A Question of Blood - Hardcover

Rankin, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752851101 ISBN 13: 9780752851105

Publisher: Orion, 2003

Synopsis

A shooting incident at a private school just north of Edinburgh. Two seventeen-year olds killed by an ex-Army loner who has gone off the rails. As Detective Inspector John Rebus puts it, 'there's no mystery'... except the why. But this question takes Rebus into the heart of a shattered community. Ex-Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone. Army investigators are on the scene, and won't be shaken off. The killer had friends and enemies to spare - ranging from civic leaders to the local Goths - leaving behind a legacy of secrets and lies. Rebus has more than his share of personal problems, too. He's fresh out of hospital, hands heavily bandaged, and he won't say how it happened. Could there be a connection with a house-fire and the unfortunate death of a petty criminal who had been harrassing Rebus's colleague Siobhan Clarke? Rebus's bosses seem to think so...

About this title

Review:

Sometimes crime affects you directly: in A Question of Blood Inspector John Rebus is caught up in two cases that are closer to home than he would like. He is under investigation for the burning alive of a minor psychopath who threatened his attractive young sergeant Siobhan Clarke; and the son of an estranged cousin has been murdered in a high-school shooting.

As always in Rankin's novels, Rebus's bad attitude to his superiors comes back to bite him: even though doctors testify that damage to his hands is a scalding from trying drunkenly to get into an over-hot bath, it is regarded as circumstantial evidence of his possible guilt. The high-school shooting looks at first sight like another ex-SAS crazy going wild--and here Rebus's own past as an SAS washout comes to haunt him--and the constant meddling of army investigators screams cover-up. In fact, though, this is one of those occasions on which Rebus's slightly paranoid preparedness to see connections everywhere pays off and he manages to solve both crimes and a lot of other unsuspected pieces of mayhem besides. Along the way, the book offers Rankin's usual intense commentary on embattled masculinity and what it means to be a Scot, and this excellent sequence's usual portrayal of an Edinburgh where modernity rubs up against time-worn slums and ancient privilege. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

Excellent (SUNDAY TIMES)

Splendidly-woven yarn...if there still are people unaware of Rankin and Rebus, this would make a great introduction (Rab Anderson SUNDAY EXPRESS)

Rankin expertly keeps us on a knife-edge...He is on top form here - unremitting pleasure (Cath Staincliffe TANGLED WEB)

He writes with a natural rhythmn which exerts an almost hypnotic effect (THE INDEPENDENT - Andrew Taylor)

You'll love every second of it (DAILY MIRROR 4-STARS)

Exemplifies the enhanced craftmanship of the author's recent work; the sheer number of handicaps Rebus overcomes and of the puzzles he solves evinces a relishable virtuosity (SUNDAY TIMES - John Dugdale)

A rich absorbing narrative in which the focus is not on who did it - that we know - but why. Artful, moving and entertaining (THE OBSERVER - Peter Gutteridge)

Ian Rankin's John Rebus...is a flawed but very human creation, and his Edinburgh and its inhabitants beautifully drawn and utterly real (IRISH INDEPENDENT - Myles McWeeney)

Exceptionally well-plotted book, which is guaranteed to hook you and keep you hooked (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - Antonia Fraser)

Skilfully composed and powerfully written, with a vein of compassion that Rankin taps to startling and justified effect (LITERARY REVIEW - Philip Oakes)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0752851101
• ISBN 13: 9780752851105
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368