Customer Reviews

Set in Darkness: An Inspector Rebus Novel (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've only read a few of Ian Rankin's Rebus mysteries, and this latest installment in the series is the best Inspector Rebus mystery novel that I've read so far. This is a satisying read on so many levels -- the plot is quite convoluted but not in a meandering way so that you loose all interest and start skimming chapters to get to the meaty bits. No, it's complex and intriguing and keeps your attention firmly hooked on what's taking place between the pages. Ian Rankin truly is a gifted story teller, and quite a lyrical writer. I found myself rereading several paragrahs over and over again so as to better apprecaite his prose. And he is truly a master at depicing Scotland in all its grit and glory, past and present, architecturally and politically. I felt as if I was walking the streets of Edinburgh myself, trying to unravel all the strands of this mystery.

DCS Watson, Rebus's boss has sidelined him to the Policing of Parliament Liasion Committee (PPLC) in the vain hope of keeping Rebus out of trouble and out of his (Watson's) hair. However while on a tour of the Queensbury House that is to restored so as to serve as an administrative wing to the new Scottish parliament, the workers unearth the remains of a man in a sealed off fire place. Rebus of course jumps at the chance to do some real police work, even if it means investigating a 20 year old crime and having to put up with and work with DI Linford, the police commissioner's current blue-eyed boy. But even before that investigation can take off another body is found on the Queensbury construction site: that of a prospective MP, Roddy Grieve.

In the meantime DC Siobhan Clarke, is doing some investigating of her own. There have been a series of assaults carried out by two men on women who frequent single's bars. To her frustration and chagrin, Clarke is having very little luck with this investigation. And on her way home one night, she walks onto a suicide scene. As the only senoir detective on that scene, Clarke is given the task of investigationg the suicide of Chris Mackie, a homeless man with apparently four hundred thousand pounds in his bank account. Why would a man with that much money be living on the streets? And why would he commit suicide?

As the various police officers begin to dig into their different mysteries, the reader will of course suspect that all these disparate strands will somehow connect. But what could a 20 year old corpse, an up and coming politician and a rich street person have in common? Half the enjoyment of this novel was trying to figure out the connection -- if there even was one, that is.

This mystery novel will probably make it onto nearly everyone's list of top ten mystery novels of the year. It's beautifully written and has a good attention grabbing plot, and is very atmospheric. A very good read!

Ian Rankin has been my favorite author ever since I discovered a remainder copy of "Strip Jack" at a bookstore four years ago; after reading that I found everything I could that he had written, and I have snapped up each new book. I hate to say I am a little disappointed with this one. The intricacies of the plot and spare, terse writing style are equal to Rankin's previous Inspector Rebus books, as are all the characterizations but for one: John Rebus himself. I couldn't help but feel that DI Rebus got relegated to being an almost secondary character alongside the other detectives, suspects, and criminals peopling the book, and worse yet, he didn't put up much of a fight about it. I've read every Rebus book and if there's one thing the guy doesn't do naturally, it's "subdued." His interrogation of a heart-attack victim near the close of "Set in Darkness" was, I felt, the first time I really recognized him in this book. Also good: the thread involving Rebus's dogged pursuit of an underworld boss who's probably the closest thing to a friend Rebus has. But if you haven't read a John Rebus mystery, I would recommend trying "Knots and Crosses" or "Tooth and Nail" first if you want to see Rebus at his flawed, fascinating and incredibly capable best.

This is my second book by Ian Rankin but it won't be my last. I really loved this mystery -- it was full of atmosphere, characters with depth and vitality, well plotted, and a page turner -- what more can you ask for?

The plot involves two murder investigations -- one from the past, based on a 20 year old skeleton of unknown identity found in the course of renovating a very old building to become the new Scottish Parliament; the second involves a politician found murdered nearby in the construction area. Additionally, there is a suicide of a homeless man shortly after the skeleton is discovered. Who is this man, was it suicide, and why? The homeless man turns out to have some very surprising qualities. Inspector Rebus (who is considered the bane of his department) comes to believe that all three deaths are somehow related. The Grieve family (the family of the murdered politician) may be at the center of all three deaths -- or maybe not. Maybe they really ARE unconnected, as the powers that be are assuming. TO make matters more difficult, Rebus is being forced to work with an ambitious young man who is the "fair haired boy" of the powers-that-be, but who doesn't have Rebus's respect -- so he must content with the politics of the situation as well, which is not Rebus's long suit.

This series is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, but not in the touristy Edinburgh but in the tough underbelly, where there are pubs that it is wisest not to go into and where there are gangs and thugs. The location is so well described that it is easy to imagine being there.

All in all, I have no hesitation in giving this mystery 5 stars. The only question is which Rankin book I read next.

I am a late-blooming Ian Rankin fan. Until being directed to him (by amazon.com) last year I didn't know the pleasure. Rankin, and authors like him (John D. MacDonald, Martin Cruz Smith), are the reason I read. Complex, but very human, well-layered characters that strike a chord inside. I also love mysteries, and all of Rankin's Rebus books are great credits to the genre. "Set in Darkness" is a multiple murder mystery, 'done' to the max. If you like murder mysteries, this book is an excellent choice. If you are fascinated by characters with depth, breadth, and all those nasty human traits, to go with your appetite for mystery, go back to the beginning ("Knots and Crosses") and read them all...it will make "Set in Darkness" all the more satisfying when you get to it.

Rankin's books about Inspector Rebus and his colleagues on the police force in Scotland are very bleak mysteries, with more than a shred of reality about them. Those who move from American mysteries where the protagonists are able to solve the crime and deal with a variety of other problems at the same time, may find Rankin's books hard to swallow. To me, they seem more like what truly happens in life...at the end of this book, Rebus is presented with the fact that his nemesis (who he had put away for a while) had just gotten away with not just one, but several murders...and there is not one thing that Rebus can do about it! No wonder Rebus is so bleak: his own personal life consists of alcohol and music and concern about his daughter who was hit by a car, he not only has to fight those up at the top who disagree with his manners of handling cases but he also has to deal with snakes on his force who have problems with the word 'No' from his female partner, and he runs into the darkest forms of human life on his beat and he cannot put them away (or deal with them as he would like and still remain within the law).

Rebus fights to come to terms with his own mortality and his own moral compasses in this book. Rankin's writing is excellent, and as per usual, the education they get over in Britain and Scotland (now a more separate entity) leaves our own educational system in the gutter. I find myself having to look some things up, and saving others for later because Rankin is writing over my head. Of course, I do not recognize the music he instills as a passion into Rebus, except for the very old stuff.

If there are any complaints about Rankins's books, it is that there are threads of plots all over the place...and weaving them into a whole is often difficult. Some of them make sense, such as Rebus' partner dealing with an overly ambitious coworker who she goes out with for a few times, and then decides not to see anymore outside of the 'office' because he doesn't interest her and his own moral compass is skewed. This guy stalks her, and unfortunately for him, doesn't do it well enough to keep her partner, Rebus, in the dark. When Rebus catches this idiot in the act, it colors their own perception of each other and they find it hard to work together to solve the homocides they are working on.

But the little thread of dual rapists is too much and adds little to the story, besides an inconvenience to be worked out. Life is not tidy, but neither is it as dark for most of us as Rebus finds it in this book. Sounds to me like Scotland gets as little light as we get in Pittsburgh, PA in the winter. Rankin even brings up Seasonal Diffective Disorder (SAD) which is a problem here because of sunlight. His work may be psyhologically dark, but I still want to go to Scotland to see the places he talks about historically.

Karen Sadler

By and large, fictional detectives aren't a cheery lot. Kay Scarpetta spends her time contemplating the ugliness of humanity, surrounded by corpses which illustrate man's inhumanity to man. The brilliant Adam Dalgliesh isn't exactly the life of the party, though he's an extremely sensitive soul who writes poetry - an intriguing character facet.

But Ian Rankin's Edinburgh police inspector John Rebus is a breed unto himself. He loves the Rolling Stones and rock music in general. He has terrible luck with women and drinks far too much for his own good. He's stubborn, often rude and causes his superiors a great deal of worry. How many of us can identify with us on one level or another?

Yet I'm always glad to see him in any new novel by Mr. Rankin and "Set In Darkness" does not disappoint. Rankin's Rebus is one of the most memorable characters in 20th century crime fiction. Though his is a morose personality, his dark sides never eclipse his basic humanity. He makes mistakes and bad choices in his personal life, but when it comes to solving a crime he's dead on and often at odds with his long-suffering co-workers.

This time, Rebus must solve the mystery of the death of Roddy Grieve, an up-and-coming member of the Scottish Parliment who possesses a surname I found rather interesting, given his tragic fate. Grieve turns up dead on the same piece of land where a new Scottish Parliment building is going to be built. But he's not the first body to turn up in the ruins of the building on this property which is being demolished - an unknown skeleton has preceeded Grieve in death and has been walled up in the old building. Who put it there? Who is it? And what's being covered up?

Rankin sprinkles his main story with well-constructed subplots. This time, Rebus is confronted with a co-worker who is also a stalker harrassing a police-women and personal friend of Rebus'.

To look at the world through Rebus' eyes is to see it through a painful lens. Yet his moody persona permeates memorable sequences and Rankin's plots are always delightfully twisted. I've read all the Inspector Rebus novels from the first to this latest one, and have never been disappointed in the least by any of them. Rankin's skill as a mystery writer is in the same superior league as P. D. James and Agatha Christie.

Hard-drinking, hard-smoking, divorced Edinburgh cop DI John Rebus is a man who does things his way as he moves through the brooding city of Edinburgh, searching for both his own lost soul and the criminals who lurk in its dark places. DI Derek Linford, in contrast, does things the boss's way, much to Rebus's chagrin.

Both are seconded to the police liaison team for the new Scottish Parliament at Queensberry House when a corpse is found hidden behind a fireplace in one of the parliament buildings. From the condition of the body, it appears that it's been there a long time, years, decades.

A few days later the body of Roddy Grieve, a Labor Party candidate for a seat in the new parliament, is found on the grounds. Grieve comes from a well-known Scottish family. His mother is a famous artist, his brother is a Tory MP, his sister is an ex-supermodel married to an ageing rock star and there is another brother who went missing 20 years ago. Sniffing about for clues as only he can, Rebus comes to suspect the body in the fireplace may be connected to Grieve's murder.

Meanwhile, Rebus's former partner, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, is driving home one evening when she happens to see a homeless man leap to his death from a bridge. Following up, she discovers that the supposedly poor and destitute man had over £400,000 in a building society account. He also had the same name as the man whose remains were found behind that fireplace.

Add to the above the escalating violence of a serial rapist who targets women in singles clubs and, as if that isn't enough, Rebus must face the unexpected prison release of his old nemesis, Edinburgh crime boss Big Ger Cafferty, whose interest in Rebus isn't exactly friendly. And through all this, Rebus has to work alongside Linford, a paper pusher on the fast track to promotion.

Little of modern Edinburgh has escaped Rankin's attention here. In fact, one might mistake this excellent novel as a travel guide about where not to go when visiting there. However, there is hope in this book, too. It's just that sometimes it's just a little hard to find, especially when Rankin writes about, corruption, homelessness and despair as if he's been there and seen it all. Yes, this is a dark book. It's also a book that stands apart from others in the genre. It's the kind of book the others aspire to.

First, a caveat: I am a die-hard Ian Rankin fan, eagerly snapping up anything he writes the minute I can find it available. If you are familiar with Rankin's wonderfully layered John Rebus, then by all means indulge in his newest title. Replete with political machinations, the basic storytelling is flawless--a great multiple murder mystery! If you are unfamiliar with Rankin's work, some of the nuances of shifting relationships may be lost on you, and that would be a shame. Rebus's complexity is such that over the course of the books featuring him, he becomes better known and more self-destructive with each new title. This is not the Rankin book to start with, but for those who have been interested in Rebus's faltering romantic life and, more importantly, his position at work and on-going thorn in Cafferty's side, the changing dynamics do not fail to satisfy.

This is a well written police procedural/hard boiled detective novel. Part of a popular series set in Edinburgh and featuring the distinctly hard boiled Detective Inspector Rebus. As with many novels in this genre, Rebus is flawed human being redeemed by his obsessive interest in pursuing the truth and establishing justice, features often unappreciated by his superiors. While hardly at the level of Raymond Chandler, these books are solid examples of the genre, written well with good plotting and creditable characters. Good entertainment reading.

In Queensbury House in Edinburgh, the Highlanders are pulling out their tartan colors, as the first Scottish parliament in about three centuries is to convene. To the chagrin of law enforcement officials everywhere, especially the more ambitious, the locale is right in the middle of Detective John Rebus' zone making him the liaison.

However, all is not well. As the restoration project continues on Queensbury House, the remains of a body are found as a fireplace is reopened. Not long afterward, an apparent suicide occurs near the site of the first person. Finally, a third corpse of a politician lies murdered in the outside gardens. On the surface the three dead people seem to not have a connecting thread except the locale. However, Rebus concludes tremendous profits can be made if you are on the right side of the new Scottish political power, but who would murder to fix the odds in their favor.

The John Rebus Scottish police procedurals are some of the best detective novels of the past decade. The latest tale, SET IN DARKNESS, brings to life insight into the Scottish parliament and a flavor for modern day Edinburgh. The murder mystery is intelligent and entertaining, and the characters, especially Rebus, retain that feeling of genuineness while dealing with power-struggles, and intrigue. The roles of several reoccurring secondary players fade into the backdrop this time around. Rebus retains his freshness inside an exciting police procedural.

Harriet Klausner