I have never read anything by Mcllvanney before but I will definitely read more.
I was totally absorbed in this tale, loosely based on a real life event that happened in Glasgow in the 1960’s, DI Duncan McCormack is set the task of investigating a series of murder a that happened several months previously. A fast paced , gritty and terrifying read. Highly recommend.

I would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for an advance copy of The Quaker, a standalone police procedural set in Glasgow, 1969.

DI Duncan McCormack is sent to assess the work of The Quaker murder enquiry seven months after the last murder. The team is working hard but has still to find a suspect but when a fourth body is found McCormack joins the hunt and soon finds some leads.

I enjoyed The Quaker which is a police procedural with its roots in true crime. No Glaswegian of a certain age can fail to recognise The Quaker as a thinly disguised Bible John, the real life serial killer who murdered three women and disappeared. Almost fifty years later his identity and fate are still a mystery and the subject of much debate, making him fertile ground for fiction writers ready to spin their own ideas and theories with Mr McIlvanney being the latest.

The novel is slow to start in an investigative sense with the fourth body not turning up till about 40% in. This means that most of the first half is scene setting with very little happening. It's not as bad as that sounds because it gives Mr McIlvanney the opportunity to fully develop his characters and environment, in fact I don't think I've ever read a better or more detailed evocation of Glasgow in the sixties and it makes for a fascinating read as, although I was a child at the time, it brings back many memories. All that is missing is the black humour. Once the final body is found the action and tension ramp up as the author abandons his faction and moves to straight fiction. The plotting is imaginative and believable and widens to something much more than the hunt for a serial killer. This is the first time I've read Mr McIlvanney's work and I'm impressed.

Duncan McCormack is an interesting character. As a Highlander he's an outsider in the Glasgow City Police, but not as much as you might imagine as there was a long tradition of Highlanders joining up so it's more his nature, he's not very collegiate and the novel hints that he's gay which was illegal in Scotland at the time. When he joins The Quaker team as an assessor he's the outsider on the team as well and relations are necessarily strained. I thoroughly enjoyed the skirmishing which is well done and seems authentic and the way he gradually develops a good working relationship and trust with his main antagonist, DS Goldie.

The Quaker, while slow to start, is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

A new Author to me who writes well and appears to have researched the backdrop and true story involved in the plot well. The Quaker is definitely a saisfying read if you are not faint hearted or mind the colourful language. It's what it says on the cover.

Liam McIlvanney is not an author I had any knowledge of before discovering "The Quaker". I usually am aware of crime/thriller/mystery writers and fantasy authors even if I haven't read anything by them. Apparently he is an award-winning author so that certainly got my attention.

The setting also had an impact on my decision to read the book. It is based in Glasgow and I have found in the past that some of the very best crime novels are either based in Scotland, written by a Scot or both. I live just over the border into England and I know the location well which was appealing to me too.

Set in Glasgow in 1969, Liam McIlvanney’s "The Quaker" is loosely based on the murders of the real – and never caught – serial killer “Bible John”, who is believed to have raped and strangled three women after meeting them in the city’s Barrowland Ballroom. DI Duncan McCormack is drafted in from the flying squad to review Glasgow CID’s failing investigation. A parallel narrative concerning safe-cracker Alex Paton, who travels home from London to take part in an auction house heist, is skilfully dovetailed as the plot thickens and McCormack gets drawn deeper into both cases.

This is the first book in the DI Duncan McCormack series and was an excellent opener in my opinion. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the #2 and plan to go back and read other McIlvanney novels. A solidly crafted and satifying detective novel with a claustrophobic atmosphere that lingers throughout. Recommended for fans of gripping, gritty thrillers.

Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Set in 1960s Glasgow The Quaker is based loosely on true events. It's a gritty read, not for the faint hearted!

McIlvanney draws on the true crime history of Bible John in his creation of The Quaker, a bible quoting serial killer roaming the streets of Glasgow in 1968-69. He has killed three women feeding the climate of fear and horror infesting the city. The police have no clue as to his identity, and the media have turned against the police, painting them as a laughing stock of uselessness. DI Duncan McCormack is riding high in the Flying Squad, having just nailed an important member of John McGlashon's criminal gang. He is ordered to go in to Glasgow's Marine Station, to write a report on DCI George Cochrane's investigation, close it down as it seems The Quaker has stopped.

Glasgow is engaged in slum clearances and big redevelopment projects amidst the harshest of winters. McCormack faces a battle amidst the rampant hostility aimed at him from the Glasgow police team, getting no credit for his past successes. The murdered women are given a voice in the narrative. There are a number of factors they have in common, a secret boyfriend, have children, danced at the Barrowland Ballroom and menstruating at the time of their death. Alex Paton is a peterman involved in big heists, he comes to his childhood home of Glasgow for a planned auction heist. McCormack finds himself leading the investigation when, out of the blue, another woman, Helen Thaney is murdered with a similar MO. However, there are key differences, enough to raise doubts whether it is The Quaker, but an arrest has the senior police wanting to close down McCormick looking into Thaney's murder any further. McCormick is not a man to give up, as he gets closer to the truth, even when he is threatened with revelations about his personal life being made public.

This is a wonderful piece of historical crime fiction set in a crime ridden Glasgow of hard men and gangsters, and the prejudices of that period. McCormack makes an appealing central figure, caught between the hatred of the Glasgow police, although eventually begins to form a close partnership with DS Goldie, and the demands of his superiors. He is not a man to take the path of least resistance, even if it costs him dear, justice is far more important to him. I hope we hear more from him, and that this is the first in a series. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this publication in return for a honest and unbaised review. As someone who loves this genre of books and a resident of Glasgow, this publication was of immediate interest.
I have to say that the first few chapters didn't exactly grab me right away, but once it got going this was an excellent read with a more than a few large twists, some of which I saw coming, others I didn't.
Don't want to give away the plot, but think it is likely that there will be a follow up featuring some of the characters.
A definite FIVE STARs and thank you very much.

I enjoyed this book, it was a refreshing change to be transported back in time to before mobile phones, internet and modern policing techniques. I enjoyed the story, the plot wasn't rushed and I felt like I really understood the characters. The main character had a well padded background and I liked that he had a few skeletons in his own closet.

This is superb. The story has everything you could want in a crime novel. The background of Glasgow,the gangster city,is perfect for the serial murders. The characters are well drawn and the lead detective is a character that draws your support and affection. You want him to win. He does, of course,but rather differently from what the reader might guess. This is high quality writing and will be a huge success.

Fifty years ago, an unknown killer terrorized Glasgow. His clean-cut visage, an artist’s impression from witness statements, stared from newspaper front pages. ‘Bible John’ butchered three women who’d been enjoying nights out at a local dance hall, and left the police chasing smoke. He was never caught.

Literary professor and award-winning novelist Liam McIlvanney explores the effect of those killings on his home city in The Quaker, a novel with strong echoes of Glasgow’s real past. He shows a deft touch for character and setting throughout this absorbing, atmospheric read. Duncan McCormack is the man tasked with sorting out the long-stalled investigation into the murders of three women. He’s parachuted into the ‘Quaker’ investigation from the elite Flying Squad, with instructions to work out what’s gone wrong and why the Quaker hasn’t been caught. It’s a test for the fast-rising copper from the Highlands, and a poisoned chalice. His new colleagues are tired, frustrated, and dislike him on sight, the bosses are demanding certain outcomes for political purposes, and he’s harbouring dangerous secrets of his own.

McIlvanney has crafted a superb tale with a vivid sense of time and place. 1960s Glasgow was a different era, but he also brings some modern sensibilities by giving the female victims a voice, rather than being inert props for the male cops and criminals. The Quaker is an evocative slice of the past that’s populated with an array of intriguing characters, tough issues, and some nuanced interplay between them.

Di McCormack of the Glasgow Polis as they say back in 1969 in parts of Scotland I'm told and this book spells it. Well McCormack is in there flying squad and about to be transferred to make a report on a unit that has spent a lot of time and money trying to find the Quacker as he is called, a killer and sexual deviant who takes rapes then defiled the dead bodies. McCornack's task to write a report and find a way to close down this enquiry that seems to be going nowhere and it's almost a year since the last murder. As you can probably guess he isn't the most popular guy in the room or the station for that matter and this point is made clear incase he was in any doubt. However there is still a vicious criminal out there that needs to be caught and no one on the floor wants to give up even though no or little head way is being made. But to find out anymore I will let you read it yourself and see how it all plans out and I'm guessing you won't get it till you read it as the trust and turns will have you guessing and then rethinking all the way through.
I enjoyed the era it is set in late 1960's I may be too young to remember the time but it's a great read and more of a raw investigation were back street deals are made and going to the library to search the history rather than the pc, sledgehammer to open doors. It's more about people than labs and science not that that's wrong this is just more fun, less high brow. The criminals have a honour that still let's em kill whoever they want just not the mindless killing more reason than because they don't like the way you look. In my opinion this is a great book and got me hooked from the start and I didn't want to put it down and now it's finished I wish there was more, not be I was short as it wasn't just because I loved it and will read it again it is on my list.
I had this book from Netgalley and this is my honest review.

This isn't going to be on the Glasgow Tourist boards list of recommended reads anytime soon! Although it is apparently inspired by a real life event which took place in the 1960s. The scene setting and set up of the crime in neatly done - the scenes before a girl was found were especially creepy and the sense of dread and gloom reigned supreme throughout.

The Quaker gives connotations of a life gone by and the historical aspect was nicely done. The name brings fear to everyone in a city already on the edge and a murder mystery set at such a time was a new insight . the police do end up chasing a ghost and it was interesting to be in the corridors, on the streets etc when the grappled with the desperation of the chase.

A bit dark in places but then it is a crime novel. Glasgow in the 60s was not the place you'd want to be given this read but it was a good reading experience!