Rating: 
Summary: Slainte!
Review: DI Rebus assists the police in a small town near Edinburgh with a school shooting. Rebus, being ex-Army, may be able to bring unique insights into the motivation of the shooter, an ex-Army man as well. In a sub-plot, Rebus has burned his hands and they are heavily bandaged. Suspicion hangs around him because on the same night he burned his hands a man stalking Siobhan was burned to death in a house fire. Siobhan must chauffeur Rebus around while he investigates the school shooting. There are some great scenes when Siobhan helps Rebus do ordinary things, but won't help him light cigarettes. I think this is the best from Rankin since Set In Darkness. This is the master of Tartan Noir at his best.
Rating: 
Summary: A complex plot
Review: Edinburgh is on my list of favorite cities. I considered it a safe city for walking around, so it was interesting to read a novel about the underside of the city. This is generally a good novel, but the criminals seem a little inept and do improbable things to call attention to themselves. There may be a few too many subplots which can create excess baggage to the main plot, especially when the plot is compressed into a time schedule of about a week.The main plot concerns the shooting of three students at a private school and the suicide of the alleged gunman. Two of the students are killed by shots through the head. The third is wounded and is the only witness. It appears a cut and dried case of a murder-suicide by an intruder into the school, but their are questions about motive. The intruder is a former member of the Special Air Service (SAS), and the appearance of two military investigators compounds matters. What are they looking for? There are questions of Post Combat Stress Syndrome. There is a subplot about charges against DI John Rebus, accused of arson and murder. There is a subplot concerning drug smuggling (by some individuals who do dumb things, but criminals often get caught tripping over their own feet). There is a subplot about teenage gangs. Matters are brought up about John's relatives, and incidents in his past life including his military service. Various strange characters wander through the plot. As the plot progresses, events tie together various people and events. The Epilogue raises the question of whether well placed people can be convicted of crimes, especially when they have the funds to hire top-of-the-line legal assistance.
Rating:
Summary: A complex plot
Review: Edinburgh is on my list of favorite cities. I considered it a safe city for walking around, so it was interesting to read a novel about the underside of the city. This is generally a good novel, but the criminals seem a little inept and do improbable things to call attention to themselves. There may be a few too many subplots which can create excess baggage to the main plot, especially when the plot is compressed into a time schedule of about a week. The main plot concerns the shooting of three students at a private school and the suicide of the alleged gunman. Two of the students are killed by shots through the head. The third is wounded and is the only witness. It appears a cut and dried case of a murder-suicide by an intruder into the school, but their are questions about motive. The intruder is a former member of the Special Air Service (SAS), and the appearance of two military investigators compounds matters. What are they looking for? There are questions of Post Combat Stress Syndrome. There is a subplot about charges against DI John Rebus, accused of arson and murder. There is a subplot concerning drug smuggling (by some individuals who do dumb things, but criminals often get caught tripping over their own feet). There is a subplot about teenage gangs. Matters are brought up about John's relatives, and incidents in his past life including his military service. Various strange characters wander through the plot. As the plot progresses, events tie together various people and events. The Epilogue raises the question of whether well placed people can be convicted of crimes, especially when they have the funds to hire top-of-the-line legal assistance.
Rating:
Summary: solid Rebus police procedural
Review: His superior DCI Gill Templer thinks he did the crime. His partner Siobhan Clarke is certain he did the crime. The evidence is circumstantial, but DI John Rebus had a motive as the victim Martin Fairstone was stalking and harassing Siobhan. John's severely burned fingers and hands that he claims came from scalding water, could have easily come from the fire that engulfed Martin. When DI Bobby Hogan needs help on the investigation of the murders of two teens in South Queensferry, John persuades Siobhan to chauffer him there. One victim is the son of a judge while the other is a second cousin to Rebus. The third dead person at the scene is the killer, former SAS soldier Lee Herdman. The only survivor is the wounded son of a Scottish MP who takes advantage of the tragedy by spouting anti-gun propaganda to the media. As the SAS interferes with the case, other seemingly peripheral matters to include a new stalker of Siobhan complicates this strange homicide investigation in which motive fails to surface. Though interesting, this Rebus is not quite on the par of excellence of most of Ian Rankin's police procedural tales. The handicapped John on drugs to ease his pained hands shows little impact except some physical problems like driving as he gets around too easily with this level of burn. Still Rebus remains one of the best and his efforts to prove he did not commit arson and murder while trying to look beyond the obvious in what appears to be an open and shut case, makes for two fine inquiries that will satisfy the author's vast readership. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: As Good As It Gets
Review: Ian Rankin has written his 19th book. This is the 16th novel in the Inspector Rebus series. Inspector John Rebus is a man with a rakish sense of humour and a dry wit. He is a loner. He has a past, and we are given a glimpse every now and then. He is as finely wrought a character as I have seen. He is a man after my own heart. I have always wanted to be a spy in the CIA and this comes close enough. Rebus is in the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. It appears that Rebus has scalded both hands and infection has set in. Did this happen as he says by putting his hands in scalding water for too long a period of time? It would appear that this might be too coincidental since Fairstone, a man who was stalking Detective Sargeant Siobhan Clarke, has just died in a fire. Siobhan is also wondering if Rebus came to her defense and killed the man. Detective Clarke is here in hospital to relate to Rebus the horrible events that have just happened in South Queensbury. An ex-SAS or army man had walked into a private school, turned his gun on three young men and then killed himself. What was this slaughter all about? What was the motive, was it revenge? Rebus is called upon by Detective Inspector Bobby Hogan to come to Queensbury to assist him in the investigation. Rebus is an ex-army man himself and may have insight into the why's and where's.
Siobhan must accompany him since he cannot drive. His hands are bandaged and he is taking medication with his whiskey to stave off the pain. There is no mystery about whodunit. A creep, a loner, an army veteran who got his kicks out of terrifying the local teenagers in his speedboat. A man gone mad? Were the killings random? Why did this man bypass other rooms and go directly to the student lounge? With his superiors breathing down his neck, Rebus immerses himself into the investigation. He finds a family link and is drawn into the questions, "why does a man kill, is it a matter of revenge or a question of blood?" This is about as good as it gets in a Rebus novel. The characters are finely drawn, dark and gritty. The storyline is carefully detailed. We get a closer and more intimate look at Rebus the man. Bring 'em on Ian Rankin, you have only just begun! prisrob
Rating:
Summary: Scottish Noir Ripe for the States
Review: John Rebus, one-time angry young man, is all grown up and getting old, but he's still very angry. He has suffered the military, been station in Northern Ireland, washed out of special forces, is divorced and estranged from his family, is overweight, has never met a drink he didn't like, but has a fine Scotch he prefers. If you met him, you probably wouldn't like him. But he's good at what he does. And what he does is catch bad guys. He's a cop, some would say a good one, some would say maybe not so good, because he is not exactly a go-along, get-along kind of guy. He's a rule-breaker and proud of it and he doesn't give a fig when it gets him in hot water. The story opens with Rebus in hospital with burns on his hands that he claims were scalded, drawing a bath, however he'd been seen the day before with ex-con, burglar Martin Fairstone, who just happened to be stalking Rebus' protegé partner, Siobhan Clarke, who hates being called "Shiv" but is anyway. Seems that Rebus visited Fairstone, they had some drinks, Rebus left, someone tied the con to a chair and burnt him up. Can you blame the regular, rule following cops for liking Rebus for the crime? Meanwhile an ex-SAS veteran crashes into a posh school, shoots dead two students, wounds a third, who just happens to be the son of a curb-crawling MP. In America politicians don't curb-crawl, they have lobbyists supply them with their hookers. Anyway, after killing the kids, the SAS guy kills himself. Since the cops are investigating Rebus, he decides to investigate the school shooting with Clarke, burnt hands and all. And as it turns out, he is related to one of the dead students. And there you have the beginning of this outstanding story about an outstanding character that just gets better as you read along. Once again Mr. Rankin has delivered the goods. It's my guess that Inspector Rebus is about to be just as popular in the Colonies as he is in the mother country.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding crime fiction
Review: Rankin's latest begins straight off, plumping us right in the middle of the plot, and has a pace that continues in that vein, right until the shocking end. It starts with Rebus, in hospital, hands burned and bandaged following a severe scalding from hot bathwater. Or so he says. He is about to be called into a case that will question his notions of family, his past, his future, and his present. There has been a horrific shooting incident at a private school just north of Edinburgh: three people are dead, one injured. After his rampage, the killer - who was, like Rebus, ex-army - turned the gun on himself. As everyone puts it, "there's no mystery, except the why". Given his army background, Rebus is asked to advise, on the quiet, to try and give some insight into what made this man go so catastrophically off the rails. Rebus becomes fascinated with the dead man and his motives, and when the military police start sniffing around it makes him suspect that this thing might go a lot deeper than at first it seems. But, before very long, Rebus too finds himself under investigation. A petty criminal who had been stalking and harassing his colleague and friend Siobhan (pronounced "Shivawn". As one character puts it, "So that's how it's spelt.") Clarke has been found burnt to death in his home. And not everyone is prepared to believe Rebus's excuses for his injuries... For me, at least, this is surely going to be a crime novel of the year. Rankin (so good he has already been awarded an OBE) has produced another outstanding novel of "Scots noir", which is sure to only cement his immense reputation among his fans as well as garnering him a good few more. His prose, which is as smooth and hard as marble, and plots work like an acid, gradually corroding the genial touristy facade of the city and showing us the dark oily mechanics beneath. His writing is crisp and powerful, building atmosphere and character with a deceptive ease. His dialogue is sharp and realistic, often very clever, while his plotting is thick and complex. Everything hangs together beautifully. As a Rebus novel, this one is, if not quite the strongest, definitely unique. There's no real whodunnit type mystery here, but Rankin makes the whydunnit aspects just as fascinating. Also fascinating is Rebus himself, who increasingly understands the criminals more than he understands those around him, and who is ever so slightly disturbed by the parallels he sees between himself and the killer. The most interesting protagonist in the genre, he continues to grow and evolve as he ages, becoming softer yet harder at the same time, if at all possible, while still retaining the dark "lonerness" that has endeared him to so very many. However, this time around the fascination of Rebus himself is almost equal to the fascination of his increasingly complex and interesting relationship with his colleague DS Clarke (who is pretty darn interesting just by her self, busily avoiding social contact and living in a style eerily similar to that of her boss) which here sometimes threatens to become the main psychological draw of the story, rather than Rebus. This has been in the coming for several books now. At times he seems fatherly towards her, at times merely friendly (which is in itself unusual) and at times we realise just how much he has come to care, even though he doesn't always seem to know it himself. A particularly interesting happening here is how Clarke is forced to accompany him everywhere and act as his "hands". ("How will you go to the toilet?" "A man's got to do what a man's got to do.") A Question of Blood, appropriately full of themes of blood, literal and metaphorical, familial and diseased, is an outstanding novel, dark, edgy and fascinating. This is Rankin at his strongest, and that is something indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Rankin Back on Form
Review: Rankin's latest Rebus novel opens in the aftermath of two crimes. The first is a seemingly random shooting in a private school, killing two pupils, injuring one and leaving dead at his own hands the apparent perpetrator, ex SAS soldier Lee Herdman. (Obvious echoes here of the Dunblane tragedy). The second is the death in a suspicious fire of minor crook Martin Fairstone. Fairstone spent part of his last evening alive with Rebus and had been engaged in a nasty campaign of molestation against his junior Colleague, DS Siobhan Clarke. Rebus, moreover, has no very convincing story to tell about how he got the rather nasty new burns on his hands and lower arms... The question-mark over Rebus involvement in Fairstone's death is accentuated by the novel's theme of damaged ex-special forces men, a theme that recalls the very first Rebus book, "Knots and Crosses" which confronted Rebus still more directly with the demons left in place by the flunked SAS training of his youth. Here there are four characters with army pasts. The first is the dead Herdman whose SAS background brings the splendidly sinister and disagreeable army investigators, Whiteread and Simms, out of the woodwork to poke around and engage in some heavy duty mutual antagonism with Rebus. The second is of course Rebus himself, Whiteread and Simms letting slip to Siobhan that Rebus had while Herdman had not been "flagged... as a potential psycho" by the army authorities. The third and most obviously and hopelessly damaged is Robert Niles, friend of Herdman's, now in a high security psychiatric hospital after losing it completely and killing his wife. Finally Niles links Herdman to Douglas Brimson, ex RAF and now a flying instructor who hits on Siobhan, a move guaranteed to magnify Rebus's initial distrust... The story is, much of the time, more a whydunnit that a whodunit as Rebus and his colleagues try to figure out just what drove Herdman to go to the school on the terrible day in question. (I'm not sure quite how plausible this is. Would the financially stretched Scottish police force really invest so much manpower into looking into the state of mind of a dead man when the case seemed so cut and dried with the perpetrator safely dead and no need to secure a conviction? I guess maybe with an incident as sensitive and difficult as a school massacre they just might...) As always the case gets under Rebus' skin and his obsession with solving it is presented skilfully enough to infect the reader too. This book shares the core property of all Rankin's Rebus books of complete and hopeless unputdownability. Various factors contribute to this effect. The first is the plotting: like other Rebus novels this has a beautifully complex murky plot but one that unfolds with seemingly effortless clarity. Then there is the conviction of the characterization, even the most minor characters springing vividly to life. Then, as with all good detective stories there is the sense of place: here Rankin has few rivals and makes Edinburgh very thoroughly his own. Here this geographical focus is extended to South Queensferry, the small satellite town bordering the Forth estuary at the point where the bridges cross over from Fife, home both to Herdman and the school where he dies. Add the continuing tease of the relationship between Rebus and Clarke, obvious soulmates whom a lesser writer would have packed off to bed together several volumes ago and it's no surprise you keep turning the pages. Probably this doesn't deserve to be ranked among the best Rebus novels, like "Set in Darkness" and "The Falls" but it's still a real return to form after the slightly disappointing "Resurrection Men". (Oh and come on now, Mr Rankin, get cracking, we're ready for another one now.)
Rating: 
Summary: It just doesn't grip you enough
Review: The pace of this book is simply to slow. It doesnt grip , shock or intrigue the reader nearly enough. I just couldn't get myself to finish it.
I read a few chapters, got bored -- read 'The Bourne Supremacy' by Robert Ludlum.
I read a few more chapters, got bored -- read 'The Taking' by Dean Koontz.
I read a few more chapters, got bored -- read 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown.
I read a ... forget it, you get the picture right.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for Rebus fans
Review: The story starts with Detective Inspector John Rebus in the hospital with scalded hands or so that is his story. It seems that the petty criminal that has been stalking his colleague Siobhan Clarke has been found burnt to death in his home. Rebus is known to be protective of the people he cares about so that his hands are burned is suspicious. Despite his possible culpability, he is called into a case involving a horrific shooting at a private school. Two seventeen-year olds are dead along with the gunman, an ex-Army loner. Being ex-military himself, Rebus becomes fascinated with the case. Ian Rankin writes some of the best crime fiction around. His stories are realistic and his character portrayals emphasize much of the darker side of human nature. Rebus himself is not really a very likable character, but he seems very real. While this is not my favorite Rebus novel, the story does hook you in and does not let go until the last page. Rankin can always be counted on to tell a fascinating tale.
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