The Washington Times published my review of Ian Rankin’s latest John Rebus crime novel.
In Ian Rankin’s latest John Rebus crime novel, “In a House of Lies,” we find the retired Scottish detective inspector suffering from COPD and living alone with his dog, Brillo.
Throughout Ian Rankin’s popular series of crime novels, John Rebus has been portrayed as a flawed but decent and honorable man. Brooding, cynical and sarcastic, the curmudgeonly former detective previously found solace in his love of music, smoking and drinking, but the COPD has ended the smoking and drinking for him.
A former British soldier who served in Northern Ireland during the “Troubles,” John Rebus left the army and joined the police. Throughout the series, he has taken on serial killers, gangsters and corrupt politicians. He often took on his bosses as well.
As Mr. Rankin aged his character in real time (like Michael Connelly’s LAPD detective Harry Bosch), the author was compelled to retire John Rebus from the police force when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 60. And despite the popularity of the character, the retired detective was not always the center of the action in the later novels.
Divorced from his wife, with his daughter and granddaughter living a good distance away, Rebus has few friends and a stalled romance with pathologist Deborah Quant, so he has to be content with walking Brillo and listening to music in his flat.
But when a group of small boys discover an old car abandoned in the woods near Edinburgh, Scotland, that contains in the trunk the remains of a young private detective who was the subject of a contentious missing persons case back in 2008, John Rebus becomes involved in the reopening of the cold case.
You can read the rest of the review via the below link:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/25/book-review-in-a-house-of-lies/
No comments:
Post a Comment