Customer Reviews

Strip Jack

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ian Rankin once again proves that he is amongst the best, if not the best writer of Crime Fiction in the world. Strip Jack has all the twists and turns that make Ian Rankin's books unputdownable. The plot, MP wife's suspicious disappearance and subsequent murder, moves along really well. The numerous sub-plots, unlike in some stories, actually help the book to move along rather than detract from the main story. As usual all the plot lines are integral to the story. All in all an excellent addition to the Rebus series, if you like good British Detective fiction (and who doesn't, it is the best after all) this is a must for your library.

As Ian Rankin's series progresses, Detective Inspector John Rebus is becoming more and more likable. This time he's trying to solve the murder of a local MP's wife. He comes up against the usual brick walls put up by superior officers on the way to solving the case, but in this book for the first time, he seems to have made a friend in the force in young DS Brian Holmes.

I'm finding the Insector John Rebus books even more enjoyable since the newer, mellow John Rebus has been developed.

A wonderful British police procedural full of wit and glint-in-the-eye humour.

I cannot believe that the reader from Chicago found this book so Bad. I however enjoyed it hugely. This was the first Inspector Rebus novel I read, and I'm looking forward to read a lot more. With out spoiling the novel, its about a MP who is caught in a brothel whos wife is murdered. If you like novels with twists and turns and masses of tension and touches of humour then you will love this book.

This is my first Ian Rankin novel. Although I find the TV version of Rebus (BBC) interesting and stylish, the episodes are very moody, dark and gristly. I was a little worried that the book would be the same way, however, it was excellent, witty and complicated! The reader took a little getting used to, but I got into it and enjoyed it.

I am giving it 4 stars instead of five because I thought the ending was good, but not great.

Another reviewer refers to the "new, mellower" Rebus, so maybe the earlier works are violent. I can only say that I will keep on reading Rankin!

STRIP JACK is not one of the stronger books in the "Rebus" series. In this one, Rebus becomes interested in the trials and tribulations of an MP who is caught during a raid on a brothel. This leads to a couple of murders that may or may not be related and Rebus getting involved just out of curiosity. Rankin just seems to be going through the motions on this one, the mysteries are not very interesting and relatively straight forward, Rebus's usual emotional response seems distant and he seems to be in a state of befuddlement about life, career, and even the politics involved in the case. STRIP JACK lacks the laser-like focus of Rankin's other episodes and while I don't think Rankin has written a bad Rebus novel, this one is just a filler.

And I think it's safe to say I couldn't find a successful complaint. The characters are complex and human, thankfully drawn out in a 3-D shape which helped me actuall care about the characters. John Rebus is no hero, he's just a guy who does his damn job. Brian Holmes I found to be a good character, quite happy with his involvement.

I never once found myself bored by this book and was quite impressed with how Ian Rankin kept me entertained with his mix of dark humour and dark side of the streets of Scotland. It's a bit hard to join up in the middle of a series but I think Ian Rankin did well with that part of the job. I hope I will read more of Ian Rankin's boks and hope I am as entertained by them as I was by this one.

"MP Gregor Jack is caught in an Edinburgh brothel with a prostitute who is only too keen to show off her considerable assets. Initially, Detective Inspector Rebus is sympathetic to the MP's dilemma - who hasn't occasionally succumbed to temptation? The Jack's wife disappears. Someone want's to strip Jack naked and Rebus want's to know why."

Having grown up in Scotland I've read quite a few of these out of pure nostalgia for the olde country......this one is perhaps the best I've read so far as Rankin ditches the faux working class realism of junkies and serial killers and moves into perhaps his own (and therefore most comfortable) world, that of the Range Rover driving middle classes. At heart Rebus, with his flat and his girlfriends and hi-fi, is still a middle class hero, and I can picture him having a couple of pints with Inspector Morse, even if Rankin would perhaps shudder at that thought........

When I chanced upon Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series I took no chances and tucked into it with gusto. The first in the series, Knots and Crosses wasn't all that, in fact it wasn't a very stron mystery. But as I went through the series one by one, the experienced stopped being a slop and became more os a joy. This book has been very entertaining and has rewarded my faith in Rankin.

The storyline and plot are structures in Rankin's novels. Not that they are bad but they are merely one of many reasons to read the book. His writing is gossipy, psychological, sometimes schizophrenic but always rewarding to the reader because it encompasses so much. This story had the best flowing narrative so far. The description of the crime scene investigation part of the story is detailed, horryfying, and fascinating, even though it is just a peripheral part of the story. The discourses on books and the literary world is also fascinating but also peripheral. This series embodies all that is great with a multifaceted explorarion of crime and crime solving with hte grit and realism of a Dashiel Hammett novel.

This is the fifth of the series that I've read, and all I can say is that Rankin/Rebus get better as the series grows and so does the character. Rankin does a good job of filling in the personality of Rebus and his supporting cast ('Farmer' Watson, 'Fart' Lauderdale, Brian Holmes...etc) and their working relationships.

In this book we also get a travelogue of the areas north of Edinburgh, but we also get an insight into how Rankin/Rebus feels about politics, the old and new rich, the pressure that the media can put on the police, as well as the presumption of authority.

All in all this is a fine addition to the series.

I highly recommend this fine Inspector Rebus novel by Rankin. Excellent crime/detective novel based in Scotland, providing a worthwhile alternative to the plethora of US novels. Read it if you like crime novels with a twist!