All the G8 details, while giving a clear--and unappealing!--picture of what it's like being around one of those massively money wasting conferences, bogged down the plot line for me, so I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as the previous couple in the series. ( )

It’s July 2005, and the G8 is meeting in Edinburgh, putting the local police force in a quandary: should they continue patrolling the city or should they be deployed to help protect the world’s leaders? For DI John Rebus, the answer is simple: let’s do both. But when he and DS Siobhan Clarke find themselves investigating what appears to be shaping into a serial killer’s activities, they are stopped at every turn - by political forces, by local villain Big Ger Cafferty, by their own superiors on the police force. In the meantime, Siobhan’s hippy parents are in town for the expected protests against the G8, and this might be her chance to prove to them that her choice to become a police officer was the right thing to do…. As always with the Rebus books, there is a lot going on in “The Naming of the Dead,” especially with respect to the relationships between the main characters (including the villains). I had forgotten a lot about the events of 2005, which of course includes the London bombings, so it was interesting to follow the politics of the time as depicted in this book; funny how globalization has become a right-wing bugbear from having been decried from the left some 18 years ago. That aside, the intricate interplay between the characters, the plot-lines and the investigations all result in a complex, satisfying story; recommended! ( )

Inspector Rebus is back, meaner than ever. In a complex web of intermingling plots, Rankin explores revenge, murder and corruption: how do good cops turn bad? how does love turn to hate? Where lies the golden line between truth and lies, and is it so difficult to cross? Without ever becoming philosophical or moralistic, Rankin brilliantly shows the reader that nothing is clear cut and even people with the best intentions can find themselves in dark spaces. ( )

In The Naming of the Dead, it’s 2005 and the G8 Summit is set to take place in Scotland: in the town of Auchterarder, forty miles north of Edinburgh. Security is tight, the local constabulary is on high alert and all hands are on deck to deal with protests and demonstrations. All except for Detective Inspector John Rebus, whose superiors would like nothing better than to keep him as far as possible from a significant and sensitive event attended by leaders and dignitaries from around the world. But things don’t always go as planned, and when, following a pre-summit dinner attended by some of those dignitaries, MP Ben Webster falls to his death from the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, Rebus is the only DI available to take on the case. Immediately Rebus locks horns with Commander Steelforth, the prickly and arrogant official in charge of security for the summit, who insists without evidence the death was a suicide. Rebus remains unconvinced and presses forward with the investigation. Meanwhile, three murders have taken place: young men killed in violent fashion, all of whom have rape convictions on their record. Rebus’s trusted colleague, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, is leading the investigation into the murders, and she and Rebus collaborate, on this and other matters. Inevitably, the two investigations are hampered by the summit, which consumes an enormous amount of police resources, and Rebus and Clarke are forced to take short cuts wherever they can find them. A further challenge facing the two is that Siobhan’s attention is divided: her parents have arrived from London to take part in the demonstrations, and during one event, when her parents find themselves in the midst of an unruly crowd, her mother is struck in the head, apparently by one of the riot police. With her mother in hospital, Siobhan, sidetracked from the murder investigation, makes it her mission to identify the officer who committed the assault. The story Rankin has concocted is labyrinthine and witty, but also weighty with sombre notes. All of this is taking place as Rebus is mourning the sudden death of his brother Michael from a stroke, and his thoughts often turn to his family and the mess he’s made of things. He is also getting older and can’t help but reflect on what life will be like post-retirement. As always with Rebus, the search for truth takes inconvenient turns, and at several points Siobhan and Rebus find themselves consulting with, of all people, Rebus’s arch-nemesis, the ruthless gangster Big Ger Cafferty, whose shady underworld connections enable him to ferret out information that Clarke and Rebus can’t easily, or legally, access. The novel is long and detailed, twisty and intricate, dripping with atmosphere and crammed with memorable characters, diverting encounters and crisp dialogue—and Rankin provides plenty of opportunity for Rebus to get up the nose of his superior officers. John Rebus may be aging, and not particularly gracefully, but in The Naming of the Dead he is still the same rude, irreverent thorn-in-the-side he’s always been and proves once again more than willing to cross lines to get the results he wants. ( )

The book had me on my toes as I eagerly read on to find out the identity of the serial killer, and whether there is a link between the three murders and the death of Webster. Rankin leads you on to think that Tench could be involved, and he threw a lot of red herrings along the way. Compared to other books in this series, Rankin also dwelt more into Rebus' and Shiobhan's families and characters. Also of note is Rebus' audacity, he dares to defy even the Chief Constable. And I must say that his lines can be quite humorous. The ending was disappointing though. I shan't reveal the killer here, but I find that Rankin did not make a convincing case. And she very conveniently disappeared, leaving it effectively an unresolved case. ( )