Everyone thought he had retired with the 19th edition, but he hadn’t. Indeed he is back. Retirement doesn’t suit John Rebus. He wasn’t made for hobbies, holidays or home improvements. Being a cop is in his blood.
In this edition of Ian Rankin’s “Even Dogs in the Wild” Rebus is dragged out of retirement to act as a consultant detective to help out Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox in the investigation of a shooting at the house of another retired officer and murder of David Minton, Scotland’s senior prosecutor.
Once again, Rankin delivers all the elements that have brought him such a wide audience: playful dialogue, peppered with tangy banter and beefy put-downs, satisfying plot switchbacks, the dark, brooding setting of Edinburgh and a strong thematic coherence.
As with the other Rebus novels, there is a silent character almost more important than Rebus, Clarke, Fox and Cafferty: the city of Edinburgh itself.
Whatever Rankin’s reasoning, Rebus is back, and fans will be pleased that the detective’s retirement is proving just as temporary as Frank Sinatra’s was.
