Book review: The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney

The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney

The Quaker – Liam McIlvanney (Harper Collins, $22.99)

Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books

It's 1960s Glasgow and the reek of stale sweat, cigarettes and disillusion wafts around the offices of the polis – the police officers charged with hunting down a killer dubbed The Quaker.

Detective Inspector Duncan McCormack joins the team to find out why they have so far failed in their task. Resentments run high, and The Quaker remains at large.

So far three women are dead: violated, strangled and dumped. There is one eyewitness who has faced countless line-ups to no avail, one artist's sketch of a generic blond man, one dance hall where the women were last seen.

McCormack reviews the evidence and teams up with a reluctant partner, Goldie, to dig down into possible connections between the murders. McCormack also harbours a secret, one which could cost him everything were it to be revealed.

Glasgow is a pulsing force in this novel. Tenement blocks are abandoned, about to be demolished. Children play in the dirt and the puddles. The story is dominated by its men; it's the 1960s after all and testosterone drizzles from the page with each bawdy comment, each flying fist, each crack of a beer tin.

These policemen are however deeply committed to the task of finding this killer and increasingly frustrated with their lack of progress. The women are dead, beaten, dumped, a single mother or an adventurous wife paying the ultimate price for a night out with a charming man.

McCormack is a single-minded, driven and fascinating character. He is a man of principle, dedicated to his task. When it looks like his work should be done, he risks his career and the exposure of his secret in his dogged determination to solve the case and bring justice to the dead.

I'm late to The Quaker, first published in 2018, and after its whirlwind conclusion I'm keen to see what's become of DI McCormack in the recently published sequel, The Heretic. I look forward to another tightly plotted police procedural under the cloudy skies of Glasgow.