Customer Reviews

The Falls

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of the longest and most complex John Rebus mysteries, but it is well worth the significant investment of one's time and attention. In fact, the writing is so good, the movement of the plot so inexorable, the characterizations so authentic, the scenes so utterly Scottish that aside from wanting the solution to the mystery, I could have kept reading for another 4-500 pages!

I won't repeat what others have described of the story but add some details I found interesting. First, the Internet role-playing aspect was not only completely authentic (I have a young adult son who keeps me up on these things), but presented with a delicate balance that didn't talk down to the non-Internet initiates, but wasn't incomprehensible either. I almost got interested in the games myself. Second, I was captivated by the intricate exploration of the problems encountered by both men and women when women rise to positions of leadership in traditionally male-dominated fields. It's great that Rankin understands that there are no easy answers and that there are always tradeoffs. I wish the men I knew in my field had as much understanding. Finally, John Rebus is definitely maturing emotionally and spiritually as he matures in years. I enjoyed every flash of insight into his complex person as the plot unfolded. If you haven't read Rankin before, start! You can watch the growth of the author and the characters by starting with the first, Knots and Crosses, or you can plunge into the full-blown alternative reality in this book. Either way, you will emerge glad you invested the time.

While visiting Ireland in early September, I, of course,had to visit the local bookstores. Was I excited when I found this new Ian Rankin book! While Rankin never disappoints with his Rebus series, I thought THE FALLS was the best one yet. His writing has found more clarity and John Rebus's character and personality are more well defined than in the his earlier novels. The plot is excellent. I missed two days of Irish scenery reading this book in the car. If you've never read a John Rebus book, start with the first book of the series, KNOTS AND CROSSES. If you love British mysteries, you won't be disappointed.

As a longtime reader of British mystery books, I have many favorite authors, but I think Ian Rankin is at the top of the list. His books are not "cosies" like Agatha Christie, but darker, moodier stories, as far from the small village setting as thay can get. This latest book is another great example of Rankin's ability to spin a great mystery story while involving the reader in John Rebus' life, good and bad, and it usually is more the latter! Wherever you start in the Rebus series, here or an earlier book, just START! You won't be sorry and you won't need any encouragement to finish all of his books.

The new John Rebus book is outstanding. The " Falls", the latest installment in the series, finds Rebus at his dark and brooding best. The cast of characters at the station and the pubs seem so real , it's almost like you know them, by sight. Siobhan Clark and John are surrounded by other great characters who also prove to be as believable and human as John is. There is also the cast of weasels that you'll just love to loathe. There are some wicked twist and turns in this book. The book is hard to put down...............................Read them all, I haven't found a bad one yet ...............

I love Ian Rankin's Rebus series, even though I am constantly amazed at the extent to which Rebus is able to drink and hold down a job -- I think the Scots are more tolerant of heavy drinkers than American employers would be.

That having been said, reading this mystery was like a trip to Edinburgh as someone who lives and works there sees the city -- a city with very deep roots in history, still influenced by events that occurred hundreds of years ago, living under the shadow of a castle and with history in every building.

The plot involves the disappearance of a wealthy young college student, who was supposed to be meeting friends for drinks and never shows up. Because of who she is, all the stops are pulled out to find her, and Rebus finds himself one of many working on this case. He believes from the start that she has been killed and he is investigating a homicide. He also thinks there's some connection between her death and some miniature coffins that have been found from time to time, and there's a possibility that her death is connected to a puzzle-solving computer game she's been playing.

If you like mysteries that make you think, that really challenge your intelligence and are written with literary skill that will make them timeless classics, Rankin is an author for you. This is my fourth book by him and I'm relishing reading more in the series.

I picked up The Falls while on a weekend getaway and do not feel sorry about this. The book starts slowly and at the beginning the story sounds like something I've read in other crime fictions. However, I quickly got more than involved with the details in the story - from finding a reality internet game ring leader to solving the mystery of the wooden coffins. Rebus' character is hard not to like - a detective near retirement who has his own principles and vices and who also listens only to his own instincts. If you have free time or just want to read an entertaining book go for the Falls.

This Rebus novel is quite different from the rest of the cannon. It seems somehow less dark, les forbidding, but that is just on the surface. Underneath it is just as dark and sinister as the rest of them, but this time that darkness is carried over more subtely, so much so that you don't even notice.

Ian Rankin's prose is sharp and often witty, and his Edinbuirgh (Which in this is perhaps at the most vivid it ever has been) is superbly drawn. I live a long way away from the city, and have never been there, yet i still get an intense picture of it in my mind. Rankin's Edinburgh pulses with energy and throbs with a dark sinister evil that you cant quite place.

The plot in this one contains no big gansters, no organised crime. Just a simple (appearing so at first, at least) puzzle about the disappearance of a young girl. Also, as a subplot Rankin brilliantly interweaves the step back into history, and as Rebus excavates the soil surrounding the truth about the Arthur's Seat coffins. All of it is very cleverly done, and you want to know the solution to each puzzle, even though one is centred years and years in the past, equally as much.

Rebus is more sombre this time around, and you get the sense that he is slowing down somewhat, Rankin as well as Rebus. And with his new love interest (who is the most promising of the lot) we begin to see a bright new spark in John, as he glimpses something for him which lies past the job...

This is a very good book, and Rankin is one of the shining stars of British writing. Long may he continue to be so. ....

Rankin has made me turn back to fiction, as it was hard to find something which made me start reading again after a long break from books. An investigation that goes on in a story is very good to make you want to keep turning the pages. A student goes missing and the investigators have two main leads, a doll found in a coffin which takes Rebus years back in a history of found coffins, and an Internet Role Playing Game which is left for his colleague Siobhan, green on the subject, to discover its relevance to the case. Another of Rankin's books is in my room on the waiting list. Thank you Rankin!

For two days Philippa "Flip" Balfour has been missing, which is so out of character for the student, the police are already involved. Now it might be that the influence of her powerful father led to the early investigation by Edinburgh Inspector John Rebus.

He quickly uncovers two potential clues. One is hand carved wooden doll in a small coffin and the other is Flip's love of participating in an Internet role playing game. John tracks the dark history of the small coffins while Detective Constable Siobhan Clarke joins the Internet crowd that Flip had belonged to before vanishing. Though information is collected on both fronts, progress on the case is slow and the police have not found the link tying the two clues together, leaving this missing person investigation look more like another one for the unsolved files.

The latest John Rebus tale contains all the right stuff that has made this one of the best on going police procedural series on the market today. John and the support cast remain fresh due to little things happening to them and around them such as a thirty-year retirement of a peer. The story line combines historical and present Edinburgh, Internet technology, and the usual clues, puns, and puzzles so that the audience walks along side Rebus as he investigates. Ian Rankin will rank among the top of all the bestseller lists with this entertaining tale.

Harriet Klausner

Amazingly enough I had never heard of Ian Rankin (which astonished me as a lover of British mysteries, when I saw how many books he had written!). Inspector Rebus is the main character, who lives and works in Edinburgh and like many leading investigators not only has marital and relationship problems, but has issues with authority and following rules. OK, so far that doesn't sound too exciting, but the story itself is very gripping and has many twists and turns - you can't blieve who the culprit is! I am now very much hooked on Rankin and have bought 2 of his other books (as a starter!).