Armadillo wrote:For Glasgow in fiction, I reckon you can't beat Willie McIlvanney's original detective novels Laidlaw and The Papers of Tony Veitch. As somebody pointed out elsewhere on HG, Laidlaw was a forerunner of both Taggart and Rebus - but somehow McIlvanney never got the recognition for the character that he deserved. The books are very evocative of a certain period - late 70s/early 80s. And Veitch has the killer opening line:
"It was Glasgow on a Friday night - the city of the stare".
My favourite line from the book was when Laidlaw telephoned a number he found.....
"He tried the number of the payphone again; no answer. It was like trying to telephone god...."
And another, this time about the hospital....
"It was just the city, processing its Friday night pain...."
What a fucking author. For those who care, I'm getting right into Iain Banks and have done the Ian Rankin / Rebus stuff to death. I love it though I fear Rebus will meet with a sticky end soon; Rankin is a typical pragmatic Scot and he knows Rebus cant live forever. I wish he could.