Dead souls (1999)

Out of the Rebus set along with Hide and Seek , and Tooth and Claw (Wolfman). This was one of the weaker books. I like the set as a whole and will reread them. ( )

1 of 21 books for $10. 2/10/12 ( )

This book follows after The Hanging Garden which I read a couple of years ago. John Rebus is a Detective Inspector at the St. Leonard's branch in Edinburgh but he's having doubts about his chosen career. He is on a stakeout at the Zoo because someone has been poisoning the animals. Then he sees a familiar face, Darren Rough, a convicted paedophile that Rebus helped put away. Darren has a camera and is taking pictures of children. Rebus leaves his post and runs toward Darren who flees. When Rebus catches up to Darren at the sea-lion enclosure Darren climbs over the fence and Rebus follows him. Apprehended at last Darren denies doing anything wrong; he's taking a photography class and his assignment was the zoo. He is released but Rebus isn't prepared to let it go.

Back at the station Rebus has to attend Jim Margolies' funeral. Margolies was a colleague who committed suicide by jumping from the cliff at Salisbury Crags. Margolies was involved in Darren Rough's apprehension and Darren claimed Margolies beat him up. Rebus thought Darren was lying at the time but now he wonders if there is some connection between Margolies' death and Darren's release from prison.

Investigation of Margolies' death and Darren's reappearance takes a back seat when a highschool classmate calls to ask Rebus for help in finding their son who disappeared one night while on the town in Edinburgh. Although it was the father who called the mother, Janice, is the one who is more distraught. And Janice was Rebus' highschool sweetheart. Memories from long ago start to flood back and Rebus ponders how life changed for him when he left school.

And just so things are even more complicated Rebus gets involved in surveillance of Cary Oakes. Oakes has been in prison in the States for ten years on murder charges but he worked the system and has been released and deported back to Scotland. He is deemed likely to reoffend and the police want to keep an eye on him or at least make it so difficult he will move elsewhere. Oakes figures out how to evade the surveillance and work his own agenda which includes harassing Rebus and targeting Rebus' family and friends.

There is a common theme in all these investigations that only becomes clear at the end and that is the question of whether people are permanently changed by the things that occur while they are young or whether they can overcome those early influences. Rebus ponders that quite a bit throughout this book. There's no easy answer. Some people can (perhaps even convicted felons) but some don't. ( )

Rebus' weaknesses are also shown as his strengths, making him one of the more interesting of the proliferation of brooding detectives. The plots here, though twisting, are stretched over a high page count and the pacing of the story suffers as a result. The winding up of the three main plots of this psychological thriller is neat, but their downbeat nature leaves the reader somewhat unsatisfied. This is likely a deliberate comment on the fact that sometimes life has no answers, no happy endings, but it gives the reader little reward for the journey he's been on. ( )

Rebus' natural disgust for pedophiles causes him to endanger a man who may be less than dangerous and Rebus is then left to somehow manage a violet mob, set on murder. This is Rankin's tenth book about Inspector rebus, and there are just no signs of slowing down. As usual, Rankin's descriptions of the working-class neighborhoods of Edinburgh, its people, it's language, its desperation, are so spot on that it's easy to get lost in the emotions and the action. With a realistic and somewhat inconclusive ending, it's even easier to lose yourself in the characters since the frustration isn't only theirs, it's yours. ( )