This is the second book in the Rebus series and it picks up John Rebus’ life a few months after the end of ‘Knots and Crosses’.
Ian Rankin has again done a good job in depicting the Detective
Inspector in Edinburgh as well as his descriptions of ‘how the other half
lives’ from dilapidated squats to restaurants where paying £200 a head for
lunch is not uncommon. The way the story runs in this novel is in ‘days’ rather
than shorter chapters. This has its good points and bad points. In the good
section you have the way the investigation goes in a good chronological order
and the fact the novel is not padded out with ‘the next morning’ sections in
the text. On the negative is that it does make the ‘chapters’ rather long.
There are however breaks in these ‘days’ where it moves from the main
investigation to a more minor one where it can be put down.
Rankin’s style of writing is in my opinion quite high up in
this genre of writing. The specific genre is described as Tartan Noir rather
than pure crime fiction. This is a writing style which has its roots in Scottish
Literature such as the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. The original Tartan
Noir novels dwelt on the nature of
good and evil and the issues of redemption, salvation and damnation amongst
others. More recently some influence from US writing of the more ‘hard boiled’ style
of writing have also been included.
He has good character descriptions of the other characters.
His description of Rebus himself is perhaps slightly lacking but it was well
covered in his previous novel. His ability to bring these two different worlds
within the same city together is also excellent. He is able to develop sympathy
from the reader for one particular dweller of the squats whilst building up a
dislike for some of the others.
Brief Plot:
In a rather undesirable part of Edinburgh a man is pushing a woman out of the
front door in a panic. Claiming ‘they have murdered me’. How can someone still
living say this? Especially in the past tense? The dead man’s camera is also
missing but surely that isn’t important, is it?
DI Rebus is called in to investigate. How was this man
killed, why was he killed, and just why has a pentagram been drawn on the wall
of the room the body was found in?
Rebus has to investigate and go into the darker side of Edinburgh life, from
unhelpful family members and friends of the dead man to covens and witchcraft,
someone must know something, but if they do will they tell……
What I thought of it:
In all it is a well written novel and the main plot and sub
plots do tie in together well. As do some of the sub plots with Rebus’ personal
life. In his writing Rankin has drawn up a much darker side to the city of Edinburgh , a side the
tourists do not normally see. Parts of the city where someone will do almost
anything to get money for their next ‘fix’. A part which is largely ignored by
the population of the city. Not because they don’t know about it, but because
they don’t want to know about it.
The main plot in the story is strong and the small number of
sub plots is also highly believable and they tie into the main story very well.
The plot is not as disturbing as ‘knots and crosses’ and there are many
sections where the book is un-put downable. The only gripe I have is the
jumping around between these during the ‘chapters’. Whilst this does give a
better impression of what all the characters are doing at the same time it can
get a bit confusing at times.
My other gripe is quite common with books I read and that is
the fact it is over run with lesser characters some of which add nothing to the
actual storyline. I found at least two of the uniformed officers to be almost
instantly forgettable only for them to reappear about 50-60 pages later. This
lead to the inevitable turning back through the book to find out ‘who was that
again?’ Perhaps a note pad and pen to take character note would help me next
time.
The real reason why this novel, I think, works so well is
that Rankin’s story is believable to a great extent. Whether a real DI would
make some of the mistakes Rebus makes in this novel are another matter. The
plot is worked through in a manner which does make it sound more like police
work rather than the instant ‘It was him/her’ we get in some crime fiction.
This is where the splitting the novel into ‘days’ rather than much smaller
chapters appears to have worked well.
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