![]() ![]() ![]() If Knots And Crosses had been a worldwide hit, I'd have been completely insufferable it'd have been helicopters everywhere and gold-plated pinball machines in every room of my mansion." "By the time success came, I was levelheaded. "The bean counters now say you make it big and young or you don't make it at all. Were he starting out today, Ian doesn't believe he would have a chance. It was Rebus book 11, Set In Darkness, before I hit number one." "The book after that, The Hanging Garden, spent one week at number ten in the bestseller lists. It wasn't until the eighth Rebus book Black And Blue won the coveted Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year that things started to change. Hide And Seek, Tooth And Nail, and Strip Jack followed in swift succession, but success remained elusive. Once I'd done two or three, I was set in my ways, but there was a time when it might not have been so." Ian continues: "And I went, 'Yeah, I liked him too, maybe I should give the crime novel another go?' Nothing else I'd tried had worked. Then his editor asked: "Whatever happened to that guy Rebus, I liked him?" Knots And Crosses' intriguing protagonist and twisting plot set the template for later books, but life went on unchanged and Ian's next efforts were spy novel Watchman - "an attempt to become John le Carré" - and techno-thriller Westwind. "I think it does put folk off, too, looking at my books and there are 24/25 in a series, they might think, 'I don't want to start that, it's a big commitment'." "It took a long time, and it's a double-edged sword writing a series," he smiles. I wanted to sell enough copies to be a full-time writer, but be respected within the literary community." "I was a big fan of Clive Barker and Ramsey Campbell and I thought, 'Oh, these books sell a lot, maybe I should write horror?' I did start pencilling one out but it never got anywhere. "As a working-class kid, I wanted to write books people would pay to read," he admits. With this tale unfolding in Rankin’s fluid and colorful prose, we can hope that Rebus and his old Saab, having survived one more adventure, will return next year for another bout of Caledonian chicanery.Growing up in a tough Fife mining community, Ian had no pretensions about writing. The seemingly unrelated crimes are brought together by a beautiful though unpleasant young heiress named Isabella Meiklejohn – a close friend of the Saudi student and daughter of a shady businessman who owns much of the land in Sutherland County. It’s an uneasy affiliation, with each inevitably infringing on the other’s territory. There are international implications, including but not limited to Brexit, and a Detective Inspector Malcolm Fox is brought in from Manor Crimes Division, to be Clarke’s partner in the investigation. Salman bin Mahmoud, a wealthy Saudi student (and playboy) who is also a fanatic James Bond fan, is found in a seedy part of the city. The second murder is Siobhan’s case, back in Edinburgh. ![]() But it does fill out gaps in what fans already know about the indomitable Inspector. A weakness of the narrative is that Rankin too often allows the uneasy rapport between father and daughter to take focus from the crime element. When Keith turns up murdered, Rebus meets an even colder treatment from the local detective, Robin Creasy, who not only resents unrequested assistance from the old city cop, but considers Samantha to be the prime suspect. When Rebus arrives, he receives a cool reception from his daughter, who remains ambiguous about their relationship. She and their daughter are alone and desperate, so Rebus takes his dilapidated jalopy up north, leaving Siobhan to care for his apartment and the dog. But now, Samantha’s husband, Keith, has disappeared. Samantha has distanced herself from her father – emotionally and physically – because of his having put police matters above family during her formative years. During his move, Rebus gets a call from his daughter Samantha, who has relocated to a fictional town called Naver in the real highland county Sutherland. ![]() “A Song for the Dark Times” is actually two parallel stories, although the author eventually brings them together. The plot is filled with contrasts: old vs young, a child’s reaction vs an adult’s to tragedy and loss, urban vs rural, southern Scotland vs the North, light vs dark, and perhaps most painfully, the mind vs. Both Rebus and the Saab manage to make it through the novel, but only barely. Rebus’ ancient Saab, which breaks down at the most inconvenient times, reflects its owner’s aging body. The titular dark times include old age, but also past misfortunes and mistakes. ![]()
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