This novel has a recommendation from Val Mcdermid on the cover which is high praise indeed. It is the type of book where you don't want it to end but you really need to know what happened.

DI Duncan McCormack has been seconded to a triple murder investigation going nowhere and he isn't welcome. He is however, dogged, determined and talented and gradually gets drawn in, desperate to solve the unsolvable, needing to rise above the hatred and discontented murmurings to draw the Quaker case to a close.

This is an excellent book, it is tightly written, the characters, good and bad, are sympathetically and realistically drawn, and McCormack himself is a worthy main protagonist. The storyline is original, the vital parts were shocking when discovered but didn't, until the very end, all fall into place. Add to this the fact that it is set in 1969 when Glasgow was a building site and life was different, but not better or simpler and you have a murder mystery of the first order.

I was able to read a copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an excellent mystery they can lose themselves in, especially they remember 1969..

A new detective, McCormack, is brought in when the Glasgow police fail to find a serial killer, known as The Quaker. This story, based on truth, is set on the 1960s and has a strong sense of time and place. McCormack’s frustration with lack of progress and with the antipathy of the team he has joined is evident to the reader. Another murder, an apparent breakthrough, draws him to a different conclusion form that of the team. I really enjoyed his through processes and the way he arrived at his own conclusion. Nothing in this story was simple. People who knew things were in too deep and his own background worked against him. So many dilemmas. Sometimes doing the right thing is not good for you personally. This is an exceptional crime story with so much more than plain right and wrong on the table. Highly recommended.

I’d like to thank HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Quaker’ by Liam McIlvanney in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

The body of Jacquilyn Keevins is discovered, then those of Ann Ogilvie and Marion Mercer after they'd visited the same dance hall. Their backgrounds are so similar that it’s soon realised there’s a serial killer responsible who’s given the name ‘The Quaker’. When the perpetrator can’t be identified, DI Duncan McCormack is brought in and tasked with reviewing the Quaker investigation prior to it being scaled down.

‘The Quaker’ is a crime thriller which I found very interesting to read as the story is based on ‘Bible John’ who caused the biggest investigation in Scottish Police history and was never caught. It’s about more than just the murders of the women as it touches on the Glasgow underworld, housing scams and bent senior police officers who’ll do anything to keep their activities quiet, even blackmail fellow officers. I liked the descriptions and the dialogue of the characters which added to the atmosphere, and the way the three victims had their own chapters early in the story added to the detail.

This briiliantly evocative police procedural is based on the reign of Bible John in 1960s Glasgow. The Quaker is a terrifying serial killer hunted by a detective who’s initially reluctant to get involved in the case.
It’s well-plotted and we’ll-characterise. If it’s a tiny bit slow to get going, the fast-paced second half more than makes up for it.
The author writes beautifully and poetically and you really feel like you’re watching film noir or living in Glasgow in the seedy world of a bygone era.
Highly recommended.

The Quaker is a well written but slightly meandering book. Often I felt that things slowed to a halt, which is unfortunate for a manuscript billed as a thriller. Nothing would happen at all to drive things forward for long periods of time, with characters simply left to spin their wheels and ask the same questions over and over again. What this leads to is a stuffed second half, as the writer has to wrap up all of the different threads as well as find time for the 'twist' that is now so expected in this genre.

With all that in mind, as a detective I enjoyed Duncan McCormack, even though he is just one in a long line of brooding policemen with a secret. I was never much on the edge of my seat when it came to figuring out the whodunnit, but I felt the author shone in writing about the police work itself. The frustration at a case that has dragged on too long, the bickering and the brotherhood. I was far more interested in him than in the case that he was trying to unravel, but even so I'd very much like to know what happens next.

Set in 1969 Glasgow with a serial killer on the loose. DI Duncan McCormack is drafted in to basically pull the plug on the investigation that has gone on for far too long with no sight of solving the case.

From the outset I found myself very quickly caught up in this story. It is grim, gritty and dark. I didn’t think it was overly fast in its pacing and this played very well into the slower paced and painstaking investigation of the time. Instead, it steadily built up a tense air around itself. McCormack definitely feel the tension from the rest of the squad, they had built up so many hours desperately trying to resolve it. I got a real sense of their feelings as this “boy wonder” was brought in. I felt sorry for both sides as I felt McCormacks unease as he knew what his remit was, but also for the tireless work that the squad had put in. It left me with a bit of a conundrum as to who I was going to root for. But as the story unfolded and other things started to come to light, my self imposed conundrum worked itself out.

There were several things I liked about this book. The gritty descriptive view of Glasgow at the time with its condemned blocks and tenements really showed a city struggling. There are a few 1960’s references that had also been included and scattered through the story, this added an extra dimension that worked very well for me.

As I said earlier, the pacing is slower and it really did suit the time of the plot. It is a police procedural that would have had a lot of footwork as well as paperwork, house calls and then the inevitable trawling through all the notes, reports and case files to find the leads. Very different to a modern day fast data and collation system. This slower pace really worked well for me on another level, it meant I was able to get a chance to know the characters and place names easier.

This is a really interesting read with various different elements being included. It has a bleak grittiness to it that really added to the atmospherics and helped it work for the era it was set. It is one I would definitely recommend.

Set in Glasgow in the 1960s/early 1970s, this is a grim and dark crime thriller, with plenty of noir elements and violent aspects. Well written and well formed characters. Additionally, I always find it interesting to read a bit of history about my second favourite city, especially the background to the Barrowlands (saw one of my favourite gigs at that venue).

1969 Glasgow, women are killed under terrible circumstances and the search is on for the killer.

Atmospherically well written, scenes are detailed written (sometimes to much). Fast paced and well written.

The Quaker is one of those novels that, if you're a Scot of a certain age, immdiately transports you back to your childhood. Based on the factual tale of Glasgow serial Killer Bible John, McIlvanney encapsulates the dread and the shock that permeated Scottish society at that time. The regular identikit photo's embalazoned across the frnt page of The Daily Record, the whispered conversations and speculations that occurred at the school gates, in the shops and in pubs. Bible John was Scotland's Bogeyman of the sixties and the very name is still enough to instil a shiver of fear in even the most hardened of crime reader.

McIlvaney also, in what I found to be an enticing parallel mirrored the frustrations of the Bible John investigative team who stumbled against dead end after dead end with the later investiagtion to find the more prolific killer, The Yorkshire Ripper.

It was this very human element that made the novel great for me. McILvanney's acute awareness of human frailty, emotions and resentments brought the characters to life. McCormack's 'double life' as a newcomer to the investigation was intriguing and the voice of the victims was refrreshing. Too often in serial killer novels we forget the voice of the victims. In The Quaker we were not allowed to do this as McIlvanney gives voice to them at regular intervals - spotlighting lives lost and the consequences of this loss on their families and communities.
A great red that was a slow boiler to begin with but by a third of the way through, picked up pace and delivered a crescndo of an ending.

First class well written book with excellent storyline, a real page turner, full of believable characters. Only problem I had was tuning into some scottish phrases. I enjoyed reading this excellent book and struggled to put down until I had read it!

It took me a while to get into this .. add much an investigation into police behavior searching out a serial killer, as finding him... the author resorts felt too variety of fictional devices .. flashback and costs of dead victims speaking to us... a description too of the community and its mores emerges .. and a very fine description of a sec offender who had served his time ..almost becoming a safe haven when divisive forces seeking to protect factions of police are at work. Very dark! Brilliant, difficult writing ..

I found this book a little slow at first, which was probably due to the fact that we had to be given the background to the murders of three young women and also to the main character himself, DI McCormack, a highly thought of detective who has been seconded from the Flying Squad to see if he can make a difference to an investigation that's been going on for months, without any sort of breakthrough. Once the introductions had been made the novel got really interesting and absorbing and was a real page turner.
Set in 1960's Glasgow, I felt Liam McIlvanney had captured the essence of the City at this time and DI McCormack made an interesting, intelligent and at times, unusual, detective. His methodology in catching the criminals involved in the murders left me guessing until the end and then just as I was thinking (hoping!) there would be more novels featuring DI McCormack and Sgt Goldie there was another twist.
I enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

'The Quaker' by Liam McIlvanney is a fantastic read based around the true crimes of the notorious and, apprehended to this day, Glasgow serial killer Bible John. A killer is at large in the dance halls of Glasgow in the late 1960's and three young women are brutally murdered by what witnesses describe as a charming and bible-quoting mystery man. When no further murders occur for a significant period of time DI Duncan McCormack is tasked with closing down the investigation into bringing the unknown killer to justice at a time when fear is at an all time high in the city and confidence in the Police force at an all time low.
DI McCormack begins to feel that the case should remain active when the body of another victim is found in an abandoned tenement reigniting the hunt for the killer.
I absolutely loved the character of DI McCormack who was transferred to Glasgow from the Highlands to take this case. His developing relationships with the officers on the case was fascinating and his anguish at being a gay man at a time when this was deemed illegal was fascinating.
This was the first book I have read from this author and I thoroughly enjoyed it - and as a Glasgow citizen I very much enjoyed the setting of 1960's gritty Glasgow. I am crossing my fingers for a follow up story with the wonderful DI McCormack very soon!
5 stars and huge thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Until today I’d never come across Liam McIlvanney before. It took me a while to get into the storyline, but once I was in, I was hooked.

Set in 1960’s Glasgow, the attention to detail is so good you can picture every single scene and even smell the smoke and the damp.

DI Duncan McCormack is tasked with solving a series of murders that have happened over the past few months, women dying in the most terrible way. I loved the gore, the twist and turns and I also liked the pace at which the story was told. The author was in no rush to get to the end, so it was nice not to feel as though something was missing.

Really enjoyed this book. It gave a different slant to a who-done-it. I enjoyed the Scottish slang and the insight into the underbelly of Glaswegian low life. I liked the timescale which made it unusual, the characters were good. I liked the way that the seemingly unconnected plots came together in a rather unlikely way. It was hard to see that coming.
A very good book.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Set in the 1960s in Glasgow this was a gritty crime novel and packed with language and the culture of that area. Thoroughly good read.

I loved the setting of this book. I could connect well with the storyline and I found the characters very relatable. Highly recommended. A great read. I plan to read this author’s other books now.
Five stars from me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Liam McIlvanney for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Most crime novels start with a murder. This one begins with a failed investigation. Glasgow in 1969 has been terrorised for months by the serial killer known as The Quaker, who has murdered three women after meeting them at the Barrowlands dance hall. The police have a description, a witness, numerous tip-offs from callers. Hundreds of men have been interviewed and eliminated from the enquiry. Women live in fear. Then the killings stop.

DI Duncan McCormack, a high flyer from another team, has been assigned the task of assessing what went wrong in the murder investigation. This immediately sets him apart from his colleagues. When another body is found, he is in an invidious position, mistrusted by the officers he needs to work with to solve the crime.

McCormack is an outsider in a city which is all about tribes. Catholic or Protestant, Glaswegian or Highlander, Gaelic or Scots, Freemason or not. It is also a city in flux – as the inner-city tenements are being demolished and people clamour to move out to the new towns of the west coast.

This is overwhelmingly a world of men and the novel asks interesting questions about the nature of masculinity, but it also has haunting interludes from the women who died, telling their stories in their own words. The Quaker is a novel steeped in the mood of a city and its people, with a very distinctive voice.

Not for me this one. I found that I could just not get into it. Unusual for me to abandon a read but 25% in I have to admit I did on this one.

Set in 1969 this Glasgow based crime thriller does a great job of capturing policing and society at that time. Everyone smoking like chimneys, lots of whiskey in the office and the need to leave a scene and call a job in from the car! It was a great throw back to how challenging working at that time was and how different some attitudes were.

DI McCormack has been dropped into the midst of a serial killer case when after 15 months of no progress has been made capturing the person the paper has named the Quaker.. He doesn't therefore receive a warm welcome. There is a highland, lowland conflict that simmers as well as a great depiction of the tenements of Glasgow and living at that time.

He starts to discover some elements that warrant further investigation, when a bank heist and similar murder to that of the Quaker is undertaken and these cases entwine adding more complexity - but also the risk of making too many assumptions. This gives McIlvanney the latitude to make leads more murky and drop in lots of red herrings,, to allow for great twists and turns. .All the police characters are tough and complicated, not least DI McCormack, who has to assert himself greatly in this situ. He however has the greatest empathy to allow him to read people and tread with care as needed.

Deftly written, this is a very high quality book, which crime readers should definitely seek to read.