Book Review – Standing In Another Man’s Grave

by Ian Rankin (Orion)  ISBN: 9781409144724

Rebus is back.

I never realised how much I missed him until I read this book. I never realised how much I missed the writing skills of Ian Rankin writing about Rebus. Now I do.

Rebus is working on cold cases, as a civilian. What else would he do after he reached the obligatory retirement age? I wasn’t sure if he was alive after Exit Music. He is, along with his arch enemy, Cafferty, whose life he saved.

Rebus stumbles across a series of missing person cases which he links together in spite of himself. When another young girl goes missing he finds himself in the centre of a murder investigation. He has to cope with a new generation of detectives and a strange digital world which changes everything, except for the crimes that men have always committed. Siobhan Clarke is now a DI and she is on his side. Rebus also has Rankin’s creation from The Complaints, Malcolm Fox, waiting for him to make a mistake.

Rankin is a brilliant storyteller. He has brought Rebus into the digital age without missing a beat. When is the next Rebus instalment due? Highly recommended.

Amanda Patterson
5/5