A HEART FULL OF HEADSTONES by Ian Rankin
The latest Inspector Rebus novel is a tour de force. Just when you think every Rebus book is the last, Rankin pulls a rabbit out of the hat and gives us another absolute gem.
Rebus, the hard-drinking, rule-bending Edinburgh detective actually retired from the police force in
2007 in EXIT MUSIC. Instead of being frozen in time like some fictional detectives, Rebus ages ungracefully.
Over the years, Rebus joined a Cold Case unit as a civilian contractor, was an informal crime consultant, rejoined the police, retired again, and is still stirring the pot as a dog-walking civilian.
Struggling with COPD, he moved to an apartment with fewer stairs, reunites with his daughter, and gets a dog. His on-again, off-again battle with gangster Big Ger Cafferty continues.
HEART FULL OF
HEADSTONES begins with Rebus in front of a judge, arrested for . . . We don’t know! Nothing comes for free in this stunning page-turner!
After such a shocking start, the action goes back in time a few days. Confined to a wheelchair, Cafferty asks Rebus to find a man who’s been presumed dead for several years. Seems that he ran
afoul of Cafferty back in the gangster’s heyday. Old and ailing, Cafferty wants to set things right, a motive that Rebus finds deeply suspect.
Meanwhile, Rebus’s long-time friend and acolyte Siobhan Clarke investigates a fellow cop accused of beating his wife. The cop is part of the Crew, officers at a police station with a very bad reputation—missing evidence, battered
suspects, coverups, etc. Rebus never worked there when he was a cop but was a friend of the Crew.
To squirm out of arrest, the wife-beater threatens to spill the beans on the Crew. This will tarnish Rebus, as well as another retired cop with much to lose.
Not surprisingly, the would-be squealer is found dead soon after.
Both situations keep Rebus and Siobhan Clarke hunting for answers. Malcolm Fox, anti-hero of several other books by Rankin, including THE COMPLAINTS, swims in and out of the picture, a shadowy threat to both.
But it’s the tug-of-war between Rebus and Cafferty that will mesmerize. They are old enemies with a long history of warfare and still-sharp weapons. The ending is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure!
Highly recommended.
