![]() Fox, the protagonist of Rankin's last two novels, is Rebus's polar opposite - younger, healthier, teetotal, indifferent to music, and a by-the-book team-playing investigator. This is Rebus redux, and the book is all the more exciting for it.īut Rankin's most audacious move is having Rebus and Fox occupy the same novel. When Rebus finds the regular avenues of inquiry closed to him he ventures alone into the underworld and calls in favours from past enemies. Clarke, the new detective inspector, is no longer his underling but his superior. Now Rebus is working on the margins of his old life, banished from "the body of the kirk", even more of an outsider than he was before. On closer inspection we find that Rankin has in fact taken risks and tinkered with his formula in order to explore new ground. Any initial fears that an ageing Rebus plodding though a file of cold cases might result in a lukewarm thriller featuring a hero a shadow of his former self are quickly dispelled. Standing in Another Man's Grave is no exception. With every successive book there is a palpable crank-up of tension, renewed bouts of conflict (within criminal and police factions) and an even more ingenious plot replete with fresh swathes of red herrings and devious twists. ![]() That's not to say that Rankin is resting on his laurels, or that each novel is a carbon copy of its predecessor. Only a couple of pages in and the effect is like slipping into an old pair of comfortable shoes. Thus Rebus still smokes and drinks too much, both at home and in his beloved Oxford Bar, and has not been parted from his hoary rock LPs or beleaguered Saab. He is aware that every genre series hero needs his trademark tics and habits, from Holmes with his pipe, violin and dressing gown to Bond with his Walther PPK, vodka martinis and Aston Martin. More importantly, he knows not to tamper with his winning formula, preferring to keep his surprises for the plot. As ever, he is keen to showcase not-so-bonny Scotland, focusing on the flip side of genteel Edinburgh and the picture-postcard Highlands and instead taking us deep into the city's grimy underbelly and the region's desolate wastes. Rankin peppers his novel with the usual array of topical references to ensure we are very much in the now, this time touching on the recession, recent British press manipulation and the looming referendum for Scottish independence. Familiar friends and enemies crop up and stick around, including Rebus's now-adult daughter, Samantha. But when Rebus's old Moriarty-esque nemesis, Ger Cafferty, shows an interest in the case, and after Rebus is spotted out and about with another hoodlum and later suspect, Frank Hammell, Malcolm Fox launches his own enquiry to ascertain whether retired cop Rebus is now a stooge in the pocket of the capital's most notorious mobsters.Īt first glance, Standing in Another Man's Grave reads as if Rebus has never been away. Rebus and Clarke join forces and their sleuthing has them flitting between Edinburgh and the Highlands. A pattern emerges, a link made between disappearances past and present, an identical modus operandi on the part of the perpetrator. He loses himself in a series of seemingly connected cases concerning disappeared, perhaps abducted women, dating back to the millennium.Įnter Siobhan Clarke, Rebus's former sidekick and now a rising star in CID, with a current case about a missing woman. "Man's got to have something to fill his retirement," is one of many sardonic rejoinders, proving that Rebus, though pensioned off, is still as sharp as before. ![]() But this department's days are numbered and a restless Rebus considers reapplying for his old job. ![]() The result is one of Rankin's most satisfying novels to date.Īt the beginning we find Rebus working in a civilian capacity in the cold case unit, trying to crack unsolved crimes - "the long dead, murder victims forgotten by the world at large". Now, in Standing in Another Man's Grave, Rankin hauls Rebus out of retirement - no dramatic Reichenbach Falls resurrection necessary - and, in a masterstroke, also brings in Fox to investigate his apparent wrongdoing. Since then Rankin has enjoyed success with a new character, Malcolm Fox of "the Complaints", or Edinburgh's internal affairs unit. His creator, however, never made any secret of the fact that Rebus might return - Exit Music being more a farewell to Rebus's police career than to Rebus himself. ![]() Ian Rankin's inveterate Edinburgh police officer first appeared on the scene 25 years ago and was the driving force of 18 fiendishly puzzling, not to mention consistently thrilling, whodunits, before he bowed out in 2007's Exit Music. Fans of crime fiction have good reason to rejoice: after a five-year absence, John Rebus is back. ![]()
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