Saints of the Shadow Bible

Starred review from December 23, 2013
John Rebus comes out of retirement in Edgar-winner Rankin's stellar 20th novel featuring the Edinburgh cop (after 2013's Standing in Another Man's Grave). Rebus, though, must accept a demotionâfrom detective inspector to detective sergeantânot that he cares about rank. It's the case that counts, which in this entry involves "conspiracies, connections and coincidences." Malcolm Fox, the officer in charge of the Complaints department (the Scottish version of Internal Affairs), leads an investigation into whether a fast and loose group of cops in the mid-1980s known as the Saints of the Shadow Bible might have tainted a murder trial back when Rebus was a young officer. Rankin deftly ties the old case into a fresh one that begins with a seemingly routine car accident involving the daughter of a powerful businessman that soon expands to involve the suspicious death of the public face of the Scottish nationalist movement. The immense and intricate canvas includes dozens of characters, plots within plots, and multiple themes, from Scottish independence to the insidiousness of corruption, public and private. Too much may be going on at times for some readers, but distinctive characters (including Edinburgh itself) make the book memorable. "The good guys are never all good and the bad ones never all bad," says Rebus, and that certainly applies to Rebus himself, willful, determined, and droll. 8-city author tour.

Ian Rankin's latest Rebus mystery is stuffed full of multiple plotlines, but James MacPherson's pacing and various character voices keep the story rolling along with the listener hooked, and never confused. Rebus is once again an Edinburgh cop, thanks to a change in retirement policy, but at the cost of a demotion, which results in his former protégée, Siobhan Clarke, now outranking him. MacPherson's tones make clear that Rebus is still cranky and mischievously wayward while Clarke, who has less of a Scots brogue, is more controlled. MacPherson's fine performance includes gruff crooks, powerful businessmen, sleazy lawyers with stretched out syllables, and a slurring ex-police officer weakened by a stroke. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine