Rating: 
Summary: The Best Rebus - No Question!
Review: These remarks are directed to REBUS FANS. If you are new to Rebus, it is good to read the Rebus books in order, but if you have never read one, this book is an excellent story and is a great stand alone.Others already provided story lines, so I won't repeat that here.
What you really want to know is, Is "A Question of Blood" a good DI John Rebus book? The answer is a very definite "Yes." Rebus fans will welcome this addition to the Rebus series. "A Question of Blood" is Rankin's best one yet. I thought I figured out the answers, but I was only partially correct. Rankin did an excellent job of twisting up the ending. Each facit of the story could have been developed into a great book itself. I especially enjoyed Rebus's sense of humor in this book. Rebus was in serious trouble, and his humor wasn't meant to be funny per se, but knowing the character Rebus, his wry remarks were hilarious. I never laugh at books trying to make me laugh, but Rankin knows how to stimulate and activate my sense of humor while keeping up the intensity pressure. Why I thought this was Rankin's best Rebus: I was able to stay connected to the story and all its sidelines and was able to visualize Rebus and the other characters as real people. I did not want the story to end. I'm not sure if I really understood the parting shot, or if it was meant to be a mystery in and of itself(?). Good for discussion. TO IAN RANKIN: Please don't put Rebus out to pasture yet. Let him stay around awhile before you pension or kill him off. I'd like to see him work a few more years before he needs a cane, though (in other words, slow down the aging some). And, I hope that army duo will reappear in another story to cause the hero some grief. Great story. Great author. Five stars. Do you want to buy this book? Yes.
Rating: 
Summary: From a New Admirer
Review: This is my first experience in reading a Rebus story. I can not wait to read more of the series although I think I will have to wait a bit because Rankin writes a dark book. A few weeks in between will be necessary. I will not repeat the plot which others have summarized. I would say that there are many questions about Rankin and I wlll read the rest of the series in order so I can see Rebus' development. I am very interested in watching the development of the relationship between Siobhan Clarke and Rebus. One of the interesting parts of the book there is little description of Siobhan. The plot has many turns but the strength is not the trick ending but the characters that are met. There are no American writers like him. I really enjoyed this effort.
Rating:
Summary: From a New Admirer
Review: This is my first experience in reading a Rebus story. I can not wait to read more of the series although I think I will have to wait a bit because Rankin writes a dark book. A few weeks in between will be necessary. I will not repeat the plot which others have summarized. I would say that there are many questions about Rankin and I wlll read the rest of the series in order so I can see Rebus' development. I am very interested in watching the development of the relationship between Siobhan Clarke and Rebus. One of the interesting parts of the book there is little description of Siobhan. The plot has many turns but the strength is not the trick ending but the characters that are met. There are no American writers like him. I really enjoyed this effort.
Rating:
Summary: As Determined As Ever
Review: This is the 14th book in the Inspector John Rebus series (not counting the book of short stories) and once again Rebus is hard at work intimidating criminals and annoying his superiors. This book is a little unusual because Rebus works pretty closely with a couple of partners, something he has steered clear from with almost pathological alacrity up until now. It felt as though the whole tone of the book was much lighter as a result, particularly when dealing with his emotional state. The book opens with Rebus in hospital nursing two very badly scalded hands. Apart from raising the question as to how he came to scald his hands, which remains a secret for the majority of the book, it also makes him dependent on others for just about every simple function, such as the important ones like drinking a beer or lighting a cigarette to driving a car. The result is some interesting working interactions between Rebus and his fellow detectives which makes a very refreshing change. Soon after leaving hospital, Rebus is called in to assist on what appears to be a tragic but straightforward schoolyard murder / suicide shooting. His experience is requested because the murderer is an ex-SAS soldier, a branch of the army that Rebus had trained with before quitting and joining the police. The idea is that Rebus might be able to add some unique insights due to this previous experience, but it also opens the door to a look at John's own past and a part of it that we the reader have rarely been able to look at. It was nice to finally get a bit of an insight into his life before the police, which was always mentioned in passing, but never expanded on satisfactorily. And even when it was put under the microscope here, Rebus still kept things pretty close to his chest, whetting my appetite for more in a later book, perhaps. The investigation and consequently the story, moves along at a fast pace, particularly for a police procedural style of book. This is a common theme with the Rebus stories, thanks to his sheer determination to solve the crime. He is always more intent on advancing the investigation rather than being content to sit around airing conjecture after conjecture. The prose is strong on characterisation with plenty of background information given on each of the main characters making it very easy to understand the motives behind their actions. But as with just about all of the Rebus books, the greatest "character" description is reserved for the city of Edinburgh and its surrounds. You really get a terrific feeling of place thanks to the detail that Ian Rankin goes into when moving through the city. If you've never read an Inspector Rebus book before and came across this one, you would be inclined to think that here was an untroubled policeman who is very proficient at his job. In actual fact, during the course of the previous 13 books, he has battled through a failed marriage, chronic insomnia, alcoholism and thoughts of suicide. Finally he appears to have arrived at a place where he is much more comfortable with himself. In the past he was a loner on the job, preferring to keep his thoughts and his theories to himself, much to his fellow detectives' frustration and his superior's total annoyance. It looks as though this attitude has changed and I think it's a change for the better. I was actually concerned for his health in the earlier books. Additionally, if you haven't read the earlier Inspector Rebus books, you'd have no problem starting off with this book. There are no fears of coming across plot pieces that could act as spoilers of earlier books and the characters are introduced in such a way that you don't need any prior knowledge of them to appreciate where they fit in Rebus' life. I'm sure the result of starting with this book would be an overwhelming urge to go back and read the earlier books. Thanks to the extra interaction between Rebus and Siobhan Clarke, I thought this was an excellent addition to what is already an outstanding series. It's also nice to see that his dogged determination to solve the case and his disregard for his superiors hasn't diminished at all either.
Rating:
Summary: A Question of Rebus: The Ox or a Fish Supper?
Review: Walk into a book shop, and chances are you'll find the Rankin books under the category of "Mystery". The latest Rebus book is once again a tale of two crimes, which Rebus and Siobhan Clarke slowing solve thoughout the book. But unlike other mystery novels, the fun isn't in deducing whodunnit, but in enjoying the characters on their journey through the story. The interaction between Rebus and Clarke as they work their way through the pubs of Edinburgh is a joy, even when the conversation drifts far away from the cases they are supposed to solve. Many of the other characters firmly hold your attention too, and it's all so enjoyable that the weak conclusions to the mysteries are almost of no consequence. When it comes to an Ian Rankin mystery the fun is in the journey, not in the getting there.
Rating:
Summary: I listened to the audiotape of this mystery
Review: Which is a good way to "read" Rankin -- you have the accents done more or less properly, and the leisurely pace of the tapes forces you to savor the details without rushing through it to find out what happens next (also keeps you from peeking at the ending!)
The plot involves an apparently irrational shooting in a private school in a town that is now a suburb of Edinburgh -- a former commando has apparently killed two youths, wounded another, and killed himself, for no discernible reason. The question for the police is not who but why. Hard-drinking and highly independent DI Rebus gets involved, although he is handicapped by having two scalded hands and an investigation against him underway (did he kill the scoundrel who burned to death in a fire about the same time as Rebus's burns? Rebus was the last person seen with him.) Rebus takes Siobhan Clarke along to take notes. As usual, Rebus is trying to get to the truth despite his troubled relationships with colleagues, superiors, news reporters, and army investigators. The book involves a lot of conversations with a lot of people, and Rebus is drinking so much it's amazing that none of his superiors have noticed that he's an alcoholic. (I can't believe that level of drinking is considered normal, even in Scotland!)
I love Rebus, and I love this series. Some of the books in the series are better than others, and I found this one of the better ones. I can't say I was totally surprised by the ending, but in Rankin's books, that's really not the point or the main pleasure -- these have the literary quality of novels and I read them as such.
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