Dead souls: an Inspector Rebus novel

/*Starred Review*/ "Something's gone bad inside you." Edinburgh copper John Rebus might once have laughed at such a melodramatic statement, especially about himself, but this time he's forced to take stock. Ever since the death of his mentor, Rebus has been drifting from cynicism to nihilism, and now he may have hit bottom: his patented outbursts seem more gratuitous than heroic; his single-mindedness on the job has become more obsessive and mean-spirited. And the unsavory smorgasbord of cases on his plate only intensifies his personal crisis: the seeming suicide of a friend and fellow copper; the disappearance of his high-school sweetheart's son; and the appearance in Edinburgh of a serial killer deported from the U.S. As the missing-person investigation brings to the fore unresolved issues from Rebus' past ("dialogues of the left-unsaid"), the serial killer begins to play mind games of his own with the coppers who follow him, especially Rebus. Traditionally, the reader sees the hero of a crime novel as the force for order in a chaotic world; even in the contemporary British procedural, where the copper-heroes are often overwhelmed by the chaos around them, we identify with their browbeaten refusal to abandon ship. Remarkably, Rankin ups the ante here by finding in his hero's soul traces of the same gangrene that eats away at society. We care about him not as a hero but as a victim, infected by the diseases he seeks to treat. Not everyone will want to follow the crime novel where Rankin dares to take it, but for those who do, the journey will be unforgettable. ((Reviewed September 15, 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

Scottish literature has recently enjoyed a renaissance with the emergence of such exciting writers as Irvine Welsh and James Kelman. They are joined on the mystery front by Rankin, an Edgar-nominated author of a series of complex police procedurals featuring Edinburgh detective John Rebus. Here, Rebus, still struggling to make sense of the suicide of a close friend and fellow officer, is keeping tabs on a recently released pedophile living in a housing project. At the same time, he has to track a convicted serial killer deported from the States and find the missing son of his high school sweetheart. As usual, Rankin combines several complicated plot lines, memorable characters, a touch of mordant Gaelic wit, and a gritty Edinburgh setting to create a dense read that starts slowly but rewards patient readers with a compelling and haunting d?nouement. Strongly recommended for all collections.AWilda Williams, "Library Journal" Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Edinburgh's Det. Insp. John Rebus is beset by troubles from the past and the present in the loose and rangy 11th installment (after The Hanging Garden) of Rankin's popular (and, in England, bestselling) series. At the outset, Rebus, who's been drinking too much, endures frequent visitations from his recently deceased comrade-in-arms, Jack Morton, and suffers helplessly as his daughter struggles to recover from a hit-and-run accident that's left her paralyzed. Rebus's troubles are soon reflected in the old city around him: violent grassroots vigilantism breaks out in a housing project when Rebus informs the press that a convicted child molester is living in one of the flats; Cary Oakes, a serial killer just released from a U.S. prison, returns to Edinburgh; a rising star in the police department dies in an apparent suicide. In addition, as Rebus testifies in a high-profile case of sexual abuse of children, two old school friends ask him to search for their missing son. And as the cop pursues each of these cases, Oakes draws him into a sadistic game of cat-and-mouse. While the many plot lines pull the narrative in disparate directions, the whole is held together by Rankin's drum-tight characterization of Rebus as a man deeply shaken in his convictions, but unwilling to fall apart. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.