Ian Rankin : Fictional World of John Rebus

 Ian Rankin : Fictional World of John Rebus

Ian Rankin

Ian James Rankin is famous Scottish crime writer, who is born on 28 April, 1960. He is best known for his famous character, Inspector John Rebus. The story and plot of John Rebus novels are set up in Edinburgh, Scotland. He studied literature and graduated from university of Edinburgh. He spent some years in London and France during his establishing careers as novelist.

As happens to most of the novelists, his ambition was to establish himself as mainstream writer, not to be a crime writer. He consider his first novels like Knots and crosses and Hide and Seek as main stream books. His later novels, in which Inspector John Rebus is central character, are major contributions to Scottish Crime Fiction. Later on his novels were adapted as TV series in which actor John Hannah and Ken Stott played as Rebus.

John Hannah as John Rebus

Ken Stott as John Rebus

In Rebus novels, Ian Rankin plot involves murders, un-natural deaths and mysterious disappearances where Rebus takes the centre stage investigations. In his novels, Edinburgh is present as a character along with stark realities of corruption, poverty and organized crime.

Apart from crime, Ian Rankin provides struggle of Rebus with internal politics of police department, his tendency to bend the rules and ignorance of his superior. His personal and emotional life is also intricately woven which runs parallel to his crime investigations. In his life, apart from his daughter, Samantha Rebus, five women are involved, i.e., , Rhona ( his separated-wife), Patience Aitkin (ex girlfriend), Gill Templer (his boss), Jean Burchill ( lady friend and friend of Gill Templer) and Deborah Quant (pathologist).

    Novels of Ian Rankin:

1. Knots and Crosses (1987)
2. Hide and Seek (1991)
3. Tooth and Nail (1992)
4. Strip Jack (1992)
5. The Black Book (1993)
6. Mortal Causes (1994)
7. Let it Bleed (1996)
8. Black and BlueBlack and Blue (1997)
9. The Hanging Garden (1998)
10. Dead Souls (1999)
11. Set in the Darkness (2000)
12. The Falls (2001)
13. The Ressurrection Man (2002)
14. The Blood Hunt (2002)
15. A Question of Blood (2003)
16. The Bagger's Banquet (2003)
17. Flesh Market Close (2004)
18. The Flood (2005)
19. The Naming of Dead (2006)
20. Exit Music (2007)
21. Doors Open (2009)
22. A Good Hanging (2010)
23. The Complaints (2010)
24. The Watchman (2010)
25. Standing in Another Man's Grave (2012)
26. The Impossible Dead (2012)
27. Saints of Shadow Bible (2013)
28. The Beat Goes On -Short Stories (2014)
29. Even Dogs in the Wild (2015)
30. Rather Be the Devil (2016)
31. In a House of Lies (2018)
32. A song for the Dark Times (2020)
33. West wind: The Classic lost Thriller

                 Collections of Ian Rankin:-

• Rebus - Early years ( Knots and Crosses, Hide and Seek, Tooth and Nail) (1990)
• Rebus - The St. Leonards' Years (Strip Jack, The Black Book, Mortal Causes) (2001)
• Rebus - Lost Years (Let it Bleed, Black and Blue, The Hanging Garden) (1998)
• Rebus - Capital Crimes (Dead Souls, Set in Darkness, The Falls) (2004)
• Rebus - Three Great Novels (Resurrection Men, A Question of Blood, Flesh market Close) (2008)
• The Complete Short Stories (A Good Hanging and Other Stories, Beggars Banquet, Atonement) (2005)

Ian Rankin

Rush of Blood | Mark Billingham | Book review

Name of Novel: Rush of Blood

Name of Author: Mark Billingham

Published by: Sphere ( An imprint of Little Brown Book Group)

Pages: 480

Price : 180/-

ISBN-10: 9780751544039, ISBN-13: 9780751544039, ASIN: 0751544039

Amazon Link to Buy:  Rush of Blood

Rush of Blood

 ‘So, they eat their final meal together and try to enjoy the last night of their holiday. They talk about how the woman’s daughter has probably just gone to the mail, if she hasn’t turned up already, and keep talking in much the same way even though the police cars are still around the following morning. On a full flight back to Gatwick, they try and fail to sleep. Scratchy-eyed, they eat their foil-wrapped meals and watch movies, and several pick at the skin that is already peeling from chest and shoulders. They stay cheerful, more and less, but each of them is thinking about the woman by the pool and a smile that quivered and died. That kept on dying, a little but quicker each time it was cranked into place.’.... Prologue

Rush of Blood is the first book of Mark Billingham which I started in my corona lock down. As I came to know about his famous character Tom Thorne as detective inspector. When I started this novel, I was in impression that I am going to meet Thorne but there was only hint of him. So, it is a story where investigations are handled by Jeff Gardner and his over enthusiastic sub-ordinate detective Jenny Quinlan. 

'Jenny wanted the killer caught, of course, but there was always a question of credit being given where it was due. She'd learned that much while she was still a cadet, for God's sake. Thinking about it, she decided that Jeff Gardener was definitely the sort she could trust, someone who would make sure the work she had done on the case was acknowledged properly'.... page 238

Title Page

Story Idea: Rush of Blood is story of tree couples : Angie and Barry, Edward and Sue and Dave and Marina. Three couples are on holiday in Sarasota in Florida which is known for its great beaches. Their holiday is marked by an event when a young girl Amber-Marie Wilson goes missing. after holidays, these couples continue in touch through dinner organised by them. When an another girl goes missing and the three couples are questioned by ambitious trainee detective Jenny. She is asked by Jeff Gardener to follow up preliminary round of  interviews with three couples who happens to be last members who have seen Amber-Marie Wilson live. On the basis of her investigations, Jenny believes  that one of the couples is hiding something. It is Jenny efforts which lead to the culprit in the last.

Story of the novel propagate through three dinners organised by three couples under suspicion. A lot of time and pages is devoted to the psychological and behavioral study of couples. The conversation between them and their daily is hugely elaborated. During dinner party, the conversation between its principle characters seems to be imposed and boring or somewhat forced. 

Back Cover

My View : The plot of novel is distinctly non-violent with no out of box twist and turns. Story moves in a straight pathway wit uniform motion. Even the character of Jeff Gardner was not helping to propagate the investigations in a particular direction. Mark Billingham used a psychological analytic description technique to reveal the culprit in the end. Lack of action in the plot proves to be a little more for me and the time period and description between first and second dinner organised by couples distracting and failed to hold the interest of reader, at least me.

Overall I can say ' Rush of Blood is a less than average experience for me. This may be due to high expectations from a highly acclaimed Tom Thorne writer. Better luck next time when I am planning to induldge myself into his novels like 'Death message or Sleepy head'. 

My Ratings : ★★/★★★★★  

Mark Billingham