Ian Rankin

Rebus, our favourite curmudgeonly detective in Edinburgh has been retired from the force for a number of years, and he is living with a COPD diagnosis, and actually has changed his lifestyle in order to deal with the disease. Gone are the "coffin nails' replaced by gum. Gone are the pints of beer and the endless shots of malt whiskey, replaced by 1 pint a day and endless cups of tea and Irn-Bru. You'd think this would make Rebus a lot less interesting, but not on your life. He's still got it show more as he tells Siobhan over and over, and he loves nothing better than digging through case notes and reports on old cases, both solved and unsolved. When Siobhan comes to him to ask him to check into one of her old cases that had been solved with the perpetrator in prison, Rebus jumps at the chance. So off he goes tilting at his own windmills. At the same time, Siobhan is on a case of a skeleton found in the trunk of a car found in a ditch outside of town. And in true Ian Rankin style, these two very different cases converge and meet somewhere around halfway through the book. No one can carry off numerous separate story threads like Ian Rankin. This book is a page-turner from beginning to end, and here's me hoping that Rankin keeps his wonderful character alive for many more books. It will be a much less exciting world in fiction if we lose Rebus. In this book Rankin shows how close to the wind Rebus flew when working on cases when he was still on the force, and we have Malcolm Fox there to show that those old shenanigans that Rebus carried out continuously are still there to be discovered. As in other books, Malcom becomes the "good angel" on Rebus's shoulder to help keep Rebus in line. This is a truly wonderful series, and the whole entire series of 22 books and counting should be at the top of everyone's reading list if they enjoy crime fiction. show less

Oh it’s so good to slip into a new Rebus novel again! It’s been far too long since the last book. This one is different though because we see our beloved grumpy detective banged up in prison for a setup crime from the last book. Rebus feels very vulnerable in this setting, and he certainly realizes that he is a very small fish in a shark pool. But that doesn’t stop him from investigating a murder that occurs in his cell block. DI Clark has her own investigation into the disappearance show more of a teneage girl that seems to be tied to the murder in the prison, and to another murder of an odious filmmaker of what could be called kiddie porn. We are also graced with the presence of the repellent DI Malcom Fox to add just a little to the full house of creepy bad guys. So, in other words, not much is happening here (she says with tongue in cheek). I agree with so many esteemed reviewers that Rebus is one of fiction’s greatest creations. Even in prison, the old boy can’t be beat or fooled for that matter. If you’re a long-term Rebus fan, I’m sure this book is on your TBR, but if you’re new and wondering what I’m talking about, pick up a copy of Knots and Crosses and begin your journey with the inimitable Rebus. show less

A well-liked MP is caught in a raid at an exclusive brothel, and the press is more than happy to play the scandal up as much as possible; when his party-loving wife appears to go missing, the scandal becomes juicer yet. DI John Rebus is initially interested in the story because DS Holmes lives in the MP’s riding and because the MP has a similar background to his own, but then the scandal turns to murder and Rebus finds the lives of the MP and his circle of friends are rather more unsavoury show more than he wanted to know….I’m slowly going through the Rebus novels, of which this is the fourth (published in 1992); it goes without saying by this late date that Rebus is one of the most complex and interesting characters in all of detective fiction. The city of Edinburgh is in itself a character, with both highly polished and terribly sordid sides, and Rebus’s ability to navigate between the two is something to behold. Highly recommended! show less

Rebus is at the Edinburgh Zoo, monitoring the animal enclosures for a poisoner, when he spots someone in the crowd: a freed paedophile. By giving chase, Rebus sets in train a series of events that ends messily for everyone involved. And as if that weren't enough, a killer who has been deported from the United States upon his release from prison is intent on hunting Rebus down for some sick games of his own.

Overall this is a very good Rebus book, with Rebus's perspective on other characters show more changing over the course of the book, as well as reflections on paths not taken, the difficulty of going home again, and thoughts of Scotland's future as the Scottish Parliament is being built. There's even a cameo appearance by a writer who sounds an awful lot like Ian Rankin! That plus descriptions of Rebus's teenage years in Fife, where Rankin himself was born, lend a slightly more personal (if not exactly autobiographical) touch to the story.

I recommend this to fans of Rebus, with the suggestion that you follow up with its sequel, Set in Darkness, fairly quickly. show less