-borough"). Glasgow was the unruly, snotty-nosed sibling that was always dirty, while its sister always managed to appear spotless and polite. Laidlaw and Harkness are at the Glasgow Cross, where a number of roads converge: Gallowgate, Trongate, High Street, and the London Road. They are "on the site of the old Tolbooth-a kind of midget tower with a Balustrade at the top and above that the figure of a unicorn." "Harkness read the words carved on the stone: 'Nemo me impune lacessit...' "No one assails me with impunity," Laidlaw said. "wha daur meddle wi me?...I like the civic honesty of that," Laidlaw was smiling. "That's the wee message carved on the heart of Glasgow. Visitors are advised not to be cheeky." The book is also filled with the Glasgow the "patter." Laidlaw and Harkness are waiting in the canteen of a print shop to interview a witness when a worker comes in to have a cigarette. After some banter with Laidlaw and Harkness, he tells them a story about the walk-in cupboard near where they are all standing. "This is gospel. No' last week, but the week before. Big Aly Simpson. Bloke in the work. He's fond o' his nookie an' that, ye know? Me. Ah'd rather hiv a fish-supper. Anyway, there's nane o' us perfect. Dinner-time (lunch time). The horn goes. Back tae the galleys. Except Big Aly an Jinty. Jinty's a big lassie that works wan o' the machines. Well, she's no' that big, but everybody's big tae me. Ah yince broke ma leg fa'lling aff the kerb. But she's gemme. So the two o' them wait in the canteen here an' lock the door. Jist gettin'doon tae it. When they hear somebody tryin' the door. Then there's the voices talkin' about gettin' the key. Panic stations. Big Aly's a mairrit man. Likes tae think that everybody else's heid buttons up the back. So he hides in the press there. Jinty sorts herself an' sterts yawnin' an' that. Goes tae the door an' opens it. 'Ah must've fell asleep,' she says, blinkin' like Snow White. Well, Wullie Anderson comes in. Whaur dae ye think is the first place he makes fur? The press there. Tae get a new brush-heid. Opens the dorr. There's Big Aly. Standin; like Count Dracula. Ye widny credit it. Know whit Big Aly says? Cool as ye like. "Is this where ye get the bus for Maryhill.' An' that's the truth." If you're fond of book about detectives who are complex and analytical, and caught up in the underworld they confront everyday, Laidlaw if meant for you. The main character Laidlaw is at odds with the police force he serves and is torn between a family and his work and too often the murderers and their victims take priority over wife and children. William McIlvanney is one of Scotland's best known writers. He is winner of the Whitbread Award for Fiction. The award is chosen by the Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland, with funds provided by Whitbread Breweries.

Detective inspector Jack Laidlaw walks the mean streets of Glasgow in the 70's; he also rides the bus and subway; he's a traveller, not a tourist, he explains to his partner harkness, through whose eyes we get to know Laidlaw. Jack Laidlaw is an unconventional cop, tough yes, but he is a philosopher, a political liberal, and a champion of the underdog; he is, like his creator McIlvanney, a humanist - everybody, no matter who or what they are, deserves respect as a human being. Another major character in this novel is the city of Glasgow itself, indeed in one passage a drunk man talks to the city. Anyone looking for a cop with a tough edge, but with human faults and failings need look no further than Laidlaw.

I have recently read 'Laidlaw' as part of my higher English course and have found it a very enjoyable read if a little hard to write about. I find Laidlaw's character intriguing and I am planning to read the other novels by McIlvanney about D.I. Laidlaw. 'Laidlaw' is an excellant example of a detective novel and this is clear through the themes displayed throughout the novel. The themes are put across excellantly by the characters. I can relate to the setting very well because I live very close to Glasgow and know my way about very well.