Let It Bleed

December 2, 1996
At the start of Rankin's powerful and absorbing latest tale, Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus (Mortal Causes, etc.) looks on helplessly as two young kidnapping suspects avoid capture by diving to their deaths from the icy Forth Road Bridge. Unable to drink away that image, Rebus must investigate another suicide. Ex-con "Wee Shug" McAnally shotgunned himself as local government councilor Tom Gillespie watched in horror. Rebus believes that McAnally chose his witness carefully, but when political higher-ups pressure the police brass, Rebus is forced off the inquiry. Pursuing his hunches with covert help from sympathetic colleagues, Rebus tries to decipher a document that might connect the suicides to development plans for "Silicon Glen," home of Edinburgh's computer industry. His suspicions increase when influential Scots hint at rewards if he'll let the case slide. Rebus sorts out these machinations while battling loneliness, toothache (it figures in the solution), alienation from his daughter and the tense reappearance of a former lover, Gill Templer, as his new boss. Rankin portrays an intriguingly complex Scotland, where a good copper, battling frigid winds and cruel manipulators, needs plenty of warming whiskey and selfless friends.

December 1, 1996
First, Edinburgh's Detective Inspector John Rebus (see The Black Book, Penzler: Macmillian, 1994) witnesses the suicide of two teenagers who falsely claimed to have abducted a runaway girl. Next, a recently released rapist kills himself in a councilman's presence. When Rebus starts pushing, certain that something sinister links the three deaths, political enemies push back, forcing him temporarily out of the game. As usual, Rankin's complex protagonist is assailed by problems with daughter, drink, and department. Recommended.

Starred review from December 1, 1996
Ex-swineherd and viniculturist Rankin writes another winning story featuring Detective Inspector John Rebus, the Don Quixote of the Scottish police. Rebus once again finds himself tilting at windmills as bodies pile up, and the stakes--Rebus' career, political future, and possibly the economic health of Scotland--get higher. The first victims are two kids, potential kidnap suspects whose spectacular and gory leap off a bridge after a high-speed police chase gives even the hardened Rebus nightmares. Then a rapist, recently released from prison, kills himself in front of a district councillor. The two cases seem unrelated until Rebus discovers a tenuous and surprising link--a link that someone wants desperately to hide. Rankin is a genius at finding the perfect blend of curmudgeonly guile, stubborn gruffness, and unsuspecting vulnerability for Rebus, who, despite his many faults, is a refreshing if lonely champion of truth and justice. Rankin also delivers sparkling wit, superb plotting, and a host of surprising twists to keep readers completely, charmingly off balance. ((Reviewed December 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)