Rankin, Ian - Books - Magic Bean Dip

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Hide and Seek (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A peek under the kilt of a nasty side of Edinburgh! 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The plot is certainly simple enough on the face of it. Inspector Rebus is assigned to investigate the death of a junkie in his run down tenement squat. The victim's body has been obviously arranged after death in the shape of a crucifix. Candles surround the corpse and the crude pentagram on the wall is so fresh that the paint is still tacky. At first blush, the cause of death appears to be a simple heroin overdose taken in the throes of some sort of odd satanic ritual but the medical examiner's autopsy discloses something entirely different. What now appears to be a murder by lacing a junkie's fix with rat poison takes Inspector Rebus on a tour of the seamy underbelly of a gritty Edinburgh that you certainly won't find in the Michelin five star travel guide.

Junkies, addicts and pushers; gay and straight prostitution; dog fighting; illegal high stakes gaming and brothels; corruption in the police force, on the bench and at the bar; alcoholics and drunkards - they all make their way onto the stage of "Hide and Seek" in a novel that seems determined to portray Scotland as a bleak and unrelentingly dreary den of sin and iniquity. On the face of it, the novel has the flavour of a Michael Connelly police procedural but the comparison stops right there. Rankin has provided little in the way of descriptions of dogged police work and the pursuit of clues and has focused on dialogue and character development almost to the exclusion of everything else.

So how does one rank that? From the point of view of looking for a great police procedural or an engaging mystery, I was singularly unimpressed (two stars at best). But the dialogue and the characterization was first rate. The clever, appealing, understated British style of wit and humour was apparent throughout the entire novel despite its dark setting (unquestionably worth four stars). I suppose we've got to give it an overall rating of three stars and try another entry in the series to see if there are better pickings as far as plot goes.

Paul Weiss

Editorial Review:

At night the summer sky stays light over Edinburgh. But in a shadowy, crumbling housing development, a junkie lies dead of an overdose, his bruised body surrounded by signs of Satanic worship. John Rebus could call the death and accident--but won't. Instead, he tracks down a violent-tempered young woman who knew the dead boy and heard him cry out his terrifyng last words: "Hide! Hide!" Now, with the help of a bright, conflicted young detective, Rebus is following the girl through a brutal world of bad deals, bad dope and bad company. From a beautiful city's darkest side to the private sanctums of the upper crust, Rebus is seeking the perfect hiding place for a killer.

Let It Bleed (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

"He swallowed the anger down and held it in his gut. It was hotter than tea, stronger than whisky." 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The daughter of Edinburgh's Lord Provost is missing; a car chase of two possible kidnappers ends with the supposed perps' suicide; then another suicide occurs, seemingly unconnected. No crime there, and yet there are puzzling unexplained details, which Rebus can't get off his mind. These details, and the discovery of the missing daughter, lead to the unwinding of a Machiavellian scheme in which high-ranking businessmen and politicians are joined, for the supposed good of Scotland. To Rebus, "None of it's worth a single human life."

This is one of Rankin's best. Intricacy does not get in the way of clarity, and the evolving turmoil of Rebus' private life parallels his solving of this larger crime, which eventually leads to the revitalization of one of his most important relationships. His implacable pursuit of justice might seem self-righteous in a less flawed human being, but his battle with the drink ("It's the drink makes me maudlin. It's only the drink."), his tendency to put off his dental work (great dentists' chair episode), his devotion to the Rolling Stones ("What a shambles the band was, yet sometimes they could get it so exactly right that it hurt."), his sensitivity masked by a morbid sense of humor, his tendency to be brutally honest even when this is not desirable, make him a most appealing character.

The weather of Edinburgh has a leading role; after reading several Rankin books, its volatility is as real to you as Rebus himself. Rankin's writing can be direct, even lyrically serious, and then suddenly morph into a gruesome simile, as in this description of a pub: "It had a burgundy linoleum floor and matching colored walls, and was like staring into somebody's throat."

Knowledge of the previous books (this is the 7th in the Rebus series) would not be necessary to enjoy this read, but would add to your appreciation of the characters.

Editorial Review:

In the dark days and biting windstorms of an Edinburgh winter, two drop-out kids dive off the towering Forth Road Bridge. A civic office is spattered by a grisly gun-blast. Two suicides and a murder that just don't add up, unless John Rebus can crunch the numbers. Following a trail that snakes through stark alleys and sad bars, shredded files and lacerated lives, Rebus finds himself up against an airtight, murderous conglomerate on the make in every arena of power. It's leeching the life and soul out of his city and, if it can, him too...

Strip Jack

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Each Book Gets Better 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is the fifth of the series that I've read, and all I can say is that Rankin/Rebus get better as the series grows and so does the character. Rankin does a good job of filling in the personality of Rebus and his supporting cast ('Farmer' Watson, 'Fart' Lauderdale, Brian Holmes...etc) and their working relationships.

In this book we also get a travelogue of the areas north of Edinburgh, but we also get an insight into how Rankin/Rebus feels about politics, the old and new rich, the pressure that the media can put on the police, as well as the presumption of authority.

All in all this is a fine addition to the series.

Most excellent 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

When I chanced upon Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series I took no chances and tucked into it with gusto. The first in the series, Knots and Crosses wasn't all that, in fact it wasn't a very stron mystery. But as I went through the series one by one, the experienced stopped being a slop and became more os a joy. This book has been very entertaining and has rewarded my faith in Rankin.

The storyline and plot are structures in Rankin's novels. Not that they are bad but they are merely one of many reasons to read the book. His writing is gossipy, psychological, sometimes schizophrenic but always rewarding to the reader because it encompasses so much. This story had the best flowing narrative so far. The description of the crime scene investigation part of the story is detailed, horryfying, and fascinating, even though it is just a peripheral part of the story. The discourses on books and the literary world is also fascinating but also peripheral. This series embodies all that is great with a multifaceted explorarion of crime and crime solving with hte grit and realism of a Dashiel Hammett novel.

Editorial Review:

When respected MP Gregor Jack is caught in a police raid on an Edinburgh brothel and his flamboyant wife Elizabeth suddenly disappears, John Rebus smells a set-up. And when Elizabeth's badly beaten body is found, Rebus is suddenly up against a killer who holds all the cards..

Set in Darkness: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Edinburgh police inspector John Rebus's obsession--rock & roll--seems odd for a man whose dark, depressed side is so central to his character, but Ian Rankin always manages to work it gracefully into his noirish novels featuring Rebus. In Set in Darkness, Rebus has a fling with Lorna Grieve, a faded rock muse who's the sister of Roddy Grieve, an up-and-coming politico who turns up dead on the grounds of the boarded-up hospital that's being torn down to make way for the new Scottish Parliament. Grieve's body is the second in the space of days found at Queensberry House; the first was a skeleton bricked up in the fireplace. That decades-old murder seems to be tied to the suicide of a mysterious homeless man whose hefty bank balance is revealed well before his true identity.
'So what's the story with Mr Supertramp anyway?'
'He had all this money he either couldn't spend or didn't want to. He took on a new identity. My theory is that he was hiding.'
'Maybe.' He was rifling through the scraps on the desk. She folded her arms, gave him a hard look which he failed to notice. He opened the bread bag and shook out the contents: disposable razor, a sliver of soap, toothbrush. 'An organized mind,' he said. 'Makes himself a wash bag. Doesn't like being dirty.'
'It's like he was acting the part,' she said.
There are always plenty of subplots in a Rankin mystery. This time he adds a stalker who happens to be one of Rebus's colleagues, a couple of toughs who hang out in singles clubs and finish their evenings with a rape or two, and the ongoing story of Rebus's tortured past--a bitter divorce, a daughter still recovering from a terrible accident, and a drinking problem. Set in Darkness hit the bestseller list in Great Britain and should enjoy the same success in its U.S. edition. Rankin's ability to keep finding new dimensions in Rebus, handle intricate plot details brilliantly, and evoke the gloom and darkness of his setting keep winning him new admirers, with just cause. --Jane Adams

Black and Blue: An Inspector Rebus Mystery (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bible John killed three women, and took three souvenirs. Johnny Bible killed to steal his namesake's glory. Oilman Allan Mitchelson died for his principles. And convict Lenny Spaven died just to prove a point. "Bible John" terrorized Glasgow in the sixties and seventies, murdering three women he met in a local ballroom--and he was never caught. Now a copycat is at work. Nicknamed "Bible Johnny" by the media, he is a new menace with violent ambitions.

The Bible Johnny case would be perfect for Inspector John Rebus, but after a run-in with a crooked senior officer, he's been shunted aside to one of Edinburgh's toughest suburbs, where he investigates the murder of an off-duty oilman. His investigation takes him north to the oil rigs of Aberdeen, where he meets the Bible Johnny media circus head-on. Suddenly caught in the glare of the television cameras and in the middle of more than one investigation, Rebus must proceed wiht caution: One mistake could mean an unpleasant and not particularly speedy death, or, worse still, losing his job.

Written with Ian Rankin's signature wit, style and intricacy, Black and Blue is a novel of uncommon and unforgettable intrigue.

Mortal Causes (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Troubles In Edinburgh 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

After a particularly gruesome murder is discovered during Edinburgh's Fringe Festival, Inspector John Rebus is seconded to the elite Scottish Crime Squad. The reason for this is that aspects of the murder make it appear that a terrorist group was responsible and Rebus's previous SAS experience would come in handy. The investigation takes him from his home base to the villages of rural Scotland and across to Belfast and back again.
Throughout the book, the Catholic versus Protestant problem is continually raised, comparing Scotland to the Troubles in Northern Ireland and suggesting that the same uprising could be imminent. While the characters were discussing terrorist organisations there were enough three letter acronyms being bandied about to make me think I might have stumbled into a Microsoft manual.
Once again we are treated to the bare bones of Edinburgh's back streets and dingy estates that have fallen into ruin. Rebus is as inscrutable and removed from his fellow officers as ever, yet, at least for me, he is becoming more and more likable. I feel this series is getting more and more enjoyable with every book I read, this one is no exception.

Editorial Review:

In Edinburgh you're never far from a peaceful spot, or from a hellish one either. Now, in the heart of summer, in the midst of a nationalist festival, Inspector John Rebus is on the murder case of a young man left hanging in a spot where his screams would never be heard. To find the victim's identity--and his killer--Rebus searches from Edinburgh's most violent neighborhood to Belfast, Northern Ireland--amongst petty thugs, gunrunners, and heavyweight criminals. But before Rebus can get to the truth, he's bloodied by the dream of society's madmen--and staring into the glint of a killer's eyes.

The Hanging Garden (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ian Rankin's ninth book about Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh police is so full of story that it seems about to explode into shapeless anarchy at any moment. What keeps it from doing so is Rankin's strong heart and even stronger writing skills. When a Bosnian prostitute refuses to testify against a crime boss who has threatened her family, he says this about the cops trying to pressure her: "Silence in the room. They were all looking at her. Four men, men with jobs, family ties, men with lives of their own. In the scheme of things, they seldom realised how well off they were. And now they realised something else: how helpless they were."
Rebus is trying to help the young woman--renamed Candice by the young, slick, brutal thug Tommy Telford, who is into everything from drugs and prostitution to aiding a Japanese business syndicate in acquiring a local golf course--because she's about the same age and physical aspect as his own daughter, Sammy. He's also conducting the investigation of a suspected Nazi war criminal, an old man who spends his time tending graves in Warriston cemetery. "A cemetery should have been about death, but Warriston didn't feel that way to Rebus. Much of it resembled a rambling park into which some statuary had been dropped," Rankin writes with the icy clarity of cold water over stone.
Add to this Rebus's involvement with an imprisoned crime boss in a plan to bring Telford down; his continuing battle with drink; the strong possibility that people high up in the British government don't want the old Nazi exposed; danger to Sammy and her journalist lover because of her father's work; and a somewhat strained metaphor of Edinburgh as a new Babylon and you have an admittedly large pot of stew. But Rankin's high art keeps it all bubbling and rich with flavor. Others in the Rebus series include his 1997 Edgar Award-nominated Black and Blue, as well as Hide and Seek, Knots and Crosses, Let It Bleed, Mortal Causes, Strip Jack, and Tooth and Nail. --Dick Adler

Dead Souls: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

When an author as successful as Rankin has been with his tough and idiomatic Scottish thrillers, a problem sets in after several books: how to keep the formula fresh.
Rankin has delivered a powerful series of books featuring his beleaguered Detective Inspector John Rebus, and while never less than gripping, a certain tiredness seemed to be setting in. Thankfully, Dead Souls is a resounding return to form, with a plot as enjoyably labyrinthine as any Rankin enthusiast could wish for, and pithy dialogue that fairly leaps off the page. Stalking the streets of Edinburgh on the trail of a poisoner, Rebus hits upon a freed pedophile and his subsequent outing of the man leaves him with very mixed feelings. But another problem develops for Rebus: a convicted murderer has him in his sights for some lethal games. And the tabloid press lionizing of Rebus won't help him in this situation.
As always, Rankin is perfectly ready to tackle contentious issues--precisely the thing that gives his books their powerful sense of veracity. And Rebus, no longer in danger of having a soap opera-like accumulation of personal problems, seems as fresh and well-observed a character as in those first exhilarating books. Rankin has caught his form again, with even more assurance. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk

The Black Book

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Black Book 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This novel is full of many different storylines all bumping togetheer as John Rebus tries to do what he does best and that's solve crimes. This includes the introduction of Morris Gerald Cafferty and DC Siobhan Clarke, who would go on to become a main part of this series in later novels.

Rebus is suffering from many things, including: trouble with his girlfriend Patience, investigating a man being stabbed and then walking into a butchers shop owned by his cousin, and his good friend DC Brian Holmes being attacked outside a restaurant. This book really holds the reader as it experiences the cold murders and attacks along with the dark "black humour" that Detective Inspector Rebus uses to get through life. Easilly readable, highly recommended.

"When a close colleague is brutally attacked, Rebus is drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body and a long-forgoten night of terror and murder. Pursued by dangerous ghosts and tormented by the coded secrets of the colleague's notebook, Rebus must piece together a jigsaw that no one else seems to want completed."

Editorial Review:

Five years ago, a mysterious fire burned Edinburgh's seed Central Hotel to ashes. Long-forgotten and unsolved, the case reappears when a charred body--with a bullet in its head--is found amongst the ruins. Inspector John Rebus knows that his superiors would rather he let sleeping dogs lie. He knows that part of the answer lies somewhere in a cryptic black notebook. Ane he knows that to solve teh case, he'll have to peel back layer upon layer of unspeakable secrets to arrive at the truth. . .

Resurrection Men: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Ian Rankin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

You'd Better Have Your Wits About You 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

"Resurrection Men" is the fifteenth in the Detective Inspector John Rebus police procedural series by the outstanding, increasingly appreciated Scots author Ian Rankin, still a young man, lucky for us. In contrast to most Scots mystery writers at work now, Rankin sets his best-of-tartan-noir universe in the east coast Edinburgh, rather than the west coast Glasgow; it's a more beautiful, smaller city, the capital of the country, where you might expect the crime to be white collar, rather than blue. But Rebus always seems to find enough to keep busy.

As the book opens, Rebus has been sent undercover to Tulliallan Police College, where recruits are trained, and troublesome older officers sent to resurrect their careers. Sir David Strathern, chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, Rebus's permanent posting, suspects several of the officers currently at the college are dirty, and he wants Rebus to find the proof. To Rebus, of course, this a difficult assignment. Aside from the obvious, St. Leonard's, his station house, is in the midst of an engrossing enquiry: Edward Marber, local art dealer, has been done in, and many of the usual suspects are known to Rebus. The policeman finds the college assignment doubly difficult because, for the unsolved case the officers there are always given to work, they're given a case they've never been given before. It's the Rico Lomax case, it was Rebus's, and he knows much too much about it. He can't help wondering...

Rankin is a highly talented writer with a great grip of the English language, Scottish subdivision; a grasp of police work, the ability to keep these three strong subplots going at one time, that sharp Scots humor, and the toughest tartan noir outlook around. Unfortunately, "Resurrection Men" has a few too many characters, and cites unfamiliar-to-Americans police nomenclature a little too often. It took me two readings to get it, and that's with helpful tables upfront.

The youthful writer is also a sharp observer of his city's weather, ambiance, and social systems. He writes that Edinburgh cops call their morgue the "dead center," and are proud to say they work at the dead center of Edinburgh. "The building," he writes, "is tucked away on the Cowgate, one of the city's more secretive streets. Few pedestrians ever found themselves there, and the traffic was intent on being elsewhere."

The author writes further on pedestrians and traffic: a "pavement drunk" causes them to step out onto the road. "The drunk was making for the opposite pavement, stumbling blindly across the road. They both knew he'd make it. He was carrying a bottle: no way a motorist would want that flying through his windshield."

"You worked hard all week, then prayed for oblivion at the weekend," Rebus muses of his city's inhabitants. But you'd better have your wits fully about you when you tackle this book.

Editorial Review:

Like Edinburgh inspector John Rebus, the resurrection men of the title are treading on thin ice--they've all been sent to a short course at the Scottish Police College because they've failed in some way, generally "an issue with authority." Rebus has been known to have issues of that nature before, which only boosts his credibility with the other cops in attendance, suspected by their bosses of being on the wrong side of the fence, on the take, or even guilty of murder on several previous occasions. The dour Inspector's agenda aims to bring the higher-ups proof of the so-called Wild Bunch's nefarious activities; in the process, his own conduct in the old case he and his college classmates must rework and revisit comes under scrutiny. A solid police procedural whose protagonist, the hero of 14 other titles in this internationally acclaimed series, continues to grow on readers who are just discovering him. --Jane Adams

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Rankin, Ian Books

Ian Rankin

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