Black and Blue

A novel in Rankin’s John Rebus series. I’ve read more or less all of them, many of them twice. This is prime mid series stuff. Early in the series, Rebus is something of a cardboard cutout of a detective, a set of tics rather than a character, working through well-wrought but straightforward crime novel structures. Later, there’s almost too much character, both that of Rebus and that of the detailed network of ancillaries and associates, with the detecting and the plot at times incidental. But here, in the middle, we have the sweet spot: a fully realised protagonist, a substantial supporting cast, and a complicated but cogent plot.

It’s this last thing that makes the book remarkable. There are four cases, four plot lines, here. show more Rebus is involved in and investigating them all. This should be too much, for the detective and for the reader. But Rankin manages to keep it all spinning, the cases making contact with each other, enough given that the attentive reader can keep track without getting lost in a welter of names and leads and plot points. It really is an heck of an achievement to make a structure this complicated legible to the reader.

One particularly nice point about this is the combination of howdunnit and whodunnit, crudely speaking. One of the cases concerns a mostly retired serial killer: we’re given his identity early, and plenty of material from his perspective, and the question is whether and how Rebus will catch up with him. Another concerns a killer in the present, a copycat of the first: we don’t know who, and the question is whether Rebus will find out. One kind of plot is enough for most novels; combining the two is audacious and effective.

The book’s other chief virtue is its sense of place. Almost all the Rebus novels are primarily set in Edinburgh, and they’re justly famous for evoking the city, and for tracing its development over decades. This one also has Edinburgh at its centre, but ranges widely across Scotland: Glasgow, Aberdeen, Fife, off-shore rigs, the Shetlands. It feels like a miniature portrait of the country at a time of flux. There’s also a clever interweaving of fact and fiction. The historical serial killer was real, and other real cases are mentioned: the factual grounding of the fictive makes the sense of place more concrete.

It’s a really great book, this one, and I think enjoyable even without familiarity with the rest of series. Though you could do worse than read the whole lot of them. show less

DI John Rebus is caught up in cases past and present: a serial killer dubbed “Johnny Bible” is murdering young women, in an echo of a serial killer some 20 years ago named by the papers “Bible John” because he quoted from the Bible before killing his prey, also young women. At the same time, a worker on an oil platform in the North Sea has died while on leave, in a case that involves villains from Rebus’s past. He has been sidelined by his superiors yet again, but that will not stop him from pursuing his leads, wherever they may take him…. I started this novel, the eighth in the series, feeling quite fed up with Rebus - he is sinking deeper into alcoholism, has alienated just about everybody in his world and still can’t show more seem to stop himself from chasing whatever leads his sometimes-addled mind throws up. But then there comes a passage like this: “I’m a peeper, he thought, a voyeur. All cops are. But he knew he was more than that: he liked to get involved in the lives around him. He had a need to know which went beyond voyeurism. It was a drug. And the thing was, when he had all this knowledge, he then had to use booze to blank it out. He saw his reflection in the window, two-dimensional, ghostly. I’m almost not here at all, he thought.” That sort of insight into his own behaviour again brings me back into sympathy with the character. While the complex plot is engaging, and the late 1990s politics of oil is well described, it is the character of this very flawed human being that makes this series so compelling; recommended, after all. show less

In this, the Rebus books move into a higher gear in my opinion. Rebus is suffering the consequences of his principled stand in 'Let It Bleed' where he gave up his chance of promotion to a despised self-serving colleague in order to bring corrupt politicians to justice. As punishment he has been sent to a rundown station which is in the throes of closing to move to a new building. His boss there is pretty laid back: just as well, given how Rebus frequently goes off to pursue his own agendas.

Firstly, he is trying to solve the suspicious death of a man who worked on an offshore oil rig, and secondly he has become obsessed with the late 1960s (this book was published in the late 1990s) serial killer named Bible John by the media. This is show more due to the fact that another killer is now operating, as a copycat, and has been dubbed Johnny Bible by the same media. Unlike his bosses, Rebus is convinced (rightly as it turns out) that Bible John is still alive and may be active again, drawn out by his 'offspring'.

In this book Rebus goes through more physical punishment than I can recall in others and also undergoes an emotional breakdown in which he faces how severe his drink problem has become. Also, for the first time as far as I'm aware, sections of the book switch to the point of view of another character. I won't say who it is to avoid spoilers, but it added another layer as the reader is aware of how close Rebus is coming to his quarry - and how he may be putting himself in danger by doing so. Meanwhile, his investigation into the oilman's death also puts him in hazardous situations, not least because of his obviously shown suspicion that certain police are in the pocket of a Glaswegian crime boss.

Rebus roams widely across Scotland in this book, spending a lot of time away from Edinburgh and it's an interesting perspective on other areas and other police forces. All in all, I enjoyed the book so much and thought the complexity paid off this time and didn't bog down, as it did in the preceding book, so I am awarding it 5 stars. show less

Rebus, in trouble again, juggles two new cases whilst dealing with the fact that his mentor was probably corrupt and has committed suicide leaving Rebus to carry the can when a TV programme reopens an old murder case. If this weren't enough for our hero, he also faces up to, and tries to deal with, his drink dependency: something has got to give....
This book, as one comes to expect with Ian Rankin, drives on from page one to the last sentence. Excellent!

Rebus is in temporary exile from St. Leonard's. Instead, he's working out of a notoriously tough station that is nicknamed "Fort Apache". His primary case is the murder of an oilman, which takes him to Aberdeen and the Shetland Islands. Along the way, he keeps tabs on the latest serial killer to roam Scotland's streets, a killer nicknamed "Johnny Bible" by the media because of his modus operandi resembling that of a previous uncaught serial killer nicknamed "Bible John". And in addition to those cases, Rebus has to contend with journalists producing a TV program about a case of potential wrongful arrest in a murder that was solved many years ago.

Rebus has a full plate in this installment. The strongest threads are the more current ones, show more although it was darkly amusing to be following the thread of Bible John, who is keeping tabs on his imitator and nicknames him "the Upstart". The jaunt to Aberdeen and the Shetland Islands provides some excellent scenery and description, and as befits a Rebus novel there are plenty of well-timed punches of humour. And despite being about serial killers, this book doesn't really go into graphic details about the killings, for which I am grateful.

A fine installment in a very fine series. show less

I always enjoy the Rebus novels, and this one was no exception. There is a change of scene in this book because Rebus spends a lot of time in Aberdeen and also in Glasgow and on the Shetland Islands. He is following several cases and one of them is connected to the oil industry, so he even visits an oil rig. All these settings were extremely fascinating to me!
I also thought that this book was very well written and I like the development of Rebus as a character, who reflects a little more on the world and his role in it, and on his work in the police. The cases were exciting, too, although once again it was difficult for me to keep all the men in this novel sorted (all the criminals as well as the policemen - there are just too many show more characters and they are too alike!). Another thing that I did not like was that the middle part felt a bit lengthy and I think it could have been shorter.
Apart from that this was a very good read and I am looking forward to the next Rebus novel, although I think I will turn to other series in the months to come as this was such a lengthy one. show less

This is the sixth book in the John Rebus series, but I felt like I was reading a different book this time. Rankin appears to have turned a corner with his character with this book. I always loved Rebus's character and his human flaws, but in this book we see Rebus totally uncovered. His character is so beautifully displayed in this book. The story itself was complex. There were three apparently different cases that Rebus was investigating and he continues he begins to think that all three are actually connected in some way. He does his investigations almost completely single-handed while his career is in an uproar and while he is under investigation. This is a powerful, complex and totally un-put-downable book. I cannot wait to read show more more Rebus, and with the way this one ends, you just know that John Rebus is not yet done with this particular investigation. What a great book! show less