Hide and Seek (Ian Rankin, 1990)

When in Knots & Crosses Rebus discovered that his daughter had been kidnapped, his first response was a pathetic whining, "Jesus Christ. Help me, oh help me.... Dear God, let her be safe. Dear God, let her live." In this one, he returns to the crime scene on a routine inspection (I think) and realises that somebody has added some Zodiac signs type of shit to the previously painted pentagram on the wall. And, since the paint is still fresh, what do you think his reaction would be this time?  I quote: "Superstitious to his core, Rebus turned on his heels and fled, not bothering to relock the door behind him."

??!???

I'm not saying that all our heroes should be as tough as Mike Hammer or Shaft (nobody, of course, is, btw), but this is simply ridiculous. I can understand that Mr Rankin was trying to portray his protagonist as human as possible and can somehow even forgive him for sending poor old John to the church, but can we please draw a line at some point?

Courage isn't the only quality of Rebus that hasn't improved much from the last time around. Even though he has been promoted to Detective Sergeant and has acquired a junior partner (one with the shoe leather, while he is the brains), his detective skills have remained relatively poor. We are on page 171, and the case just doesn't move anywhere. Then, we finally get another corpse on page 179, which results in Rebus having a revelation (an epiphany, even) ten painfully boring pages later.

But he doesn't really need some incredible lucidity to solve this fucker because plotting is non-existent and full of holes. Let me throw you just a couple of examples. His ex-girlfriend's boyfriend is somehow involved in the case, and also, even better, one of his main suspects attacks his new partner's girlfriend and tells her where the crucial piece of evidence is located later when she visits her in the hospital. According to Wikipedia, almost 850 thousand people live in Edinburgh, so you can calculate for yourself the odds of those things happening.

Plot is as predictive as they come. It starts with a mandatory small-time crime (murder of a junkie disguised as an overdose), a bit spiced up with already mentioned occult crap and some "shady" characters thrown into the pot, and finally climaxes in the revelation of corruption and moral decay of the city's high society. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but in this book, it just doesn't work. Especially the ending is horrible because Rebus has a substantial amount of solid evidence, plus witness testimonials. Yet, for some reason unknown to me, he decides to assemble a group of loyal policemen and assaults this sinister nightclub in a good old Eliot Ness manner.

I honestly have no idea about where this "Unsurpassed among living British crime writers" crap comes from. This is just another below-average police procedural.

2/5

Facts:

Hero: 
Detective Inspector John Rebus

Location:
Edinburgh - AIDS, heart disease and false teeth capitol of Britain.

Body count:

5

Dames: 

/

Blackouts: 
None, although he's pretty close to one when Tracy kicks him in the balls.

Title: 
Highly original, especially in the crime genre...

Cover: 
As exciting as the novel and as original as the title.

Cool lines:

/

Knots & Crosses (Ian Rankin, 1987)

I don't care much for these modern crime writers who publish their novels on an assembly line. It's not a snobbish thing; I find most of these books predictable and boring. But I do have a habit of checking out a local author when I visit a new country/city. So last year I (finally!) had an opportunity to go to Edinburgh's famous Fringe festival (btw - soooo cool!) and a friend had recommended me to check out Rankin's Rebus.

And no surprise really, it's just another one of those formulaic "catch a serial killer" thrillers that focuses far too much on its main protagonist and not enough on the plot development. And as hard as Mr Rankin tries to make him original, Rebus is as stereotyped as they come. He's an ex-SAS (top of his class!), weary, divorced, drinks too much, tries to quit smoking, doesn't get along with his superiors, does manage to get laid, etc.

The story is trivial and told straightforwardly through the third-person narration. Few flashbacks and a couple of sub-plots involving brother Michael and (once again mandatory) unscrupulous news reporter. Also, a few hints indicating that some seriously fucked-up shit had happened to our hero during his service days. Which, I guess, is supposed to give this novel its "psychological" thriller edge. Anyways, mysterious "Strangler" is abducting and killing young girls, and Rebus seems to be somehow related to this because he keeps getting cryptic messages (there are clues everywhere) from this sinister asshole.

Plotting is basically non-existent, but this lack of suspense gives us the most hilarious twist. Because - check this, I kid you not! - The whole of Edinburgh's police force is understandably working around the clock to catch this killer, but still they fail to recognise that the initials of his victims form the name of the next unfortunate girl. They actually realise this when they receive a telephone call from a concerned citizen who had managed to solve this incredibly difficult riddle. Jesus, I feel sorry for the Scottish taxpayers.

This is getting a bit mean and nasty, so I'll stop. Mainly because, in all fairness, it's not that bad, I'm sure that a more skilful writer could pull a good short story (stripped of all the family crap) out of this material. But you can just tell that this was Rankin's first book, and he was trying too hard to create his hero and dark atmosphere and had, in the process, simply failed to develop a decent mystery story.

2.5/5

Facts:

Hero:
Detective Sergeant John Rebus

Location: 
Edinburgh

Body count: 

4

Dames: 
Gill Templer, Press Liaison Officer

Blackouts: 
Rebus, unable to move, decided it was safe to go to sleep now...

Title: 
Rebus had been sent knots and crosses as a part of a cat-and-mouse game with the Strangler. 

Cover:
Pretty unimaginative one. I guess it is a picture of some site in Edinburgh.

Cool lines:  
"We don't want vigilante tactics. Not in Edinburgh. What would the tourists say?"