Includes a brand new introduction by the author. Reissued in the stunning new livery. All the backlist are being reissued in the new look. Ian Rankin is a regular Sunday Times bestseller and Guardian fastseller. He has an incredibly high profile: in 2003, he had his own TV series (Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts), received his OBE, guested on Newsnight Review and is a constant contributor to the national press. He has won numerous awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger and the Edgar Award. Rankin now makes up more than 10 per cent of all UK crime sales. He also constantly gets excellent reviews: 'Rebus resurgent... a brilliantly meshed plot which delivers on every count... Eleventh in the series. Still making waves' Literary Review. 'Arguably Scotland's finest living writer' The Times. 'With each book I find myself wondering if he can pull it off again; so far he has never failed... They call his work crime fiction, but the adjective is superfluous... these novels are totally absorbing' Spectator. 'This is crime fiction at its best' Washington Post.
Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus books are now translated into twenty-two languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America's celebrated Edgar Award for 'Resurrection Men'. He has also been shortlisted for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the USA, and won Denmark's Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the Deutscher Krimipreis. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews and Edinburgh. A contributor to BBC2's 'Newsnight Review', he also presented his own TV series, 'Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts'. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons.
In the 12th novel in the increasingly engaging Inspector Rebus series (Knots and Crosses; Dead Souls; etc.), Gold Dagger award-winner Rankin has woven a plot grittier and tighter than ever. When a body, long dead, is found on the site of the new Scottish Parliament and is soon followed by another, fresher kill, this time that of a leading candidate for the new governing body, Rebus is convinced of a connection between the two. Det. Siobhan Clarke witnesses a third death, the suicide of a surprisingly wealthy homeless man; the question of where his wealth came from seems related to the other deaths. Clarke, a determined young woman trying to make her way in the male world of police work, is a refreshing, complex addition to this series. Meanwhile, Big Ger Cafferty, arch foe of our hero, has been released from jail; he's terminally ill (or is he?) and apparently wants some quality time with Rebus in his final hours. By incorporating other strong characters, Rankin has saved the series from burrowing too far into the maudlin introspection associated with Rebus's drinking problem. Topical Scottish nationalism and the new Parliament, along with Rankin's consistently fascinating view of Edinburgh's seedy side, give the novel interest beyond its plot. And the plot is worthy of the series: raging and racing and teetering on the edge of falling apart, before Rankin slams the reader with a final masterful twist. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
For those planning a trip to Edinburgh anytime soon, Rankin's (Dead Souls) novel can serve as a guideDto places to avoid. D.I. John Rebus, of the drinking problem and the surly attitude, is back in a bigger and darker tale that indicts most of Scottish life from its new politics to its old-boy network. Rebus is assigned to a committee that will oversee the refurbishment of Queensberry House, the site of the new Scottish Parliament. From the start, he locks horns with Derek Linford, the inexperienced D.I., who is also the current darling of the higher-ups. From beneath the rubble on which Edinburgh rests, the skeletons start emerging. One desiccated body is found walled up in the site, the remains of violence that occurred 30 years ago. Then the corpse of a prospective member of the new Parliament turns up on the grounds. When a "tramp" who throws himself on the tracks at Waverly Station turns out to have a bank account of 400,000, Rebus wonders if all three deaths are somehow connected. Amid a very large cast, it's difficult sometimes to tell who's who and what's what or to tell the police from their adversaries without a guide. And that's the sobering point of this latest outing from one of the very best practitioners of police procedurals around today. Recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/00.]DBob Lunn, Kansas City P.L. MO Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
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