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Orion Books, November 2006
Reviewed by Sunnie Gill
It’s July, 2005 and Edinburgh is playing host to the G-8 Summit, where the
leaders of some of the world’s most industrialised countries are meeting
at the famous Gleneagles Hotel and golf course. Everyone is on high alert,
and most of the police force is occupied not only with security of the
summit but also the many protests and demonstrations that have been
arranged.
Inspector John Rebus, however, is twiddling his thumbs. It’s been deemed
by the powers that be that he has the potential to cause too much trouble
to be anywhere near the world leaders or indeed, the media, which has
descended on Edinburgh.
That changes when a Scottish politician plunges to his death from the
walls of Edinburgh Castle. No one wants negative publicity at such an
early stage so Rebus is pushed to rule the death a suicide. The apparent
lack of a note and motive for suicide bother Rebus and he refuses to close
the case.
But that case is quickly overtaken by another potentially more deadly one.
Some scraps of clothing left near a “clootie well” near the site of the
summit lead Rebus to believe that there is a serial killer, murdering
rapists recently released from prison. The authorities want Rebus to put
the case on the back-burner until after the summit, but Rebus refuses to
co-operate. Aided by Siobhan Clarke, who has her own agenda – someone has
assaulted her mother who was taking part in the protests – John Rebus sets
about untangling the clues, fighting his way through a maze of
bureaucratic stone-walling by those who want the summit to go smoothly.
When an author uses a setting such as this as the backdrop for a novel, it
can be fraught with peril. There aren’t many who don’t know about the G8
summit and the main players. All it can take is one minor error to jolt
the reader out of the time and place. For the most part Rankin has
succeeded very well. However, there were a couple of minor things that
didn’t really work for me. Rebus being the inadvertent and slightly
distant cause of President Bush’s tumble from his bicycle stretched
credibility for me, and Siobhan’s attendance at the Live8 concert in
Edinburgh where she had a back stage pass and saw a number of the
performers seemed a little gratuitous. However, that is balanced by the
fact that I learned that George W. Bush brought his own sniffer dog with
him which travelled in its own car.
Reading THE NAMING OF THE DEAD, I couldn’t help but feel that perhaps
Rankin is preparing his readers for the exit of Inspector Rebus. Rebus is
spending some of his time thinking that retirement is closing in and
wondering what on earth he will do once he has to give up working. There
are also signs that he’s slowing down and that his hard-drinking lifestyle
is starting to take its toll on his health.
Ian Rankin is one of the world’s most respected authors and THE NAMING OF
THE DEAD is another example of why. A complex plot with multiple threads
and consistently believable, multi-layered characters all combine to make
a totally absorbing read. Those who like their books to end with
everything resolved and tied up in a neat little bow may feel slightly
dissatisfied. However, like real life, Rankin doesn’t work that way.
Ian Rankin’s website is at
http://www.ianrankin.net/
Nov 2006
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