Customer Reviews

A Good Hanging: and Other Stories

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A GOOD HANGING consists of twelve police procedural investigations starring John Rebus and co-starring his hometown Edinburgh. The anthology is different from most short story collections, as there is no introduction explaining the topic or its greatness. Instead Ian Rankin uses the investigative stories to provide the audience a close up look at Rebus and some of his cohorts enabling the greatness to shine. Fans of the series will fully enjoy the collection and anyone interested in a first look at one of the best detectives around today ought to take the fall because they will conclude that this anthology and subsequently the Rebus novels are among the top police procedural series in bookstores.

Harriet Klausner

This is quite a good short story collection from Ian Rankin. Indeed, it is good not just by his standards, but by most authors.

There are some really very good stories here..."A Good Hanging" "The Gentlemen's Club" and "Concrete Evidence". All of which are very enjoyable. the final story "Monstrous Trumpet" would be included in the above category, but for it's rather unbelieveable solution. The inclusion of the French visiting policeman, though, was a stroke of genius. His presence is incredibly enjoyable.

All of the stories are clever, and all enjoyable. there are several nice twists here and there, and Rebus, of course, to provide for extra entertainment.

"Sunday" is perhaps the most inventive story, certainly the one most "Rebus orientated". "Auld Lang Syne" is a very dull story until the final two or three pages, where it picks up some life. Of "Not Provan" , the same can be said.

"Playback" is a nice lite story to ease you into the collection.

All in all, there are some very good short stories contained herein. I would prefer a novel, but these will do. (Edinburgh is not quite so much a presence. Nor is the character development awfully good.)

I enjoyed this book, as I have all of Ian Rankin's John Rebus writings to date. These are short stories that are quick and absorbing reading. Nothing is particularly heavy, but all are very clever. I wanted to move to the next after I finished each. That's my definition of a good airplane book. And, Rankin is such a talented writer.

I had heard of Ian Rankin's books, but I always stick to my known author's, Ruth Rendell, Wingfield, P. D. James, Elizabeth George, etc. I picked up "A Good Hanging" by chance when I noticed it was not one story, but several short Rebus stories.
Boy, did I find the mother lode!! I read this book in one sitting & have ordered the first ten Ian Rankin Rebus books from sellers on Amazon.com. I can't wait to get started with the first in the series, "Knots and Crosses". This book, "A Good Hanging" will get you acquainted with Inspector Rebus of Edinburgh enough to make you want more...good place to start!!

"A Good Hanging," (1992) is a collection of twelve taut, tight short stories, in the Detective Chief Inspector John Rebus series, by the outstanding, award-winning, author Ian Rankin, currently the best-selling author of British mysteries in the United Kingdom. It can, like most of his work, be described as a police procedural, within the tartan noir school, and it is set in Edinburgh, more or less Rankin's home town. Mind you, it surely isn't the tourists' Edinburgh, with its tartan tea rooms and cobbled streets: Rankin takes readers to far meaner streets than any tourists will ever see. Within the book's pages we see many of the city's anonymous middle-class neighborhoods, and its slums. We also meet blackmailers, peeping toms, and a satisfying quotient of murderers.

However, the stories, well-done as they are, do rather lack the author's usual vibrant commentary on the city of Edinburgh, and on Scots weather, food preferences, social habits, etc. that I always so much enjoy. But, mind you, the book is still written with power, wit and energy. The stories also lack the emotional heft that would make them memorable. Only "The Dean Curse," about a retired army man, evidently written as a comment upon Dashiell Hammett's The Dain Curse; and the title story, about a troupe of green young actors in Edinburgh for its famous annual drama festival, actually get any traction. I must also add that these short stories do not show the playful audacious invention of Irvine Welsh's Reheated Cabbage: Tales of Chemical Degeneration. Perhaps Rankin finds the short detective story format somewhat limiting. (By the way, "A Good Hanging," is a quote from the fool Feste, in William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT: "Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.") Have I ever commented on Rankin's - and his creation Rebus's--mordant humor?

Well, just what is tartan noir? A bloodthirsty, bloody-minded business, to be sure, more violent than the average British mystery, but, thankfully, leavened a bit with that mordant Scots humor. Written (duh!) by Scots. James Ellroy, American author of L.A. Confidential, has dubbed Rankin the progenitor - and king--of tartan noir. Rankin was nominated for an Edgar Award for Black and Blue: An Inspector Rebus Mystery (Inspector Rebus Novels), for which he won England's prestigious Gold Dagger Award. He was born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. His official bio states that he's been employed as grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, hi-fi journalist, and punk musician. His first Rebus novelKnots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus Novels)(Inspector Rebus Novels) was published in 1987. His works are now receiving television treatment. His novels can be enjoyed individually; it's not necessary to go back to "Knots and Crosses" to enjoy them: but I wouldn't start here.

This is a collection of 12 short stories featuring Inspector John Rebus. They tend to be quick reading, without an excessive amount of background color. I would recommend the collection for readers who like to cut to the chase, and want some occasional quick reading material. It is a good book for commuters or travelers on long trips, or perhaps to take to the beach.

The stories have interesting plots, and are set in the present day (more or less) with car phones, answering machines, etc. They will give you a different picture of Edinburgh than what you see as a tourist.

I am surprised that I previously missed the collection, but I found it at a book sale.

Of all the Inspector Rebus books, this collection of twelve short stories is probably the most powerful distillation of ideas. The mysteries are small but crisp in impact, thanks to the shorter length of stories and thus less of a need to throw obstacles into the reader's mind, and the characters pop out in poetic contrast to their surroundings. Although it tapers off into stories which are both inconclusive and obvious, the majority (2/3) of this book is the best Rebus so far.

This book of short stories was written in between the third and forth novels. It's an intriguing bit of Rebus-ania because it tells us a lot about the character, the way he acts and about how Rankin saw him.

We get involved with these mini-mysteries, and in each we learn more about the way Rebus' mind works when he looks at a problem. We also get little snippets about his childhood, marriage and background. Mostly we get a feeling for how Rebus is on a day to day basis. Well worth reading.

A collection of short stories is an excellent way to be introduced to an author, and this collection should net Ian Rankin many, many new readers.

Such an edition as this is rather a throw-back to those good-old 'golden' days of the great mystery writers, such as Dame Agatha, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout and many others who regularly wrote short stories along with their full-length novels. Eventually, when a dozen or so of these little gems had accrued in the author's basket, they would be brought out in their own separate volume. Many of these collections are as well known as the authors' full-length novels.

Following this lead, Mr. Rankin displays a sure touch with this batch of shorter stories, all of which feature Detective Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh police force. There are other continuing characters as well, who surface here or there, providing a spot of humor or compassion or just camaraderie.

I'd not read anthing by Mr. Rankin before finding this book. That situation is about to be remedied as I go looking for "Knots and Crosses" to begin at the beginning of the Inspector Rebus tales. I would highly recommend a similar path to any other devoted readers of mystery novels, especially those who treasure a setting that's nearly part of the plot, characters with whom one can practically form a friendship, and above all, exellent writing.

"A Good Hanging," (1992) is a collection of twelve taut, tight short stories, in the Detective Chief Inspector John Rebus series, by the outstanding, award-winning, author Ian Rankin, currently the best-selling author of British mysteries in the United Kingdom. It can, like most of his work, be described as a police procedural, within the tartan noir school, and it is set in Edinburgh, more or less Rankin's home town. Mind you, it surely isn't the tourists' Edinburgh, with its tartan tea rooms and cobbled streets: Rankin takes readers to far meaner streets than any tourists will ever see. Within the book's pages we see many of the city's anonymous middle-class neighborhoods, and its slums. We also meet blackmailers, peeping toms, and a satisfying quotient of murderers.

However, the stories, well-done as they are, do rather lack the author's usual vibrant commentary on the city of Edinburgh, and on Scots weather, food preferences, social habits, etc. that I always so much enjoy. But, mind you, the book is still written with power, wit and energy. The stories also lack the emotional heft that would make them memorable. Only "The Dean Curse," about a retired army man, evidently written as a comment upon Dashiell Hammett's The Dain Curse; and the title story, about a troupe of green young actors in Edinburgh for its famous annual drama festival, actually get any traction. I must also add that these short stories do not show the playful audacious invention of Irvine Welsh's Reheated Cabbage: Tales of Chemical Degeneration. Perhaps Rankin finds the short detective story format somewhat limiting. (By the way, "A Good Hanging," is a quote from the fool Feste, in William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT: "Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.") Have I ever commented on Rankin's - and his creation Rebus's--mordant humor?

Well, just what is tartan noir? A bloodthirsty, bloody-minded business, to be sure, more violent than the average British mystery, but, thankfully, leavened a bit with that mordant Scots humor. Written (duh!) by Scots. James Ellroy, American author of L.A. Confidential, has dubbed Rankin the progenitor - and king--of tartan noir. Rankin was nominated for an Edgar Award for Black and Blue: An Inspector Rebus Mystery (Inspector Rebus Novels), for which he won England's prestigious Gold Dagger Award. He was born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He's been employed as grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, hi-fi journalist, and punk musician. His first Rebus novelKnots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus Novels) was published in 1987. His works are now receiving television treatment. His novels can be enjoyed individually; it's not necessary to go back to "Knots and Crosses" to enjoy them: but I wouldn't start here.