Let It Bleed: An Inspector Rebus Novel [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Ian Rankin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000

In the dark days and biting windstorms of an Edinburgh winter, two drop-out kids dive off the towering Forth Road Bridge. A civic office is spattered by a grisly gun-blast. Two suicides and a murder that just don't add up, unless John Rebus can crunch the numbers. Following a trail that snakes through stark alleys and sad bars, shredded files and lacerated lives, Rebus finds himself up against an airtight, murderous conglomerate on the make in every arena of power. It's leeching the life and soul out of his city and, if it can, him too...

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Detective Inspector John Rebus is not a man easily intimidated, so when political heavyweights start to lean on the dour, moralistic Edinburgh detective to stop an investigation, Rebus doggedly digs in and follows the case as it moves from embezzlement to murder and finally to conspiracy at the highest level of government. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Rankin's powerful and absorbing latest tale, Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus (Mortal Causes, etc.) looks on helplessly as two young kidnapping suspects avoid capture by diving to their deaths from the icy Forth Road Bridge. Unable to drink away that image, Rebus must investigate another suicide. Ex-con "Wee Shug" McAnally shotgunned himself as local government councilor Tom Gillespie watched in horror. Rebus believes that McAnally chose his witness carefully, but when political higher-ups pressure the police brass, Rebus is forced off the inquiry. Pursuing his hunches with covert help from sympathetic colleagues, Rebus tries to decipher a document that might connect the suicides to development plans for "Silicon Glen," home of Edinburgh's computer industry. His suspicions increase when influential Scots hint at rewards if he'll let the case slide. Rebus sorts out these machinations while battling loneliness, toothache (it figures in the solution), alienation from his daughter and the tense reappearance of a former lover, Gill Templer, as his new boss. Rankin portrays an intriguingly complex Scotland, where a good copper, battling frigid winds and cruel manipulators, needs plenty of warming whiskey and selfless friends.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 530 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786226773
• ISBN-13: 978-0786226771
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,553,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rebus strikes again, August 24, 2001

By 

F. G. Hamer "MadManxMan" (Isle of Man) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let It Bleed (Mass Market Paperback)

Ian Rankin is amongst the best crime novelists writing today. His books are always tense, tenacious, and thrilling. At the heart of them is Rebus, a cop with bad habits and a fair dose of caustic, Scottish wit - as human and blemished as they come. Rebus knows that murder is usually motivated by passion or greed, but when the bodies begin to pile up - four of them - Rebus realizes that there's nothing simple about his latest case. In his trail for the culprit, he stumbles across a conspiracy that runs all the way to the top of the Scottish political ladder. If you've not yet picked up a John Rebus mystery from Ian Rankin, you should do so now. Rankin is the thinking man's crime writer. He mixes social comment with deep characterization and stirs it all into great plots and sub plots. Let it bleed is one of his outstanding examples and there's a hole in your reading if you miss it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "He swallowed the anger down and held it in his gut. It was hotter than tea, stronger than whisky.", January 7, 2008

By 

Words can be music "Chanteuse" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Let It Bleed (Mass Market Paperback)

The daughter of Edinburgh's Lord Provost is missing; a car chase of two possible kidnappers ends with the supposed perps' suicide; then another suicide occurs, seemingly unconnected. No crime there, and yet there are puzzling unexplained details, which Rebus can't get off his mind. These details, and the discovery of the missing daughter, lead to the unwinding of a Machiavellian scheme in which high-ranking businessmen and politicians are joined, for the supposed good of Scotland. To Rebus, "None of it's worth a single human life."

This is one of Rankin's best. Intricacy does not get in the way of clarity, and the evolving turmoil of Rebus' private life parallels his solving of this larger crime, which eventually leads to the revitalization of one of his most important relationships. His implacable pursuit of justice might seem self-righteous in a less flawed human being, but his battle with the drink ("It's the drink makes me maudlin. It's only the drink."), his tendency to put off his dental work (great dentists' chair episode), his devotion to the Rolling Stones ("What a shambles the band was, yet sometimes they could get it so exactly right that it hurt."), his sensitivity masked by a morbid sense of humor, his tendency to be brutally honest even when this is not desirable, make him a most appealing character.

The weather of Edinburgh has a leading role; after reading several Rankin books, its volatility is as real to you as Rebus himself. Rankin's writing can be direct, even lyrically serious, and then suddenly morph into a gruesome simile, as in this description of a pub: "It had a burgundy linoleum floor and matching colored walls, and was like staring into somebody's throat."

Knowledge of the previous books (this is the 7th in the Rebus series) would not be necessary to enjoy this read, but would add to your appreciation of the characters.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Let It Bleed is a good book, and interesting read., November 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Let It Bleed (Mass Market Paperback)

Before Let It Bleed, I'd never read a book set in Scotland. It was fascinating to see the dark side of Edinburgh, a place I'd only "visited" in history books. The book is as raw as any urban tale, and it was both entertaining and disturbing for all that. The very first line made me want to read on: "A winter night, screaming out of Edinburgh" and the story is off and running. John Rebus is no shining hero. He holds on to the seismic shifts in his slippery moral framework with all the confusion and pain that we all feel these days. He's very human and very flawed, and I liked him. The plot was very interesting, yet with so much political and business corruption in stories today, just the plot alone would not have made this a winner. It is Rankin's expert and empathetic treatment of his poor confused and flawed characters that make this book a winner. I'm ready for more Rebus stories.