Customer Reviews

Rebus's Scotland - Personal Journey

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Not your typical coffee table travel book, Rebus's Scotland shows the "other" Scotland, the one more familiar to Rankin's fans. Mysterious ancient buildings, fascinating natural wonders, it's all here for your exploration. Anyone heading to Scotland or anyone who has visited there or would like to visit there should get this book.

As Ian Rankin, writer of this book, states fairly early on this is not a travel book of Scotland as he doesn't really know enough to do one, however, this is a book of comparisons between author and protagonist. As much as anything it delineates the differences between Rankin and his creation, Chief Inspector Rebus. Rankin even states that Rebus is not a 'real' character (news to his throngs of followers and readers) and Rankin thinks it a good thing he and Rebus will never meet as he suspects they would not like one another too much.

Whether by accident or design this oversize book comes along as a totally absorbing read yet a stark one as well. The photographs within the book, and there are many, are all done in black and white, no color shots exist in this book of both Rankin's and Rebus' life. The book offers a semibiography of both men while at the same time offering up black and white silhouettes of their times and the neighborhoods they trod. A contrast of opposites as well, for Rankin states that he is not Rebus and Rebus not he.

If a reader has abiding interest in the work of Ian Rankin and the career of John Rebus he or she cannot view this book as anything but a MUST read. If you are a fan of both the importance of this book cannot be overstated.

Semper Fi.

Thank you for an inexpensive, brand-new copy of Ian Rankin's book. Now I can have it as a reference as I read and re-read Inspector Rebus.