This john Rebus series is getting better and better. This is the sixth book in this long-running series and I enjoyed it. I love the "other look" that we get of Edinburgh and some of its underground life. Rebus is called in to work with a special police branch when a brutally tortured body is found in an old underground shop. This leads him into extremists and a ton of danger. He even makes a trip to Belfast to try to figure this one out. I love the character of John Rebus. He seems so real and authentic it almost feels like reading true crime. These books have a lot of blood and realistic and chilling villains. This is totally different than most of the British police procedurals I have read, and still do love in their way. But I am fascinated with Rebus. Rankin's writing is brutal, and he holds back nothing. Love it! ( )

This is one of the better books in the Rebus series. I'm still exasperated with John and his relationships with women. I can't understand exactly what he wants from them.

He is, however, a pretty great detective, totally unlikeable in a likeable way, if that makes sense. He's expert on pissing off the wrong people and getting his ass handed over to him because of it. I'm surprised he isn't a sack of scars with brain damage at this point, but it's fiction, and it's good fiction at that.

Four stars. ( )

I initially found it difficult to settle into - I'm still not sure that I know the ins and outs of the plot and I still have little understanding of 'the troubles', but towards the end of the book I really got engrossed in the story. The pace of the book was steady until about two-thirds of the way in, then it started to pick up and there was more clarity about the way the investigation was heading. All the loose ends were tied up and I ended up with a favourable impression of the book. ( )

Ian Rankin does it again! Rebus gets himself into a whole heap of intriguing trouble: terrorism, the Secret Service, organised crime and the Edinburgh festival on top of all that! As ever, laconic DI John Rebus steals the show
Mortal Causes begins with a description of a particularly brutal murder (the shots through both ankles, both elbows, and both knees were not what killed him), and one of the later killings is also extremely unpleasant (which should make you think about firehoses in a completely new way). Yes, Rebus is dealing with some really nasty bad guys here. The circumstances of the first death suggest there are big things at stake, and when DCI Kilpatrick of the SCS (Scottish Crime Squad) and DI Abernathy from Special Branch all the way in London get involved it's clear the authorities are very concerned.
Rebus has his own way of going about conducting an investigation, but he also has to go where he is pushed and nudged. The crime suggests an IRA connexion, and points towards some Scottish nationalist groups. Rebus even gets to travel to Belfast, and sees first hand -- as he had decades earlier, in his SAS days -- what sectarian violence can lead to.
A second story-line -- soon enough quite clearly intertwined with the first -- has Rebus take an interest in a youth club at Pilmuir's Garibaldi Estate -- called the Gar-B -- where things look to have gotten completely out of hand (not least because of sectarian tension). But then Gar-B -- frequently visited in the book -- generally resembles Belfast.
Finally, Rebus’old nemesis 'Big Ger' Cafferty comes into the picture as well: the first victim turns out to have been his son (which practically nobody knew) and he's out for revenge -- i.e. after the same guys as Rebus is. Cafferty is in jail when this all begins, but eventually decides a more hands-on approach is required -- meddling Rebus decidedly does not appreciate.
Rebus doesn't have an easy time of it. When one of the men on the case, Inspector Ken Smylie, takes it personally (as well he should) that further complicates matters. And Rebus' flirtation with a lawyer (despite his living with Patience) are soon the cause for additional aggravation. Inevitably he admits: "Always it came to this, he tried to do things by the book and ended up cooking them instead."
The crimes are fairly messy and convoluted, the resolution clever enough if remorselessly dark. The conclusion, as so often in Rankin's novels, ends with life and death confrontations (Rebus managing to find himself in mortal peril not once, but twice) and catastrophe just averted -- all a bit over the top. Still, it's a decent ride for most of the way, the contrast of bleak housing estate world and Edinburgh Festival unreality (that's right, all this happens during Festival season) nicely done, and Rebus' juggling acts -- women, criminals, colleagues, alcohol - as entertaining as usual. The sectarian differences and the Scottish nationalism are a bit too simply treated, but they suffice for the purposes of the novel.
Rankin is ambitious here, but isn't willing to go into the necessary depth: he doesn't flesh out the issues as he begins to do in the later volumes in this series. The police procedural aspect still dominates, the sensational crimes are more important than all the motives behind them.
Coming back to this one after having read so many of the later novels shows a different Rebus – and one I found less engaging than his later self A decent entertainment, but not one of the most successful Rebus novels. ( )

This is the first Rankin novel I've read, after seeing him recommended here and being amused by his walk-on part in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street. I might revise these comments when I've read some more...

With modern detective stories I always start off wondering whether what I have in front of me is really a novel, or just the book version of the TV script. This one took quite some time to get me hooked. The detctive is miserable, drinks too much, keeps getting beaten up, and has a complicated personal life, none of which leads me to expect anything very original; there are no fully-formed characters other than the detective; the settings range from standard-issue touristy to standard-issue urban squalor.
Despite all this, it's very well written, the plot did make me want to keep reading to find out what happens in the end, and there is an underlying sense of irony to it all.