FIRST BOOK IN THE Inspector John Rebus SERIES

This should be a short story. More time spent on the hangups of this cop than on the crime, taking character development to a "filling the pages" bloating level. The author is no Jo Nesbo. Not sure if I want to read his series of books.

A nice introduction to the series and Inspector Rebus. I liked the character development as well. On to number two in the series for me.

A better than average crime thriller. Rankin could be thought of as a British equivalent of David Hosp. That is, his protagonist (in this case a police detective) is not an arms-length professional sleuth but is directly and very personally involved with the crime situation. And like Hosp, Rankin's characters are damaged, conflicted individuals, muddling along rather than the sort of clever, crafty, ingenious operatives created by such writers as Christie or Doyle. As such, Rankin's Inspector Rebus is quite a believable fellow and the series of crimes he is facing here are likewise realistic.
Despite all that, for me the book failed to build up to the level of emotional involvement that the situation ought to have reached in the later chapters, partly because Rankin didn't take the trouble to develop the character of his daughter Sammy or Rebus' relationship with her and partly due to Rankin's low-key style. All of which places it in the ranks of fairly routine 3-star crime novels; diversionary reading but ultimately pretty light fare.

This is the first Ian Rankin book I ever read. It was a very fast read. Interesting plot. Some of his "one-liners" were quite humorous. Made for a very enjoyable read. I liked the character John Rebus so much that I am currently reading second "Rebus" novel "Hide and Seek".

A differunt kind of crime story. More mystery but very will written and a page turner without violent descriptions. If all TV and most movies were like this we would have a nicer world.

The must read start to the whole series, this novel gives you an introduction to Rebus & the history of how he ended up where he is.

Entertaining read

This was written in '87 and it was Rankin's first Rebus book.

I've come to this book having read almost all of the other Rebus material. I would say this is Rankin's weakest effort. Although maybe I'm just jaded after wading through all the others.

Frankly, stories featuring a perpetually depressed, alcoholic misanthrope can get kind of old.

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