'Laidlaw is back, the Glasgow policeman with bowels who knows his jungle like the back of his own horny hand. A stabbed thug, a deathbed gasp from an old wino, lungs scorified by the weedkiller his bottle was laced with, a frightened Italian drab, a tilted lady looking for off-limits thrills, the escaped prey - a mosaic takes brutal shape... the interpretation of this argot-rich underworld, bullies and hard men, victims and tourists, and of the very nature of violence, is a powerful achievement' The Observer