Ian Rankin

'A Question Of Blood'
Publisher: Orion (Paperback)
ISBN: 0752858963

'Ian Rankin biography by Chris High

The fifteenth outing for Rankin's Inspector John Rebus, sees him defend one of his colleagues in extreme circumstances and having to return to his past army life, to try and solve a particularly callous murder.

Two seventeen-year-olds are killed by an ex-Army loner who has gone off the rails with the main question being 'why'? But this takes Rebus into the heart of a shattered community and, being ex-Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone.

This is a book well up to Rankin's usual high standards. His ability to bring the streets and people of Edinburgh to life, never fail to astonish and his grip on pace and intrigue never seems to lessen.

The unpredictability of the Rebus character is manifest in the easy put downs of his superiors, whilst at the same time it can be clearly seen that beneath the bravado, he is as troubled a man who has ever walked the edges of despair.

The fact that Rebus rarely falls into the abyss of self-destructive pity and so maintain his plausibility, is due entirely to the skill of his creator.

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