This is the first John Rebus thriller that I’ve read, although I’m aware that the series has been running for a long time. My father lent this rather nice hardback copy to me and he’s a Rebus fan. I suspect that in order to fully enjoy this book, the reader needs to have followed more of the back catalogue. It’s hard to appreciate why this dour, retired, ailing detective is still given access to the police station and allowed to interview a suspect, just on the contents of this book. On the contrary, he seems to have habitually broken the rules and been the subject of disciplinary hearings – yet he’s clearly won the respect of his former colleagues in the past.
This story follows two cases: the murder of a teenage girl, for which her boyfriend has been convicted; the murder of a young investigator over a decade ago, whose body has only now been discovered in a gully deep in the woods. Both cases involve Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke, a protege of John Rebus – she continues to liase with her former boss and he digs into the murder of the teenager as a favour, mulling over the family involvement in the case. In particular, it’s odd that the convicted boyfriend does not dispute his guilt, but his uncle does – and the boyfriend will not explain any motive for the crime. The cold case of the investigator involves rival figures from the local organised crime scene, whilst the victim and suspects had involvement in budget movies made in the location.
Much of the plot seemed to me to be an excuse to reference the past glories of John Rebus, rather than being core to the telling the story behind this particular murder.
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