Customer Rating:  
Summary: Would Have Loved to Give this a Five
Comment: After twenty odd years of being a 'copper' Rebus will have to retire because he has reached retirement age. With ten days left he has one last murder to solve, which then becomes two and a mugging. The victims of the murders are a Russian Poet, a studio recording engineer (who worked with the poet) and the mugging is of Big Ger Cafferty.
Just like any Rankin mystery, there is plenty of political and underworld underhanded action going on. Though the polemics about Scotland and the independence movement get to be boring after awhile (thus the four stars). But the ending and the perpetrators of the two murders and the mugging are finally flushed out though only one is settled before the end of the book. Though the actual ending was a little to over the top (almost pathetic).
One of the things that Rankin has done is to once and for all to tie Big Ger and Rebus together. One of the nurses asks Rebus if Ger is his brother because they look alike. But Ger had lost his wife and son and had no family. Rebus lost his brother, divorced his wife (or she him) and his daughter he never sees is in London. Neither one of them had anything left but the 'job'.
It would be interesting for Rankin to write about Siobhan Clarke and how she gets on with Rebus retired. Rankin does have someone mention to Rebus about a group of retired cops (SCRU) who work on 'cold' cases. But I think that was a 'red herring', we'll just have to wait and see.
Zeb Kantrowitz
Customer Rating:
Summary: We'll Miss the Misfit
Comment: This is the nineteenth and probably the last in Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series because Rebus has been put out to pasture, retired. His bosses say good riddance, and the only one who seems to care what happens to him is Siobhan Clarke, Shiv, his female sidekick, who learned how to cut corners and rile supervisors from him. His arch-nemesis, the gangster Big Ger Cafferty is deeply involved in this book and by the end lies at death's door.
A Russian poet-dissident as well as an audio specialist are murdered, and there are plenty of suspects to go around. It's a complex novel with numerous strands, but it is well-plotted, and readers will find it engrossing.
We're going to miss Rebus who is Scotland's answer to Michael Connelly's rebellious L.A. cop Harry Bosch. Rankin always does a good job drawing subsidiary characters, bringing out nuances, quirks, and tics.
The denouement is satisfying and the clever solutions will satisfy most readers. As Rebus is investigating, he finds the business overworld is worse than the underworld. The story is told with wit and humor and with a deep understanding of what makes people tick. Shiv, thinking of a building destroyed because the wiring had gone bad, muses, "Wiring gone bad: a fair description of Rebus himself at times."
We feel sorry seeing Rebus being tossed on the junk heap. "For three decades now, this job of his had sustained him, and all it had cost him was his marriage and a slew of friendships and shattered relationships."
The opening pages get us into the story quickly, economically. It's a clear-cut narrative style with no extraneous stuff. The parrying between various characters is done deftly.
Perhaps Rankin will resurrect Rebus by giving us some of his earlier cases, or perhaps Shiv will become the series main character with Rebus assisting from some bar stool.
Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful book by Ian Rankin, one of his best.
Comment: I have read all of Rankin's novels and this is one of the best. I only hope that Rebus did not make his exit and there are many more novels involing this brilliant policeman.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rankin
Comment: I've read most of Mr. Rankin's John Rebus books and this is a terrific addition.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Last case?
Comment: Is this Rebus' last case? Only Ian Rankin knows!
I have read or listened to all the Rebus novels and Rankins free-standing novels and was quite disappointed that this one was so dull. Endless conversational speculations about the Russian characters, the politics, and, of course, Big Ger Cafferty, Rebus' long time nemesis. But not much happens. Very little action and developments in the investigation into the poet Todorov's murder are glacially paced. The best moments come in the last two pages. Jump to the end? Your choice.
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