Tartan triumph
Two legendary Scottish authors join forces on a posthumous prequel.
Back in the mid-1980s, long before he became the modern king of British crime writing, Ian Rankin was a young PhD student meeting his literary idol at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. William McIlvanney was a prize-winning literary novelist who became the “Godfather of Tartan Noir” by using a gritty crime story and a philosophical detective, Jack Laidlaw, to explore the changing face of 1970s Glasgow.
A generation of Scottish storytellers owe a debt to McIlvanney, who Rankin says “made it okay” to write crime fiction. The debt is cleared with THE DARK REMAINS (Canongate, $32.99), an arresting collaboration in which Rankin completes the Laidlaw prequel McIlvanney began working on before his death in 2015. In 1972, Laidlaw is a detective constable with a reputation for knowing the pulse of Glasgow’s backstreets but not working well with fellow cops.
When gangland lawyer Bobby Carter is murdered, Laidlaw must find the truth before his city explodes. In crackling, thoughtful prose, readers are transported decades back to witness the earlier days of a ground-breaking detective. Rankin performs an expert act of literary ventriloquism in a brilliant read.
Like Rankin, American author Megan Abbott is a modern master who has pushed the genre forward with her incisive storytelling and exploration of many real-life issues via crime storylines.
After exploring the dark side of ambition and female friendships and rivalry in gymnastics, science and cheerleading in
recent books, Abbott peels back the beautiful surface of ballet in THE TURNOUT (Virago, $37.99). Dara and Marie Durant’s lives revolve around the suburban ballet school their late mother established and the sisters now run together with Dara’s husband, Charlie, who was once their mother’s star student. Preparations for their annual performance of The Nutcracker are thrown into chaos by a suspicious accident, which results in weeks of repairs and renovations. Then there’s the square-peg presence of Derek, a beefy contractor who threatens to tear the tight-knit trio apart.
Abbott delivers a psychological thriller that reveals to readers the chronic suffering that goes into ballet – the pain behind the performance. Unsettling and exquisite.
Melbourne-based novelist JP Pomare (Ngā Puhi) doesn’t yet have the lengthy bibliography of Rankin and Abbott, but he has already shown he can deliver thriller-writing excellence. One of the most talented and exciting voices to emerge in Australasian fiction in recent years, Pomare continues his ascent with THE LAST GUESTS (Hachette, $34.99).
Lina and Cain are an Auckland couple struggling with past traumas and present secrets. Cain is feeling lost after leaving the army and being unable to get traction for his fitness business. Lina is a paramedic taking dangerous steps to fulfil her desires. Renting out Lina’s childhood home on Lake Tarawera to short-stay tourists may help their financial woes. It’s easy money, so what could go wrong? As it turns out, a lot. Strange things, then deadly things. Pomare conjures a tense tale that entwines “domestic noir” with issues of technology, voyeurism and coping mechanisms. This is a rip-snorting read from a writer who’s like a magician with his literary sleight of hand. l