If we can get started,’ Cowan snapped. The grey suit didn’t look right on him. Its shoulders seemed over-padded and the lapels too wide. He pushed a hand defiantly through his hair. Rebus manages to work his way into the current investigation, which also involves his long-time understudy, Siobhan Clarke, even though he still has no official standing. He doggedly pursues the case, taking it in directions that the team leader doesn't necessarily believe fruitful, and along the way, he manages to antagonize a large number of people, just as he did in the old days. Both, as a mother I cannot even begin to imagine how I would feel if my child went missing. As for Rebus's digs at his boss, well enough said. Let me start this review by thanking the author for finding life in retirement for Rebus. His continuation of this marvelous Detective series is much appreciated by this reader. 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.

He is seconded to the CID, where the most recent case is being handled by DI Siobhan Clarke and her unit. The serial killer has found his victims on the A9 highway and Rebus travels to Pitlochry and Inverness several times, driving as far north as his daughter Samantha's home.When a woman comes in to the station and asks to speak to a particular detective she is told that officer had retired years ago. But she said it was important that she speaks to someone. The job falls to Rebus to get rid of her. But instead of getting rid of her what she tells Rebus ignites the spark of intuition in Rebus’s head that starts him off looking for a serial killer. Any non-mystery subplot? - grudge Crime Thriller - Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) - Yes Main Character Gender - Male Rebus may have missed the thrill of the hunt, but he's up against a powerful enemy who's got even less to lose. Thomas Robertson has a form and was conveniently placed on the road crew on the A9. Bill Soames is in charge and Stefan Skiladz is the interpreter. Susie Mercer has some useful information as does the farmer, Jim Mellon. Ruby is the cadaver dog. Raymond is Dempsey's nephew and a journalist. Rebus also has Rankin’s other creation from The Complaints, Malcolm Fox, waiting for him to make a mistake.

Rankin draws us into a thematically rich plot that evolves into a meditation on morality and how best to asses a man's worth... Rebus is one of the most popular fictional characters of our generation. (Declan Burke IRISH TIMES) The sections in which Rankin's two characters find themselves in the same book are fascinating psychologically because the author so clearly lets the older man have the better of the exchanges. When Rebus notes Fox "sliming" around HQ and reflects that he seems more like "middle management in a plastics company", it's clearly what Rebus would think about the interloper, but also usefully channels a resentment that Rankin readers must inevitably feel about the loss of their favourite cop. There is also the tantalising possibility that Rankin is employing Rebus to express his own equivocations about the replacement character. Rankin's dialogue flows so naturally that it's easy to dismiss his subtler gifts; no one captures the bleak grandeur of Scotland, or the mindset of those charged with upholding its law, in quite the same way. (Christopher Fowler FINANCIAL TIMES) Although their behaviour seems starkly contrasting – Fox sipping Appletiser, Rebus swigging beer and whisky – one sentence suggests that the men are more similar than they, or we, may think: "Fox had ceased to take alcohol because he was an alcoholic, while Rebus continued to sup for the exact same reason." That line links to the Jekyll/Hyde divide that runs through Scottish literature and, indeed, the early Rebus novel Hide and Seek. If there is another double novel, Rankin could usefully make more of this conceit.There was silence in the room again, broken only by Bliss’s breathing and a sigh from Robison. Cowan’s eyes were on Rebus, but Rebus was busy draining the last of the coffee from his mug. He shook himself free of his overcoat and let it drip across the floor of the office to the hook on the far wall.

When Rankin retired Rebus in Exit Music - the 17th Rebus novel - and introduced a new Edinburgh character (Malcolm Fox) in (and of) The Complaints (think Internal Affairs in U.S. police terms) - it felt like a huge loss to me. Rebus hadn't run his course - and of course, Big Ger Cafferty, king of the Edinburgh underworld, was out of jail and needed someone to keep a careful - and obsessive - eye on him. There are lead characters that grow more and more weary with each passing novel - but Rebus was worn out and washed up when we first met him. If the chain smoking hadn't killed him yet, why put him out to pasture? Maybe Rankin planned for retirement to do to Rebus what Cafferty considered doing countless times but never did. (Grudging respect? A sense of kinship?) Rebus has also decided to rejoin the force and has his application on the dining room table. Fate may have another idea for Rebus that may take him in a role he has never played before. And so it begins, Rebus is caught by the need and the possibility of a serial killer. Of course, Rebus being Rebus, he gets his man despite being investigated by Complaints and despite Cafferty the gangster, a man whose life he saved, weaving plots to get him under his thumb.

It was hard to tell if Peter Bliss’s wheezing had just taken on a different timbre or whether he was stifling a laugh. Robison looked down into her lap and smiled. Cowan shook his head slowly. Rebus is a superbly drawn character; matched by the edgy authenticity of the Scottish locale and dialogue’ To be honest I had only ever read 1 Rebus novel before (I think!) That was the 1st one, Knots and Crosses. I have read the Malcolm Fox novels and thoroughly enjoyed those. I intend to read all the remaining Rebus books to catch up with this latest one, Standing in another mans grave. I just loved this writing, the ease of scene setting and character description. Anyway, all that being said, I kind of like Rebus as a character and the detective world he has surrounding him. I could tell there were lots of quaffing of pints and sessions of whiskey sipping. I wholly approve of copious amounts of that type of plot items.