SleuthSayers: Late Style (Review of A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin)

SleuthSayers: Late Style: Art historians and critics are fond of talking about 'late style'. By this they don't mean the usual age- related deterioration ...

Crime Watch: Review: IN A HOUSE OF LIES

Crime Watch: Review: IN A HOUSE OF LIES: IN A HOUSE OF LIES by Ian Rankin (Headline, 2018) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson Everyone has something to hide. A missing private invest...

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin

In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown and Company, December 2018) is the 23^rd book in the contemporary police procedural series set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featuring former Detective Inspector John Rebus.

Rebus is long retired, reaching mandatory retirement age a few books ago. (Rankin has often said that if he knew the required retirement age of the Scotland police force at the time he started writing this series, he would have made Rebus younger to give him more active time on the police force.) Rankin has had to look for ways to keep him credibly involved with the current undertakings of the local police. First he brought him back as temporary staff to clear up a cold case backlog, and then he created cases with some element of history that requires the investigating team to ask Rebus to explain it.

This latest title involves the discovery of the body of a private investigator who had been missing for about a dozen years. What was once a missing persons case is now an established homicide, and all of the original files must be reviewed. The original investigating team members, including Rebus, are interviewed and their reports are re-evaluated. From the beginning the family of the missing man filed complaint after complaint about the police’s failure to locate their son, who was openly gay, and hints of police homophobia, incompetence, and corruption hover over the re-opened case.

Siobhan Clark, former subordinate and wingman to Rebus, is assigned to the project and serves as an information conduit to Rebus. Matthew Fox comes back into the picture, after having been elsewhere for a few books. Rebus as usual does his own looking under rocks and behind doors, trying hard to pull his old frenemy Big Ger Cafferty into the frame. He has never been successful in putting this old crime boss away, and it continues to gall him. As usual in this series justice takes different shapes and colors in the end.

I won a character name in a Rebus book in a mystery conference charity auction years ago and this is the book my name appears in. The forensic anthropologist is Aubrey Hamilton, who makes a few appearances to work with the pathologist and the soils analytical expert. It’s always entertaining to see how authors decide to use my name. In this case I’m pleased to see it in a book that continues to uphold the high standards of this bestselling series with well-realized characters and a convoluted plot, in which everyone has something to hide.

·         Hardcover: 384 pages

·         Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (December 31, 2018)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 0316479209

·         ISBN-13: 978-0316479202

Aubrey Hamilton ©2018

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Saturdays With Kaye: Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin

Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin

In lovely continental fashion, this book spins a complicated plot and contains a host of characters, set in Scotland. If I counted correctly, this is the 24^th Rebus novel. No, it’s not A rebus, it features a character, John Rebus who, after all those books, is now retired. Or he’s supposed to be. You can’t keep a good detective down, though.

He’s trying to keep busy, puttering around with old unsolved cases. However, when he starts digging into one involving a famous rock star and the murder of a beautiful woman, something strange happens. Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke catches a murder that rings a bell connected with this old case for Rebus. Another old friend, DI Malcolm Fox has been transferred to Gartcosh, causing ill feelings when he’s sent to Edinburgh to help out. Neither of the three want to work with each other. An elaborate money-laundering trail leads through a betting parlor connected with people familiar to Rebus. Meanwhile, Rebus is hiding his physical condition from everyone, spitting up blood from his COPD on the sly. The awkward team works beatings and dead bodies to arrive at a conclusion of sorts.

This is a darkish read with a high body count. Readers familiar with the characters will welcome them back and love this book.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Requiem in Red, for Suspense Magazine