Rebus

Ian Rankin, "Rebus's Scotland"

2012-01-07 · in Books, Rebus · 16 words

Coffee-table book giving Rankin's background and his context for the Rebus stories, with photos.

ISBN 0752852450.

Ian Rankin, "A Good Hanging" (reread)

2011-09-27 · in Books, Rebus · 13 words

Bought a second copy by accident. Reread because it's pretty good.

ISBN 0752809431.

Ian Rankin, "The Hanging Garden"

2011-01-01 · in Books, Rebus · 42 words

This is a threads-coming-together book — nothing new in Rebus's world as such, but a competent job and an interesting read.

The scene with Rebus and the Weasel at the end must have been written with a TV adaptation in mind...

ISBN 0752817116.

Ian Rankin, "Mortal Causes"

2010-08-29 · in Books, Rebus · 20 words

Mid-series Rebus, with a bigger-than-usual dollop of social commentary. Fairly unremarkable, although Rebus gets a few Superman moments.

ISBN 1857978633.

Ian Rankin, "Knots and Crosses"

2010-08-25 · in Books, Rebus · 117 words

The first Rebus book. (I'm continuing my programme of reading these in completely the wrong order by /not/ saving this one for last.)

Competently written, if very short. Stylish, in a slightly ostentatious way that the later books aren't. Interesting to meet the characters for the first time knowing all there is to know about them already.

Major quibble: this breaks the normal mystery-story convention by making it completely impossible to figure out who the murderer is before Rebus does. (There's one clue that you could figure out, but I didn't, and it wasn't actually enlightening in the greater scheme of things anyway.)

Worth reading, anyway, and the series does only get better after this.

ISBN 0752809423.

Ian Rankin, "Beggars Banquet"

2009-08-04 · in Books, Rebus · 34 words

A collection of short stories; some Rebus, others in a similar vein. There are a few good ones here ("A Deep Hole", "The Hanged Man"), but I generally prefer his long-form work...

ISBN 0752848739.

Ian Rankin, "Strip Jack"

2009-08-01 · in Books, Rebus · 14 words

Perhaps the most Morse-ish of the Rebus books I've read so far.

ISBN 0752883569.

Ian Rankin, "The Naming of the Dead"

2009-02-22 · in Books, Rebus · 34 words

Set around the G8 summit in 2005.

Definitely one of the best ones. Feels a bit unfocussed at the beginning, but comes together (very) nicely at the end. (A Rankin-Gibson crossover, anyone?)

ISBN 0752881639.

Ian Rankin, "Tooth and Nail"

2009-02-17 · in Books, Rebus · 41 words

Rebus in London! (If he's really that hard for a Southerner to understand, then the radio and TV casting is severely in error. But presumably he's meant to sound much like Ian Rankin himself does...)

Some nice misdirection here.

ISBN 0752809407.

Ian Rankin, "Fleshmarket Close"

2009-01-30 · in Books, Rebus · 18 words

... and that exhausts the pile of Rebus books. The issue in this one is immigration policy.

ISBN 0752851128.