Rather Be the Devil

I’ve never really gotten on with the Rebus books. (I can hear the swords of the fans being drawn from their scabbards as I write.) The few I have read always started out well, dragging me on through the story, only to peter out when they reached the point where everything was wrapped up a little too hastily, as though Ian Rankin had just realised he had a publisher’s deadline to meet and couldn’t hang about.

(And those swords are now being sharpened to a fine, deadly edge.)

I liked this book though. I liked all of it. It’s got a good mystery involving several plot strands and it balances them all delicately, parcelling all the clues out at just the right time, all the way through the end and the solution to every crime, past and present.

I might even try another Rebus story now.

Fans willing.