Resurrection Men (A Rebus Novel) - Hardcover

Rankin, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752821318 ISBN 13: 9780752821313

Publisher: Orion, 2001

Synopsis

Rebus is off the case - quite literally. A few days into a murder inquiry following the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer, Rebus blows up at his superior, DCS Gill Templer, and is sent into purdah. Which, in his case, means the Scottish Police College, sited on the edge of a village in central Scotland. Rebus has been sent there for 'retraining'. In other words, it's his Last Chance Saloon. He is not alone. At the college, he is put into a group of similar officers - people who have a problem with the very institution which houses them. They are given an old unsolved case to work on. It will hopefully teach them the merits of teamwork, while allowing professionals the chance to assess this unholy 'wild bunch'. But there are those in the team who have their own secrets - secrets not unconnected to the very case they've been given - and they'll stop at nothing to protect them.

As if that wasn't enough, the Scottish Crime Squad have a favour to ask of Rebus. They think they've found someone who can deliver the inside info on the east coast's biggest gangster, 'Big Ger' Cafferty. All they need is a link-man, someone to act as go-between. They've decided on Rebus, whether he likes it or not. Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, newly-promoted Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke must work the case of the murdered art dealer, a case which will take her closer to Cafferty and his world than she could ever have anticipated...

About this title

Review:

Rebus is back. Resurrection Men, the 13th DI Rebus novel, finds Ian Rankin’s doughty detective off the case. He explodes at his superior DCS Gill Templar over the increasingly frustrating murder inquiry into the savage killing of an Edinburgh art dealer and his punishment is a spell cooling his heels at the Scottish Police College in central Scotland. Rebus balks at his "retraining" but he’s not alone: he’s part of an ill-assorted group of similar officers--all with an attitude problem and a dislike of the institution they find themselves in. Given an old unsolved case to work on the group is obliged to polish up their teamwork while supervisors assess the reprobates. But some of the team have secrets not unconnected to the case they’ve been handed and Rebus finds that anything goes when it comes to keeping the past obscured.

This is Rankin in top form with Rebus rejuvenated by the edgy new milieu he’s dropped into. Complicating things, the Scottish Crime Squad asks Rebus to act as a link to someone who can deliver the inside dirt on an old nemesis, gangster "Big Ger" Cafferty. In Edinburgh, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke has to take over the case of the murdered art dealer and, like Rebus, finds herself getting closer to the unpleasant Mr Cafferty. Forget the miscast John Hannah in the TV movies, this is the real Rebus: gritty, idiomatic and etched in prose that wastes nae a word in its redefining of the crime novel. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

This is Rankin at his best, and, boy, that's saying something (TIME OUT)

Quite apart from their excellence as detective novels, every one of them adds something interesting to our understanding of the social landscape of Edinburgh, which Rankin portrays with such subtlety and sensitivity (THE TIMES)

As is usual with Rebus novels, the plot is so thick you could stand a spoon up in it ... Rankin's Rebus novels should be required reading for anyone whose knowledge of Edinburgh has been derived from visits to the Festival ... Rankin is still very much a Category A crime writer (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

Resurrection Men is Rebus's 13th outing, and it bears all the qualities that have established Rankin as one of Britain's leading novelists in any genre: a powerful sense of place; a redefinition of Scotland and its past; persuasive dialogue; and a growing compassion among its characters' (NEW STATESMAN)

As Ian Rankin and Inspector Rebus are regular visitors to the bestsellers list I see no reason why Resurrection Men should not follow that well-trodden path. All the Rankin virtues are present - compulsive readability, sharp dialogue, the believable pettiness of the police procedural background and, looming over the book as ever, the formidable presence of the Jekyll-and-Hyde city of Edinburgh. There is also, at times, a wonderful economy that can capture an entire atmosphere in a few words (DAILY MAIL)

Rankin is pretty much unrivalled at the vivid delineation of character. John Rebus, tormented, dogged, moral, his prickliness repelling those he most wants to attract, remains one of the great creations of modern mystery fiction. Resurrection Men is right up there with the best of this terrific series (OBSERVER)

In the Rebus books Rankin has created an Edinburgh that is textured, vivid, plausible, perhaps even real ... Even viewed solely as a whodunit, Resurrection Men stands some distance above the competition. Rankins juggles three tense and fascinating, apparently unrelated cases, each of which for a lesser writer would be a book in itself, before late in the novel drawing them together in a clever, unexpected but utterly convincing denouement (DAILY EXPRESS)

Rankin is a phenomenon. He has made Edinburgh an imaginary or rather fully imagined city as nobody, except Spark, has done since Stevenson ... With each book I find myself wondering if he can pull it off again; so far he has never failed. I would rather read Rankin than any other living Scottish writer except Muriel Spark and William McIlvanney ... They call his work crime fiction, but the adjective is superfluous ... these novels are totally absorbing. Once I start reading one, all else goes by the board till I have finished it (Allan Massie SPECTATOR)

The thirteenth novel in Rankin's Rebus series is his most mature work yet. His pacing is so acute and the supporting characters are so well drawn that this book escapes the shackles of the crime novel genre and can be classed as great fiction, full stop (TIMES PLAY)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0752821318
• ISBN 13: 9780752821313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448