Customer Reviews

The Papers of Tony Veitch

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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.

I decided to read the McIlvanney crime trilogy (Laidlaw, Veitch, Strange Loyalties) based on the very positive reviews I found on Amazon. By doing so, one can easily see the progression in McIlvanney's writing style and character development. With each novel the main character becomes more introspective and philosophical about his life as a Glasgow detective. The initial novel, Laidlaw, introduces us to the protagonist and sets the stage for his later development. The plot is almost incidental. (Usual whodunit, no big deal.) But the Scottish brogue dialogue is almost incomprehensible. Fortunately, this annoyance is greatly diminished in Veitch - and almost entirely disappears in Strange Loyalties. Thank goodness! Overall, a very good author with a different approach to the usual crime detective fare. Read all three novels for the full effect of McIvanney's style and character development, but you can easily skip the initial novel and start with Veitch without missing much. Strange Loyalties is easily the best of the three.