I read the first two in the series and then jumped to this which is the 7th book in the series. The writing is more polished and the main character is better defined.
The book has a lot of Scottish politics from The 90’s. Edinburgh Scotland is a cold dark unforgiving place in this authors books. Very atmospheric.
This time around you have two teens who commit suicide in front of him a recently released convict blow his head off in front of a politician
And crooked politicians.
All of it wraps up nicely by the end of the book.
I will definitely continue with this series ( )

This was another re-read though unfortunately I managed to read 'The Falls' first which comes about five books later than this. A dramatic beginning confronts Rebus with what appears to be suicide, and then another soon follows. The deaths haunt him and he is super-obsessed with trying to solve the mystery behind the deaths, which earns him no favours with his superiors as ever. He also earns the enmity of his ex-girlfriend Patience when he does something out of impatience which has unintended consequences.

The plot is convoluted to say the least with a lot of corruption in local and central government, and people in high places assuming they can get away with anything. It does rather bog the story down a bit for me and so I'm only awarding this 3 stars. ( )

DI John Rebus and his superior, Chief Inspector Frank Lauderdale, are chasing a car thought to contain two kidnappers who demanded ransom for the daughter of a leading politician, but instead of capturing the pair, the Chief Inspector crashes the car, badly injuring himself, and the teenage kidnappers choose suicide rather than surrender. Shortly after that incident, a recently released ex-con kills himself in front of another politician, seemingly a random act. But Rebus doesn’t believe any of these events are random, although he’s hard-pressed to say just how they might be linked, and there are many movers and shakers who don’t want him to find out…. This is the seventh Rebus novel, and it appears that John has fallen on hard times: he’s lost his relationship and he’s drinking very heavily, and he is using his less-than-standard investigation to avoid thinking about both of those things. One of his actions and its consequences was very nearly enough for me to stop reading - it was really only the feeling that his behaviour was directly related to his incipient alcoholism that allowed me to continue. All that said, the writing continues to be strong and the main character is deeply conflicted and therefore interesting; I will certainly continue to read the series, but this particular entry will never count among my favourites. So, recommended, with caveats. ( )

This was one of the first of Sir Ian Rankin’s Rebus books to engage with politics – a setting that he would revisit several times in novels such as Set in Darkness and The Naming of the Dead among others.

It opens with a frantic car chase out towards the Forth Road Bridge. Rebus’s boss, Chief Inspector Lauderdale is driving, and is fired up with a desire to catch the objects of the chase before they can make it into Fife, and hence into another force’s jurisdiction. The chase does end on the Edinburgh side of the bridge, but in unexpected circumstances.

Meanwhile, a man who has recently been released from prison attends a constituents’ surgery conducted by a local councillor, also with very dramatic and unforeseen circumstances. Rebus is called on to investigate, and finds himself plunged into a morass of intrigue, kidnapping and murder, and involving a varied cast of characters including senior policemen, prominent civil servants, leading businessmen and foreign diplomats.

This may sound like a rather heady mix, but Rankin manages all the various threads with his customary deftness, leaving a rock-solid plot peopled by immensely plausible characters. It is easy to see how Rebus has become such a well-established and popular character. ( )

Unfortunately, I liked the seventh Rebus novel a lot less than the previous ones. While the case started out in a very interesting way, it was drawn out too much and the pace was very slow.
The novel starts with a car chase on the Forth Road Bridge which leads to the death of two young men. Shortly after that, a man shoots himself in front of a local politician. Rebus has a gut feeling that the cases - which are not even considered to be "cases" by his superiors - are connected and that something is not right. He starts digging and of course leads himself into trouble.
Without giving too much away, this is a novel with a lot of political background, starring many organizations, state officials, IT/tech companies, and way too many characters. It was hard to follow everything after some time, and towards the end I just wanted the story to finish.
On the other hand, it was probably one of the most atmospheric Rebus novels I read up until now. The sense of place is very, very strong. There are constant references to public buildings and streets in Edinburgh, to the Scottish winter weather, to the different accents of the people Rebus meets and so on. This gave the novel an intense atmosphere that I enjoyed much more than the plot itself. ( )