Rather Be the Devil

November 21, 2016
A 1978 cold case brings John Rebus out of semiretirement in Edgar-finalist Rankin’s complex 23rd novel featuring the Edinburgh copper (after 2015’s Even Dogs in the Wild). Crabby from giving up cigarettes and more afraid than he would like to admit about impending medical results, Rebus reexamines the unsolved murder of Maria Turquand, the wife of a wealthy banker with a penchant for sleeping around, at Edinburgh’s classy Caledonian hotel. Meanwhile, Det. Insp. Siobahn Clarke has her hands full with the beating of gangster Darryl Christie, who swears his injuries came at the behest of one of the city’s biggest crime bosses, Big Ger Cafferty, who just happens to be Rebus’s nemesis cum confidante. Det. Insp. Malcolm Fox, on loan from Police Scotland, looks into possible money laundering schemes involving not only Christie but also the heir to the banking fortune that made the Turquands millionaires back in the ’70s. With its trademark blend of sharp wit and even sharper police work, this entry is yet another example of why Rankin remains in the top echelon of Scottish crime writers.

December 1, 2016
A rogue cop who won't stay retired has even less incentive to follow the rules when an old murder leads to a new crime.It's no wonder that John Rebus can't let go of a case, since he's only partly enjoying his forced retirement. Having dinner at Edinburgh's old Caledonian Hotel, he recalls the 1978 murder of Maria Turquand that took place there; thinking about the cold case distracts him from ominous signs that his past disregard for his own health is catching up with him. So he asks his old friend and former colleague DI Siobhan Clarke if she can smuggle him the case files even though she's in the thick of investigating the assault of a rising star in local organized crime. Malcolm Fox, recently promoted to the glory of the centralized Scottish Crime Campus, is called back to Edinburgh to be eyes and ears on the assault case, causing additional tension with Siobhan, who, they both know, was equally qualified for the promotion. Then Robert Chatham, the ex-detective who'd handled the Turquand case, is fished out of the harbor--and it wasn't suicide. Rebus, who'd talked to Chatham shortly before he died, insinuates himself into the investigation of the latest murder and its possible connection to a money-laundering operation, an attempt to blackmail Fox, a large sum of missing cash, an equally missing tycoon, and the overshadowing presence of a veteran crime lord. The intertwining plots and relationships will be easier going for readers well-versed in the Rebus rubric, but newcomers will still be able to follow and appreciate the series' finely crafted new entry. If the word "dour" hadn't already been in the English vocabulary, it would have had to be invented for Rankin (Even Dogs in the Wild, 2015, etc.) and his enduring detective. Luckily, the author is as tireless in delivering the goods as his creation is in solving tough cases.

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Starred review from December 15, 2016
It's a setup as old as the genre: an unofficial sleuth keeps butting in on a police investigation while the coppers get increasingly pissed. But give the setup a quarter turn to the left, and make the sleuth not some blueberry muffinbaking amateur but John Rebus, the legendary but now retired Edinburgh detective, and you have a very different situation. Rankin has been improvising on this theme ever since he wisely decided to reinvent the Rebus series after the curmudgeonly detective turned in his shield (Exit Music, 2008). This time the spur in Rebus' saddle comes from his recollection of an unsolved murder (promiscuous society lady killed in fancy hotel, possibly by a gangster); intrigued and needing something to do, Rebus begins to walk back the case, but soon enough he's strolled into a mess of trouble involving turf battles both within the police and among Scotland's reigning crime lords. There's lots of juicy interplay between outsider Rebus and his successors, Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox, but best of all, there's the re-emergence of another character on whom the mantle of retirement is sitting awkwardly: Big Ger Cafferty, former crime boss and Rebus' longtime frenemy. The ongoing pas de deux between these two aging antiheroes has been one of the best things in crime fiction for years, but Rankin kicks it up several notches here, with both men facing mortality and screaming in two-part harmony against the dying of the light.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2016

Rankin, who comes clutching an Edgar in one hand and a Gold Dagger in the other, brings us another mystery starring D.I. John Rebus, never mind that he's retired. He just can't let rest a socialite's 1970s death at a ritzy Edinburgh hotel.

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