Hadn't realised this was the second book—never read them in order—explains a bit though. Perfectly good Rebus outing, character hasn't really settled in yet and nor has the supporting cast. Plot is good, nice occult red herring, spirals quickly to massive conspiracy and then is seemingly reeled in as Rankin realises he needs some of Edinburgh left for the rest of the series. ( )

Thoroughly enjoyable crime novel based in seedier parts of Edinburgh. Second of the Rebus novels. ( )

A dead junkie is found in an Edinburgh squat, the victim of an overdose. To most cops, that’s barely worth a mention. To John Rebus, it looks like a crime.

I didn’t love the first book in Ian Rankin’s Rebus series, but was encouraged by friends to persist (they say gets better). Well, they were right. This is a better book than the first in the series. It still has its issues (two police officers Rebus works with this time are named — I’m not making this up — Holmes and Watson). But the story is more interesting and I’m tempted to continue with the series based on this book. ( )

I liked this one better than the first, but I'm still kind of getting to know the character. Compared to many other books I've been reading lately, Rebus seems so ordinary. But I think I'm beginning to like him more, and plan to continue the series to see how things develop with this character. ( )

John Rebus, now a detective inspector with the Edinburgh police department, has been tapped by Superintendent Watson to head up a civilian-financed drugs program. He is told to wrap up his current cases and take things easy until meetings can be arranged, but Rebus has just come across the death of a junkie in a squat, an apparent overdose that just doesn’t smell right to him. He resolves to use his free time to dig a little deeper into the death, but soon finds that it is taking him to places, and people, he never would have imagined…. This is the second John Rebus novel, published in 1990, and featuring the gritty underbelly of Edinburgh during those years. We learn a little more about Rebus’s thought processes, and we meet DC Brian Holmes (who I assume will be Rebus’s second in later books); we also learn more about the higher (male) echelons of Edinburgh’s society, which may or may not be a good thing. I like Rebus and I’m glad to have started this long-heard-of but unread series at long last; still, if you’re a queasy reader, I’d probably give these books a miss as there is a lot of violence and, well, sordid behaviour on pretty much everybody’s part. If you’re *not* queasy, though, recommended. ( )