Set in Darkness

Hard-drinking, hard-smoking, divorced Edinburgh cop DI John Rebus is a man who does things his way as he moves through the brooding city of Edinburgh, searching for both his own lost soul and the criminals who lurk in its dark places. DI Derek Linford, in contrast, does things the boss's way, much to Rebus's chagrin.Both are seconded to the police liaison team for the new Scottish Parliament at Queensberry House when a corpse is found hidden behind a fireplace in one of the parliament buildings. From the condition of the body, it appears that it's been there a long time, years, decades.A few days later the body of Roddy Grieve, a Labor Party candidate for a seat in the new parliament, is found on the grounds. Grieve comes from a well-known Scottish family. His mother is a famous artist, his brother is a Tory MP, his sister is an ex-supermodel married to an ageing rock star and there is another brother who went missing 20 years ago. Sniffing about for clues as only he can, Rebus comes to suspect the body in the fireplace may be connected to Grieve's murder.Meanwhile, Rebus's former partner, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, is driving home one evening when she happens to see a homeless man leap to his death from a bridge. Following up, she discovers that the supposedly poor and destitute man had over £400,000 in a building society account. He also had the same name as the man whose remains were found behind that fireplace.Add to the above the escalating violence of a serial rapist who targets women in singles clubs and, as if that isn't enough, Rebus must face the unexpected prison release of his old nemesis, Edinburgh crime boss Big Ger Cafferty, whose interest in Rebus isn't exactly friendly. And through all this, Rebus has to work alongside Linford, a paper pusher on the fast track to promotion.Little of modern Edinburgh has escaped Rankin's attention here. In fact, one might mistake this excellent novel as a travel guide about where not to go when visiting there. However, there is hope in this book, too. It's just that sometimes it's just a little hard to find, especially when Rankin writes about, corruption, homelessness and despair as if he's been there and seen it all. Yes, this is a dark book. It's also a book that stands apart from others in the genre. It's the kind of book the others aspire to.Haley Lawford, SV Cheerleader Too

This is my second book by Ian Rankin but it won't be my last. I really loved this mystery -- it was full of atmosphere, characters with depth and vitality, well plotted, and a page turner -- what more can you ask for?The plot involves two murder investigations -- one from the past, based on a 20 year old skeleton of unknown identity found in the course of renovating a very old building to become the new Scottish Parliament; the second involves a politician found murdered nearby in the construction area. Additionally, there is a suicide of a homeless man shortly after the skeleton is discovered. Who is this man, was it suicide, and why? The homeless man turns out to have some very surprising qualities. Inspector Rebus (who is considered the bane of his department) comes to believe that all three deaths are somehow related. The Grieve family (the family of the murdered politician) may be at the center of all three deaths -- or maybe not. Maybe they really ARE unconnected, as the powers that be are assuming. TO make matters more difficult, Rebus is being forced to work with an ambitious young man who is the "fair haired boy" of the powers-that-be, but who doesn't have Rebus's respect -- so he must content with the politics of the situation as well, which is not Rebus's long suit.This series is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, but not in the touristy Edinburgh but in the tough underbelly, where there are pubs that it is wisest not to go into and where there are gangs and thugs. The location is so well described that it is easy to imagine being there.All in all, I have no hesitation in giving this mystery 5 stars. The only question is which Rankin book I read next.

By and large, fictional detectives aren't a cheery lot. Kay Scarpetta spends her time contemplating the ugliness of humanity, surrounded by corpses which illustrate man's inhumanity to man. The brilliant Adam Dalgliesh isn't exactly the life of the party, though he's an extremely sensitive soul who writes poetry - an intriguing character facet. But Ian Rankin's Edinburgh police inspector John Rebus is a breed unto himself. He loves the Rolling Stones and rock music in general. He has terrible luck with women and drinks far too much for his own good. He's stubborn, often rude and causes his superiors a great deal of worry. How many of us can identify with us on one level or another? Yet I'm always glad to see him in any new novel by Mr. Rankin and "Set In Darkness" does not disappoint. Rankin's Rebus is one of the most memorable characters in 20th century crime fiction. Though his is a morose personality, his dark sides never eclipse his basic humanity. He makes mistakes and bad choices in his personal life, but when it comes to solving a crime he's dead on and often at odds with his long-suffering co-workers. This time, Rebus must solve the mystery of the death of Roddy Grieve, an up-and-coming member of the Scottish Parliment who possesses a surname I found rather interesting, given his tragic fate. Grieve turns up dead on the same piece of land where a new Scottish Parliment building is going to be built. But he's not the first body to turn up in the ruins of the building on this property which is being demolished - an unknown skeleton has preceeded Grieve in death and has been walled up in the old building. Who put it there? Who is it? And what's being covered up?Rankin sprinkles his main story with well-constructed subplots. This time, Rebus is confronted with a co-worker who is also a stalker harrassing a police-women and personal friend of Rebus'. To look at the world through Rebus' eyes is to see it through a painful lens. Yet his moody persona permeates memorable sequences and Rankin's plots are always delightfully twisted. I've read all the Inspector Rebus novels from the first to this latest one, and have never been disappointed in the least by any of them. Rankin's skill as a mystery writer is in the same superior league as P. D. James and Agatha Christie.

Dreary winter is settling over Edinburgh but the building boom bustles on and Inspector John Rebus, for his sins, finds himself assigned to security at Queensbury House, the intended home of the new Scottish parliament. His tour of the renovation is as dull as expected until their guide rips the boards off an old fireplace, exposing a skeleton dating from previous rebuilding in the late 70s.This is only the first of three bodies. The second is a suicide, a homeless man with a substantial bank account, but the third is a scion of the prominent Grieve family, an up-and-coming politician. The first two are parceled out to underlings (and lively, well-drawn characters they are) but Rebus gets young Roddy Grieve, killed on the parliament grounds. Only trouble his, Rebus is seconded to a young department protégé, an earnest, desk-bound go-getter (and ultimately a marvelous, scary character). For loner Rebus, this is no way to work.Gruff, direct (some would say confrontational), with a sardonic sense of humor, Rebus is as hard drinking and broody as ever. Educated hunches and police footwork takes him and his team into the roughest alleys and pubs as well as the highest echelons of the privileged. In the intrigues and intricacies of high finance and corruption, Rebus begins to spy a pattern. But the unexpected release of Rebus' nemesis, crime boss Gerald Cafferty, exacerbate his difficulties with authority, threatening both case and career.Though longer than Rankin's previous novels, there is no padding in the twisting, turning plot. Rankin ("Dead Souls," "Black and Blue") draws the reader into damp, gritty Edinburgh and Rebus, a man of dark depths, is the personification of the city. Well up to Rankin's award-winning standards, his vivid style has a trenchant immediacy.

In Queensbury House in Edinburgh, the Highlanders are pulling out their tartan colors, as the first Scottish parliament in about three centuries is to convene. To the chagrin of law enforcement officials everywhere, especially the more ambitious, the locale is right in the middle of Detective John Rebus' zone making him the liaison.However, all is not well. As the restoration project continues on Queensbury House, the remains of a body are found as a fireplace is reopened. Not long afterward, an apparent suicide occurs near the site of the first person. Finally, a third corpse of a politician lies murdered in the outside gardens. On the surface the three dead people seem to not have a connecting thread except the locale. However, Rebus concludes tremendous profits can be made if you are on the right side of the new Scottish political power, but who would murder to fix the odds in their favor.The John Rebus Scottish police procedurals are some of the best detective novels of the past decade. The latest tale, SET IN DARKNESS, brings to life insight into the Scottish parliament and a flavor for modern day Edinburgh. The murder mystery is intelligent and entertaining, and the characters, especially Rebus, retain that feeling of genuineness while dealing with power-struggles, and intrigue. The roles of several reoccurring secondary players fade into the backdrop this time around. Rebus retains his freshness inside an exciting police procedural.Harriet Klausner