A Good Hanging: Short Stories

This is a collection of 12 short stories featuring Inspector John Rebus. They tend to be quick reading, without an excessive amount of background color. I would recommend the collection for readers who like to cut to the chase, and want some occasional quick reading material. It is a good book for commuters or travelers on long trips, or perhaps to take to the beach. The stories have interesting plots, and are set in the present day (more or less) with car phones, answering machines, etc. They will give you a different picture of Edinburgh than what you see as a tourist. I am surprised that I previously missed the collection, but I found it at a book sale.

A collection of short stories is an excellent way to be introduced to an author, and this collection should net Ian Rankin many, many new readers. Such an edition as this is rather a throw-back to those good-old 'golden' days of the great mystery writers, such as Dame Agatha, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout and many others who regularly wrote short stories along with their full-length novels. Eventually, when a dozen or so of these little gems had accrued in the author's basket, they would be brought out in their own separate volume. Many of these collections are as well known as the authors' full-length novels. Following this lead, Mr. Rankin displays a sure touch with this batch of shorter stories, all of which feature Detective Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh police force. There are other continuing characters as well, who surface here or there, providing a spot of humor or compassion or just camaraderie. I'd not read anthing by Mr. Rankin before finding this book. That situation is about to be remedied as I go looking for "Knots and Crosses" to begin at the beginning of the Inspector Rebus tales. I would highly recommend a similar path to any other devoted readers of mystery novels, especially those who treasure a setting that's nearly part of the plot, characters with whom one can practically form a friendship, and above all, exellent writing.

Fairly consistent high quality for a short story collection. If you like Rebus, you are not going to thrown by the change in format.

A GOOD HANGING consists of twelve police procedural investigations starring John Rebus and co-starring his hometown Edinburgh. The anthology is different from most short story collections, as there is no introduction explaining the topic or its greatness. Instead Ian Rankin uses the investigative stories to provide the audience a close up look at Rebus and some of his cohorts enabling the greatness to shine. Fans of the series will fully enjoy the collection and anyone interested in a first look at one of the best detectives around today ought to take the fall because they will conclude that this anthology and subsequently the Rebus novels are among the top police procedural series in bookstores.Harriet Klausner