Standing in Another Man's Grave (Inspector Rebus series Book 18)

Rankin can spin a good story. Rebus is a character to secure in himself. Meaning to a fault. Secondary characters such as Fox enriched the story. A man one loves to hate. Sally, the missing daughter, enriched the story.

Although Rebus has retired, he's still working in the Cold Case unit and has become intrigued by a number of possibly linked missing persons cases. Several young women have disappeared without a trace in the same part of Scotland over the years, and a new active case involves yet another woman who has just vanished from that same area. Rankin as usual doesn't spare the reader the sometimes tedious day-to-day details of an investigation, and, as always, we find Rebus butting heads with those in charge. Slow-moving, with characters who are not always what they seem, as well as a few surprises along the way, this novel should reward patient readers.

I've been reading Ian Rankin's John Rebus novels for close to a decade and have always had a love-hate relationship with this Edinburgh detective. I'm not alone. Rebus's cynical, impulsive, abrasive, self-destructive ways can play like fingernails on a chalkboard, making it hard for all but a few of the other characters to tolerate, much less "like" John - (poor DS Siobhan Clarke, how does she put up with him?). But despite Rebus' expertly drawn flaws, the curmudgeon gets his hooks in you. And it becomes obvious, anyone who tries as hard as Rebus to prove he doesn't care about anyone or anything has to be hiding something ... like how much he cares.When Rankin retired Rebus in  Exit Music (Inspector Rebus Mysteries)  - the 17th Rebus novel - and introduced a new Edinburgh character (Malcolm Fox) in (and of)  The complaints / Ian Rankin  (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?)I also knew I'd miss the old school rock and roll or blues music suggestions. It's always been a bonus to read through what's on Rebus' playlist in each novel, though he still favors his LPs with the comfortable hiss and pops between tracks over CDs or digital music (horrors!) for his late night melancholy as he looks out the window of his flat, a quickly disappearing bottle of Lagavulin at his side. Standing in Another Man's Grave (Detective Inspector Rebus) was a fabulous vehicle to bring Rebus back where he belongs, in the middle of a bloody crime scene. Interesting, I thought Rankin drew a bit much from a theme and process found in my least favorite Rebus novel, Flesh Market Alley  Fleshmarket Alley - (Rebus took a clear political stance, which I thought was a out of character - he normally couldn't be bothered with what the bloody politicians were up to unless it was murder). But having him work as a civilian investigator on cold case files - including a missing person case that may have multiple and current connections - was a great return.I would note that Rankin has done as good or better of a job keeping Rebus true to form as any series novelist. That's why reviewing an individual book doesn't seem as important to me here as asking if Rebus is really back.He's still loathed and feared by colleagues and criminals alike. He still won't give you the time of day unless you have something he needs. He's still the character I hate to love or love to hate most in my commercial crime reading. But even if he has one foot in the grave - or both in another man's grave - he's back, and that's what matters.

Ian Rankin is one of the best authors of police procedurals writing today. A few years back, he retired his chief protagonist, Detective Inspector John Rebus, Rebus having reached mandatory retirement age. Fans mourned. Rankin kept writing, just not about Rebus.Rebus is back, and "Standing in Another Man's Grave" is a grand story.Rebus is not the most sympathetic of heroes. He's always disheveled, looking like he slept in his clothes (and he often does). He somehow manages to subsist on a diet of cigarettes, alcohol, and "crisps" (chips). He's in trouble with his superiors more often than not, and manages to remain politically incorrect in an era of political correctness run amuck. He often consorts with organized crime figures. Even he recognizes what a dinosaur he is.The problem he, Rebus gets results. Rebus solves crimes. And it's hard to argue with success.The mandatory retirement age has changed, and Rebus finds himself back in police service, assigned to a dead-end department for unsolved crimes. He's hoping to return to regular police work; rumor has it that he's applied for a position.A teenaged girl has gone missing. Her family has ties to organized crime elements. Rebus thinks the disappearance may be similar to others from years before. Subsequent events in the investigation probe him right, and he's "attached"(temporarily assigned) to the main investigation. Non-orthodox police work ensues.Part of the enjoyment of reading an Ian Rankin novel is to watch Rebus resist approved police procedures, maneuver around his superiors, flout the rules, make mistakes, overlook the obvious, and discover what others don't see. A Rebus novel is often less about a crime being investigated and more about how John Rebus in involved in a crime being investigated.The investigation of the missing girl moves forward, aided and abetted by the internet. When bodies are found in a mass grave, the investigation becomes surrounded by a media circus. And in spite of the opposition of everyone he's working with, and being ordered off the team, Rebus begins to close in on a suspect."Standing in Another Man's Grave" is tightly written and fast-paced. The often cited Scot names, places and words don't distract (a good map of Scotland will help). In the hands of a lesser writer, all of the Scot references might have been troublesome.We end the book as we begin it - watching John Rebus, recognizing and understanding his all-too-obvious flaws, and cheering him on to prevail over villains, his own police department, gangsters and thugs. We admire his iconoclasm, his natural tendency to resist authority, and his impatience with bureaucracy. John Rebus is us.And we're glad he's back.

Having recently discovered Ian Rankin, I have found his Rebus series to be hugely entertaining and very consistent. I have reasd about six of them now. However, this is the first book in the series that feltwas a little bit disappointing. This book follows on from "Exit music" where Rebus is now retired but employed as a consultant in an unsolved cases unit where some historic missing persons enquiries he is working on appear to have a link to former collegaue's Siobhan Clarke's current investigation. As with all of the Rebus novels, there are also other stories going on in the background and this is the book which introduces Darryl Christie as the eventual rival to Big Ger Caffety. We also encounter Malcolm Fox from the Complaints Department who has targetted Rebus albeit the full scale investigation goes not acutally get underway until the future "Saints of the Shadow Bible." So, in many ways, this book feels like a transition between the earlier and more recent Rebut novels. As has been poinedt out in the other reviews, whilst the dialogue and office politics in the book remain two of the reasons as to why these books are so enjoyable, this book almost feels experimental and I can appreciate why some readers have been dissatisfied. Personally, I enjoyed the novel yet, although I felt the conclusion had a degree of logic about how parts of the story resolved, it did seem really out of character from what we have known previously about both Rebus and Clarke. It also helps explain the book's title. The other factors which detract from this particular book are the fact that Rebus' obsession with the potential culprit does make you sympathise with his frustrated colleagues as well as the fact that the police investigation itself is a bit flat. If you like, it seemed like an attempt to take some of the shine from Rebus so that he appears more flawed and make you realise that police investigations do not always come to a smooth conclusion. Ultimately, an Ian Rankin book is never going to be less than readable and I ploughed through this pretty quickly. I felt that the author was trying to do something different and radical with this novel but the plot that was central to the story was not as complex as some of his other stories. Even though the character I had suspected as being the serial killer turned out to being little more than an ancilliary one, this is certainly not a "who done it" and the unresolved nature of the investigation itself is demonstrative that the experimental nature of the book was more about setting the scene and laying the foundations for later novels in the series. As a stand alone novel. "Standing in another man's grave" works yet it also instrumemtal in explaining the events in future novels. All in all, it is a little disappointing in comparion with somethinglike "The falls" where Ian Rankin conjures up a truly gripping account. I would usually rate the Rebus novels as 4-5 stars. In this case, I think it is probably a three albiet needs to be read to understand future developments.

I plumped for the hardback since I like my books to be substantial. I didn't realise I was getting a used one but no matter. These are minor things and I had all the pieces.I would have given it five but for the ending. It didn't satisfy me with enough closure. But it may be enough for others. But buy the brand new paperback if you're going for physical book. The description and atmosphere that Ian evokes are top notch, and you can almost imagine yourself perched on Rebus's shoulder taking it all in. All in all a worthy read. I read this straight after A song for the Dark Times, which is probably why I'm not as satisfied. But it's a good read.

I haven't read this yet. When I picked it up to start, the contrast between this and the three paperbacks I've read in the past couple of weeks is dramatic.I immediately realised this is going to be a chore to read. A direct comparison shows that the font is smaller than the other books and the type is medium grey rather than dark grey or black reducing the contrast with the paper.If I'd seen this in a shop rather than bought direct from Amazon, I'd have put it down. As it is, I'll wait until I can read it in good lighting. Even then it may be a struggle. Such a shame.

**WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS**It has been a long time since I read a crime novel. As well as having a background in criminology, I found myself jaded by the likes of CSI and then just outright put off the genre by Patricia Cornwell.However, when my wife said that this was the best Rebus book that she'd read to date (and she's read all of them), I thought I'd give it ago.In terms of plot, a number of women have gone missing from the A9 over the years and John Rebus (now retired from the Police Service, but trying to find a way back in) is a civilian in The Cold Case Unit where he is handed a possible link to all of them, including an active case of a Missing Person who disappeared only a few weeks prior.Bad things:- the first 80 pages centre solely on Rebus. He interacts with other characters, but you get not real sense of their persona or off-page events. It is a very narrow focus, and I wanted to know more of what was going with some of the other players.- Rebus is a quasi-machiavellian character. He cuts corners to get the job done, including fraternising with criminals and lying to his colleagues. He's not a villain per se... but he right on border. Now this is not a bad thing, and some of his more sociopathic scenes (ie; when he answers Clarke's phone and then NEVER gives her the message) are quite good. My problem is this: his colleagues know that he is a lying, manipulative, generally speaking a dinosaur of a Police Officer... and not only do they still let him in (when they don't have to), but they also go along with him, knowingly allowing themselves to be played. I know a few serving officers, and there is no way they would stand for that behaviour, especially from a civilian.- The ending. There is no two ways about this - it is awful. I don't what happened. Maybe the author was running over his word count, or the publishers edited it into the disappointing mess it became. But I was so very disappointed, and for two reasons.1 - The villain is identified, and for a hundred or so pages is defiant and denies the case built against him - and that was very good. And then, over two or three pages, he dissolves into a quivering mess who confesses everything... because a spotty teenager physically threatens him. This is an individual who has murdered 5 people and gone to great lengths to conceal their bodies and clean up after himself - and generally speaking is as hard as nails - and when a boy intimidates him, he folds? Nope, I'm not buying it.2 - We never understand the driving forces behind the criminal mind. We are never offered even a shred of a reason behind the psychopathic nature, or why he left the calling card he did. Instead, Rebus just says: "I don't think he even knows himself."I found this incredibly frustrating, and then they crowbarred the book title into the closing lines and the whole sorry mess jarred.Now, with all of the above in mind, there are many redeeming features of this book.- There is some great use of conflict. From the start, we are presented with Missing Persons, Rebus' desire to get back into the Police Service, his dislike of authority, the politics of career officers, the shadow of The Complaints dept. Lots of conflict, lots of little quests going on - really good stuff that when woven together give rise to a believable world.- There are some great twists and plot developments. My favourite was the the Missing Person who was not a Missing Person... although I was disappointed in such an obvious reason given for her running away.- the display of Rebus being an outmoded dinosaur was great. I loved the analogy to him being vinyl in a digital age (he cannot get a handle on smartphones or twitter)... but yet, like vinyl, remains popular and even contemplates a comeback.- Some people have criticised the overuse of the A9. Personally, I think this is unfair, and I enjoyed the sense of this concrete river feeding the most rural parts of a wild country, and the descriptions of the cars alternately as workhorses and warhorses presented a good counterpoint to the rural life that they visited.So, in the end, 3/5. Not the worst book ever written, but I felt it could have been so much more.I guess the acid test is this: Will I read more of Rankin's work? Yes, I probably will... but I'm going to give him a break for a few months.

After a long five year wait Ian Rankin has decided to bring back his most successful creation John Rebus. When I first read the news of Rebus's return I had a little bit of doubt. Could Rankin really pull it off and bring back one of my favourite ever detective and keep the magic of the previous books? Well I am happy to confirm that he most certainly has. Rebus has changed a little in the five years older but not all that wiser Rebus finds himself working in the unsolved crimes unit and drinking with an old enemy, he is also more isolated than maybe ever before, even finding ticket stubs to a concert he had been to previously brings on a dark mood that shows a more vulnerable side. However despite this darker side, the old Rebus soon pops his head up. Approached by a grieving mother and asked to look into the disappearance of her daughter Rebus is soon part of an active inquiry team trying to see if a link between other suspected victims has been missed. This reunites him and Siobhan and soon the magic does flow. I have always considered Rebus and Siobhan to be the best duo in crime fiction and this book reconfirms this for me. The pages that they are both on seem to fly by and the comedy, angst and general fiction that is between them is a highlight of the book. Siobhan is not the only Rankin creation that Rebus interacts with during the book. Fox, the star of Rankin's two complaints novels, makes an appearance and the chance to see Fox through the eyes of someone that he is investigating is fascinating and shocking. I was a big fan of Fox during the two complaints books but found myself disliking him during this book! All in all this was a wonderful read and I am very glad that Rebus is back! I would recommend this book to any fan of the crime genre and am excited for what Ian Rankin has in store for us this year.