The Black Book by Ian Rankin

The Black Book by Ian Rankin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One of the earlier Rebus books. Rebus is still establishing himself in the heart of the reader. He has rented out his flat to a bunch of college going kids and has moved in with Dr. Patience. His brother is in jail for drug abuse.
Bodies are being dumped off a cliff at regular intervals and another police man is coshed in the vicinity where the bodies are being dumped.
Rebus's colleague Holmes being coshed behind a restaurant that he visits.
A man straggles in to a butcher's (they are related) with his stomach being sliced open. The man refuses to cooperate with the police and refuses to file a police report.
Rebus' brother comes back and piles into Rebus' home along with the students.
Rebus is kicked out by Dr. Patience who has had enough of his lack of inattention to her.
Rebus starts looking into a five year old case in which a hotel was burnt down and a body of a person who was shot was found in it.
Rebus' brother is taken in a van and is suspended from a bridge and he starts suffering from fear.

Rebus takes on all these seemingly disconnected incidents in his typical style, rubbing authorities the wrong way, and manages to bring the perpetrators of crime to book, including one Ger Caferty who runs roost in all the underground activities in Edinburgh. He also manages to send packing a child abuser who has been repatriated to Edinburgh from Canada where he had been incarcerated.

Another charmer from Ian Rankin for the Rebus fans.


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