Rating: 
Summary: Rebus In A Thriller
Review: John Rebus comes up against two undesirables who move onto his patch. The first is Darren Rough, a paedophile who has recently been released from prison, much to Rebuses indignation and disgust. The second is Cary Oakes, a murderer who has been in prison in the US and is being released on the proviso that he return home to Edinburgh. As if this isn't enough to keep him busy, the 19 year old son of an old school friend has gone missing and Rebus is asked to help find him.The main theme of this book is paedophilia and it attempts to highlight how many people are affected by it. So many of the main characters are haunted by incidents from their past and their actions today seem to be dictated by what happened to them so long ago. This includes Rebus himself who is still a troubled soul, although not due to paedophilia I hasten to add. It's nice to see, though, that he appears to have found a manner of peace and meaning to his work. I found this to be one of the best Inspector Rebus books that I've read yet. This books sits more in the thriller category that the police procedural. The psychological mind games played by Oakes ensure a gripping mood leading up to a shattering climax. A definite must-read for all Rebus fans.
Rating:
Summary: The best to date
Review: Once again Ian Rankin is responsible for the dark circles under my eyes. In a series that just keeps getting better it's impossible to put down the latest Rebus at a human hour and yet appropriate to be reading when it's dark and silent all around you. Dead Souls is a grim and thoroughly enjoyable read. With a tangled web of sub plots featuring a coworker's suicide, a pedophile, a serial killer, and a missing person I found myself turning pages. In addition we are allowed a glimpse of Rebus's past and made to worry about his present in a way I haven't done since Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder started drinking again. Personal dilemmas and professional questions haunt Rebus across every page of Dead Souls. Present day ethics and morality are explored in such a seamless way you don't even realize that you along with Rebus are indeed pondering "Is there such a thing as free will?" And of course there's Scotland itself, presented as no travelogue ever would, but as perhaps, it is. For the mystery fan who enjoys their protagonist's layers being peeled away like birch bark no series currently being written offers more for a reader to chew on,savour and spit out. Here's hoping neither the author or we ever get to the core of the man.
Rating:
Summary: Dead souls
Review: One feels the weariness, the weight of guilt and depression as DI Rebus literally slogs his way through several investigations, some of which have no relation to one another. A released paedophile and the weight of guilt over his brutal death, the missing son of a former high school sweetheart in the throes of a bad marriage, the return of a convicted serial killer from the US, all these combine in to a fascinating tale of crime and punishment in contemporary Scotland. Yes, the plot is convuluted and at times as plodding as Rebus himself, but Rankin is more concerned with exploring his characters and what motivates them to action or inaction, a plus in my view. Dead Souls, though distantly akin to Gogol's novel, is a fascinating read, and though somewhat overly long, is utterly more satisfying than many of Rankin's contemporary mystery writers.
Rating:
Summary: Dead souls
Review: One feels the weariness, the weight of guilt and depression as DI Rebus literally slogs his way through several investigations, some of which have no relation to one another. A released paedophile and the weight of guilt over his brutal death, the missing son of a former high school sweetheart in the throes of a bad marriage, the return of a convicted serial killer from the US, all these combine in to a fascinating tale of crime and punishment in contemporary Scotland. Yes, the plot is convuluted and at times as plodding as Rebus himself, but Rankin is more concerned with exploring his characters and what motivates them to action or inaction, a plus in my view. Dead Souls, though distantly akin to Gogol's novel, is a fascinating read, and though somewhat overly long, is utterly more satisfying than many of Rankin's contemporary mystery writers.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable police procedural
Review: Perhaps for the first time in his life, veteran Edinburgh Detective John Rebus feels his age and ponders retirement. His long term friend Jack Morton just died, but seems to visit him after a few drinks. A hit and run driver has left his daughter wheelchair bound with her ability to ever walk in doubt. Now his latest law enforcement efforts not only flopped, but apparently led to a murder. Finally, rising superstar Jim Margolies, who had everything, apparently killed himself by jumping off the Salisbury Crags. Already despondent, Rebus has to deal with a deported serial killer moving into the neighborhood, which also now includes a pediophile. As Rebus thinks about his future, he investigates the murder and the alleged suicide. On the side, he looks for a missing person as a favor to a former sweetheart. Soon, Rebus connects everything as he realizes he faces a grandmaster in a game where the loser dies. The return of Rebus is always an enjoyable experience for fans of Scottish police procedural novels. The engaging mystery includes several sub-plots that seem divergent but Rebus nicely ties them together. Still, DEAD SOULS focuses on the main character's inner thoughts and to a lesser degree on that of the villain. Ian Rankin shows why he ranks with the top authors of the genre. He turns an emotionally weary Rebus into a real person that, in turn, makes for an entertaining skillful story. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: A stolid, earthy, pictish performance
Review: Reading "Dead Souls" was reminiscent of eating a haggis supper through a copy of the "Sunday Post". Somewhat gritty, but worth it!
Rating: 
Summary: Rebus is torturing himself and making his bosses mad...
Review: Rebus is one of the best cop protagonists out in the market today. He is a very complex person, who is no longer sure of himself or of the job he is supposed to be doing as a detective inspector in Edinburgh. His family is broken up, his daughter injured in an 'accident' that was intended for him, his relationship with his new significant other is on the rocks, and his relationship with his bosses is in the toilet. Probably from his rather unorthodox methods. Rebus is not afraid to mingle with the morally-challenged underside of Edinburgh... he makes his own rules up as he goes, and that particular trait of his tends to get him in trouble. In this book, Rebus has way too many strings to hold onto. A young man has gone missing who just happens to be the son of one of Rebus' old flames. The U.S. is ever-so-nicely sending home a known serial murderer, who continues to wreck as much havoc as possible in Scotland. Rebus also gets involved in another case concerning a pedophile (I hate reading books on that particular topic!), and the embarrassment leads to bad press for the cops. Rankin is a good writer. Trouble is he puts way too many off-shoot plots in his books. It makes it very difficult to keep track of these guys and the plots. I do like Rankin's ability to characterize. His characters come across as real people, with real problems, and this is one of the traits I look for in books. Karen Sadler
Rating:
Summary: Almost up to the level of the last two Rebus novels
Review: Since "Black and Blue," Rankin's novels have had very tight, complicated plots, with about four independent strands coming together (or not). Here the plot lines are more thematically linked than anything else, further illuminating the character of DI Rebus, one of the most interesting characters in crime fiction. He's hard-boiled, he smokes and drinks, he's too wrapped up in his work to have satisfying relationships, yada yada, but he's always trying very hard. He comes away from the stories if not changed, at least recognizing something and working at some aspect of himself. He's not a forever constant, Marlowian hero. In this one, novel #9, the crimes are of a personal nature, no business dealings, no crime syndicates, so the story inevitably is more about Rebus, and less about the puzzles to be solved. It's a matter of personal taste, perhaps, but probably for that reason I felt this one wasn't quite up to the level of the last two (B&B, and "The Hanging Garden"). Rankin should be better known, and would probably be compared to Michael Connelly if he was American and writing about a cop in a US city. He remains one of the best writers of police procedurals out there.
Rating:
Summary: Almost up to the level of the last two Rebus novels
Review: Since "Black and Blue," Rankin's novels have had very tight, complicated plots, with about four independent strands coming together (or not). Here the plot lines are more thematically linked than anything else, further illuminating the character of DI Rebus, one of the most interesting characters in crime fiction. He's hard-boiled, he smokes and drinks, he's too wrapped up in his work to have satisfying relationships, yada yada, but he's always trying very hard. He comes away from the stories if not changed, at least recognizing something and working at some aspect of himself. He's not a forever constant, Marlowian hero. In this one, novel #9, the crimes are of a personal nature, no business dealings, no crime syndicates, so the story inevitably is more about Rebus, and less about the puzzles to be solved. It's a matter of personal taste, perhaps, but probably for that reason I felt this one wasn't quite up to the level of the last two (B&B, and "The Hanging Garden"). Rankin should be better known, and would probably be compared to Michael Connelly if he was American and writing about a cop in a US city. He remains one of the best writers of police procedurals out there.
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