DETECTIVE IS BACK

THE final edits are complete. Ian Rankin sent the latest manuscript to his publisher this week. He’s spent most of lockdown writing a novel. The new work is a tartan noir collaboration for the ages. He has completed a handwritten manuscript left behind by the late William McIlvanney. Glasgow detective Jack Laidlaw will return in The Dark Remains.

McIlvanney died in 2015, at the age of 79. The begins of the book was found by his widow Siobhan Lynch. Set in October 1972 it was to be a prequel to the Laidlaw trilogy of books that made a definitive impression on Scottish crime writing. Siobhan says “Ian is the writer Willie would have chosen”.

McIlvanney’s books influenced a generation of writers, including Rankin. When the two men first met, McIlvanney was signing books at the Edinburgh Book Festival and Rankin was a fan in the queue, and working on his first Rebus book. He mentioned it to McIlvanney, who inscribed his copy “Good luck for the Edinburgh Laidlaw.”

Rankin took the job of adding to the literary legacy extremely seriously: “I’m a huge fan so I didn’t want to do him a disservice. I wanted the book to be as good as it possibly could be, as good as a Laidlaw novel. I owe him a huge debt, as pretty much every Scottish crime writer does – he’s the godfather, so you want it to be right. You want it to be his world, his story and his voice.”

The Dark Remains will be published by Canongate on September 2.