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The Dark Remains

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The Dark Remains

By: William McIlvanney, Ian Rankin
Narrated by: Brian Cox, William McIlvanney
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About this listen

In this scorching crime hook-up, number one best seller Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DI Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.

Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong type of people. Now he’s dead, and it was no accident. Besides a distraught family and a heap of powerful friends, Carter’s left behind his share of enemies. So, who dealt the fatal blow?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks the violence up to the usual rivalries, but is it that simple? As two Glasgow gangs go to war, Laidlaw needs to find out who got Carter before the whole city explodes.

William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Now, Ian Rankin is back to finish what McIlvanney started. In The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth.

©2021 William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin (P)2021 Canongate Books Ltd Crime Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Private Investigators
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I found this a struggle and eventually gave up and not reading the final 2 chapters as I stopped caring about the narrative. Brian Cox is a fine actor but could not vary his delivery and as a listener I was frequently confused about which character was speaking dialogue. Exasperating.

Confusing

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I loved the original Laidlaw books when they first came out and when I heard Ian Rankin (one of my favourite authors) had completed this one, and it was to be read by Brian Cox (one of my favourite actors), I thought this has to be a winner.
Nothing wrong with the writing but the narration and general audio production are disappointing. Brian Cox has a fantastic Scottish voice, and he can do all sorts of other accents, but in this he has basically only one Scottish voice so when he is reading a conversation between two characters, it often sounds like he is talking to himself. Also the production is a bit rushed with hardly any gap between chapter. A bit more care and greater attention to character voices would have given this audiobook the end result the story deserved. I'm sure BC would have been able to handle the job with a little considered direction.

Too much of a good thing

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Couldn’t get a grip on it
The reader drove me nuts
The story was all over the place

Too hard not enjoyable

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