The Heretic

Starred review from February 14, 2022
McIlvanney’s outstanding sequel to 2019’s The Quaker makes the mean streets of Glasgow palpable in the service of a memorable whodunit plot. In 1975, Det. Insp. Duncan McCormack returns home to Glasgow, after a six-year stint as a member of London’s Flying Squad, to head a unit of the new Serious Crime Squad. His first task is to locate Walter Maitland, an elusive criminal who’s been prowling the labyrinth of the city’s underworld. Then he lands another hot potato—a man found on a rubbish heap with his head bashed in turns out to be Gavin Elliot, a former Tory MP and slumlord, who was once accused of rape. A bombing that claims six lives, including Maitland’s brother, and possibly linked to Elliot’s killing, ups the ante. McCormack must keep his homosexuality a secret as he contends with the brass who haven’t forgotten that during the Quaker investigation he brought down the head of CID for the City of Glasgow Police and did so “with what many people... considered an unseemly glee.” Tartan noir fans will hope to see a lot more of this complex, flawed lead. Agent: Jim Gill, United Agents (U.K.).

January 1, 2022
A maverick Scottish detective returns home to nail a crime boss and shake up the police department. Seven years after making a name for himself back in 1969 by catching the serial killer known as The Quaker, DI Duncan McCormack is back in Glasgow after his stint with the London police, much to the chagrin of his boss, DCI Alan Haddow. After a warehouse fire spreads to a nearby tenement, killing four people, including a mother and her wee daughter, the righteous McCormack decides that local crime boss Walter Maitland ordered the blaze. His initial investigation takes him to the once-posh Duke of Perth restaurant and a spa fronting for a whorehouse for white-collar gentlemen. In the absence of any concrete evidence implicating Maitland, McCormack has carte blanche to scour the colorful underworld of the notoriously gritty city. McIlvanney, who reveals the identity of the arsonist early on, is less interested in creating mystery than in exploring the pulsing, crime-ridden city through dozens of incisive character portraits and backstories. McCormack's sidekick, DC Liz Nicol, a feminist struggling in a sexist environment, is an ideal prot�g�e for the equally resolute McCormack. Another grisly crime lands unwelcomed in the duo's caseload when one-time MP Gavin Elliot, director of Wyndford Property Limited, is tortured, beaten to death, and left in the city dump. As if ferreting out miscreants were not challenge enough, McCormack must also deal with Shand, an ambitious colleague anxious to bring him down. Crackling, full-bodied Scottish noir effectively evoking a colorful era.

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