😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
When the ‘double jeopardy’ law is relaxed, the Solicitor General asks Malcolm Fox to reinvestigate a case from the ’80s, one involving a young DC Rebus. It had been thought at the time that the officers of Summerhall had tampered with the evidence to allow a murderer to go free – a murderer who also happened to be an informer to the head of the Summerhall team. Meantime, in the present day, Siobhan Clarke and Rebus are back working as a team. With the new rules on retirement age, Rebus has been taken back into CID but has had to take a downgrading to Detective Sergeant, meaning Siobhan now outranks him. They are called out to what looks at first like a straightforward road accident, but a couple of things about the scene make them suspect there may be more to it than that.
When I try to pin down why Rankin is head and shoulders above most crime writers, it really comes down to two things. Firstly, the quality of his writing never wavers – he knows how to tell a good story, his pacing is superb and his plots are always both complex and believable. His characterisation is second to none – Rebus and Clarke have been real people to us for years now, people we feel we know, and Fox is rapidly joining them as just as important a character. They don’t perform superhuman feats, nor does every book end with them being saved from hideous danger. There is a realism that makes us believe this is how the police really work – we’ve even seen Rebus over the years learning to toe the line as the Police Force has tightened up on mavericks and corruption in real life.
Secondly, Rankin has his finger on the political pulse of Scotland – his books always relate to the main concerns of the day, without ever obsessing about them and without ever taking a stance. In this book, there are three parts of the plot that could only be written about at this point in time – the change to ‘double jeopardy’, the reorganisation of the various regional police forces in Scotland into one national force and, most of all, the campaign for the Scottish Independence referendum. Rankin doesn’t beat us about the head with these; he just works them through the plot, as they are worked through Scottish society. So as well as telling a first-rate crime story, Rankin also reflects our society back to us – again, total realism.

I admit it – Rankin always gets five stars from me. When I pick up one of his books, it’s in the comfortable knowledge that it will be great. So when I say that this one is the best of his that I’ve read in years, how can I convince you? I could tell you that we’re beginning to get a nostalgic, elegiac strain running through Rebus’ story; that we’re seeing Siobhan blossom into the fine senior officer we, like Rebus, have always known she would be; that Fox, now moving out of Complaints into CID, is learning to appreciate the basic integrity that underpins Rebus’ sometimes casual disregard for the rules. I could say that reading this book will let you understand how the City of Edinburgh is changing now it’s a political capital; how the upcoming referendum is filtering through every aspect of Scottish life; how policing methods are changing in this new millennium. Or I could just say this is a well-written enjoyable police procedural with a complex plot that will keep you guessing throughout. But, in short, what I will say is – read the book. Read the book!
Haha! If the professor was Rebus, he’d be quite angry, for sure!
It must be glorious knowing that you’ll really enjoy any book by this author. I think the professor should try and read more crime novels/mysteries. Would this be a good starter book?
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Rebus is used to being investigated – he’d be upset if people didn’t suspect him of something, I think…
It is! There’s not many authors who are completely dependable. Interesting question – I’m not sure how this would work for someone who didn’t know the characters. The plot would work as a standalone, though. Maybe you should read it and tell me… 😉
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😆 He sounds like a professorish type of beast.
My TBR keeps growing and growing. How vexing. It isn’t fair you do this. In no time, I’ll have close to twenty, I reckon.
Just wrote the title down next to KSM.
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Too, too grumpy to be properly professorish – and a bit rumpled…
Rankin’s written over 30 books, so you could add them all and then your list would be nearly as long as mine…
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What’s he look like?
Yes, I suppose it would take the professor just as long to get through 50 books as it would FEF to get through 100.
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I don’t know what he used to look like, but ever since Ken Stott played him on TV, that’s what he looks like to me now! Google him…still think he’s professorish?
Oh, we’ll get your TBR up to 100 one day… 😉
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OKAY, definitely not professorish. Goodness me. Definitely, definitely not. Definitely.
No please thank you very much none thanks!
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😆 Are you sure? Personally, I think Ken Stott is cute and cuddly…
Calm down! OK, we’ll stop when it reaches 90 then…
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Absolutely. Maybe a good dwarf (in the Hobbit movie) but not a good professor. Definitely, definitely not. You do? You do not! Do you?
Can’t we stop at 5? That’s a lot.
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Very mean! He’s lovely! And I do…
5 is for wusses…
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I’m looking forward to it. I’ll save your review until then, but glad to read is Rebus at his very best.
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I’m sure you’ll enjoy it – Fox is really settling in now as one of the major characters, and that’s added something extra. 🙂
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I couldn’t possibly agree more about the quality of Rankin’s writing. But I think it really is Rebus’ humanity (and that of the other characters) that stands out for me. As you say, they’re real people facing real things. So much better than contrived ‘superheros,’ I think. And of course, there’s the Edinburgh setting…. :-).
So glad this one is up to the quality of the rest of the series.
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Yes, I think he’s bringing the other characters more to the fore now, since Rebus can’t go on for ever unfortunately. I like the fact that Rankin let Rebus exist in ‘real time’ but it does mean he’ll eventually have to go…
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Ya messin wid me, ya messin wid me, you and Margot both – I agree with all you say about him – and as importantly, the humanity Margot flags up. Being deep within a writer I have heard admired and adulated in certain circles quite a lot (Bret Easton Ellis – which no doubt will end up as both a RIP RRIP RIPIO on the Amazons – and not gain shelf space on the blog except as a long rant on Soapbox – one of the major causes of RRIPIO is the utter lack of humanity. Sneering in superior judgement at the unattractive is remarkably easy to do. Being honest, subtle and authentic enough to inhabit them, so that the reader sees them as real, not as easy cardboard cut-out cipher is a far more challenging exploration.
Oh dear, I see I may have to raid the piggy bank………….Sigh.
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I’ve only read one BEE – American Psycho – and I thought it was wonderful. But I’ve always had the impression that his other stuff didn’t reach the same level. I do think you need to get the rant out of your system, thoguh, before you explode… 😉
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A good rant needs careful crafting! And probably, like revenge, is a dish best served cold
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For some reason that saying always makes me think of porridge…which is best served neither warm nor cold, really.
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Comparest thou my rantings to porridge?
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Would I do such a thing? Knowing well that, if I did, you’d be likely to splat a large ladlefull over my head?
(No, no, it was the saying I was comparing – not the ranting…)
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Great review. I have kind of lost my grip on Rebus over recent years – maybe this is the book to jump in again with (with which to jump in again?).
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With which again in to jump, perhaps? If you haven’t read the Malcolm Fox books, you might want to read them first – The Complaints and…er…the name of the second one escapes me for the moment. Then there was last year’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave which brought the two of them together for the first time. So that’s 4 for the TBR….no, don’t thank me! 😉
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Okay, I won’t thank you!
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😀
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Great post! I loved this book too – definitely worth five stars. It had me guessing all the way through.
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Thanks! There’s nobody quite like Rebus… 🙂
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So glad to hear that Rebus and Rankin are both in top form! One of my favourite crime writers, too, (and detectives), so I look forward to reading that.
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I like the new guy, Fox, too…but oh, I was so happy when Rankin resurrected Rebus… 🙂
Hope you enjoy it – I’m sure you will!
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I can’t wait to read this one!
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I think you’ll really enjoy it! Can’t wait to read your review… 🙂
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[…] at Euro Crime (Mark Bailey), Mysteries in Paradise (Kerrie), Crime Review (Sharon Wheeler), FictionFan’s Book Reviews, Shots Crime & Thriller Ezine (Gwen Moffat), January Magazine (Jim Napier), Reviewing the […]
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[…] with the first story being the most recently written – a prequel more or less to his latest novel Saints of the Shadow Bible, when Rebus was a new detective learning the ropes – right through to his retirement (which we […]
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