Publisher's Weekly Review
John Rebus comes out of retirement in Edgar-winner Rankin's stellar 20th novel featuring the Edinburgh cop (after 2013's Standing in Another Man's Grave). Rebus, though, must accept a demotion-from detective inspector to detective sergeant-not that he cares about rank. It's the case that counts, which in this entry involves "conspiracies, connections and coincidences." Malcolm Fox, the officer in charge of the Complaints department (the Scottish version of Internal Affairs), leads an investigation into whether a fast and loose group of cops in the mid-1980s known as the Saints of the Shadow Bible might have tainted a murder trial back when Rebus was a young officer. Rankin deftly ties the old case into a fresh one that begins with a seemingly routine car accident involving the daughter of a powerful businessman that soon expands to involve the suspicious death of the public face of the Scottish nationalist movement. The immense and intricate canvas includes dozens of characters, plots within plots, and multiple themes, from Scottish independence to the insidiousness of corruption, public and private. Too much may be going on at times for some readers, but distinctive characters (including Edinburgh itself) make the book memorable. "The good guys are never all good and the bad ones never all bad," says Rebus, and that certainly applies to Rebus himself, willful, determined, and droll. 8-city author tour. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
After a short-lived retirement, John Rebus (Exit Music; Standing in Another Man's Grave) returns to the Edinburgh police force albeit with a demotion. Serendipitously, a new law is passed that allows the Scottish police to reopen old cases. Malcolm Fox (The Complaints; The Impossible Dead), the officer in charge of Complaints (Internal Affairs), reexamines a 30-year-old case investigated in the 1980s, when Rebus was a young officer, by his old team, known as "the Saints." At the same time, Rebus teams up with his former mentee Siobhan Clarke to investigate a new case involving a young woman injured in a car accident. The evidence at the crime scene suggests foul play. When the young woman refuses to divulge the truth about the incident, Rebus and Clarke delve further into her life. Verdict Edgar Award winner Rankin's intricate plot and well-developed characters make this novel a must-read for Rankin fans, who will especially enjoy the Rebus-Fox matchup. By effectively recapping pertinent prior novels in the series, the author makes his latest title and his enigmatic protagonist accessible to new readers. [Eight-city tour.]-Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
