Product Description

A student has gone missing in Edinburgh. She's not just any student, though, but the daughter of well-to-do and influential bankers. There's almost nothing to go on until DI John Rebus gets an unmistakable gut feeling that there's more to this than just another runaway spaced out on unaccustomed freedom. Two leads emerge: a carved wooden doll in a toy coffin, found in the student's home village, and an Internet role-playing game. The ancient and the modern, brought together by uncomfortable circumstance . . . 'Rankin continues to be unsurpassed among living British crime writers... He makes the reader feel part of the scene, and enhances the experience with his virtuosity with dialogue ... But all these virtues would count for little if Rankin didn't also possess the most important asset of them all - the ability to tell a damned good story' The Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #356475 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Success has a price, and the remarkable acclaim (both critical and commercial) that greeted the gritty Edinburgh-set crime novels of Ian Rankin has set the author a considerable problem. How does he maintain the freshness of detail and atmosphere that have made his books such riveting reading? And how does he keep his tough detective DI John Rebus from degenerating into a series of mannerisms? If Raymond Chandler grew tired of Philip Marlowe and Conan Doyle of Holmes, Rankin would have been in good company if he gave up on Rebus. Fortunately, his belief in the character clearly remains as powerful as ever, and The Falls is the most impressive Rebus novel in many a moon. The detective's personal problems--overused of late--are wisely sidelined in order to concentrate on a highly intriguing (and topical) plot.

When a student vanishes in Edinburgh, there is pressure on Rebus to find her, particularly as she is the scion of a family of extremely rich bankers. Needless to say, this is more than just the case of a spoilt rich girl breaking out of the cage of family responsibilities, and a carved wooden doll in a coffin found in her home village leads Rebus to the Internet role-playing game that she was involved in. And when DC Siobhan Clarke, a key member of Rebus' team, tackles the Virtual Quizmaster, Rankin finds himself struggling to save her from the same fate as the missing girl.

Consummate plotting has always been Rankin's trademark, and that skill is put to maximum use here. The balance between developing the characterisation of the ill-assorted team of coppers that Rebus assembles and the labyrinthine twists of the plot is maintained with an iron hand, and Rankin's mordant eye remains as keen as ever:

"You okay, John?" Curt reached out a hand and touched his shoulder. Rebus shook his head slowly, eyes squeezed shut. Curt didn't make it out the first time, so Rebus had to repeat what he said next: "I don't believe in heaven." That was the horror of it. This life was the only one you got. No redemption afterwards, no chance of wiping the slate clean and starting over. Rebus said "There is no justice in the world." "You'd know more about that than I would", Curt replied.

--Barry Forshaw

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'The scene setting is vivid and the narration by a Scot, actor James Macpherson, essential to bringing the story to life

About the Author
Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus books are now translated into thirty-six languages and are bestsellers worldwide. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America's celebrated Edgar Award for Resurrection Men. He has also been shortlisted for the Anthony Award in the USA, won Denmark's Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the Deutscher Krimipreis. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Hull and the Open University. A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts. Rankin is a number one bestseller in the UK and has received the OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons.

Customer Reviews

SUPERB ... A CITY BUILT ON THE GRAVES OF THE DEAD ...
If you like Rebus, you'll love this novel. One of Rankin's best, right up there with BLACK AND BLUE & THE HANGING GARDEN. And there's an added bonus: the intriguing development of side-kick Siobhan Clarke. Is Ian Rankin grooming her as the next Clarice Starling? Can't wait to see ...

THE PLOT. When a young student disappears, something in Rebus's gut tells him she's not a runaway. For a start, she comes from a super-rich family. But there's also an intriguing clue: a coffin of a wooden doll found near her home. So Rebus embarks with Siobhan Clarke on an investigation that spans age-old crimes and modern technology in an Edinburgh built (almost literally) on the graves of the dead ...

I loved the use of Edinburgh, the old granite lady herself, as virtually an extra character. The premise that certain haunting places produce (and reproduce) particular crimes is one also brilliantly used in Dexter Dias's thriller "Power of Attorney", only that Dias uses London to equally compelling effect. James Lee Burke uses Montana similarly in "Bitterroot".

This is the best Rebus for some time. I can't recommend it too highly.

And if you like Rebus, I'd also strongly recommend Dias's cop/lawyer David Kilkenny in "Power of Attorney" and Billy Bob Holland in "Bitterroot".

Another great Rankin read
A strong, plot-driven murder mystery and a further look into the life of John Rebus, and increasingly, the equally strong Siobhan Clarke.

Rebus's character has developed brilliantly, and the way characters from previous novels appear again is deftly handled, almost like a crime Dance to the Music of Time.

It's not the strongest in the series, perhaps because of the lack of a more apparent nemesis for Rebus, either in the police force or in the crime underworld. That said, the standard of the series is so incredibly high that this is not intended as a slight.

Highly recommended if you've already read Rebus, but if not, start at least with Black and Blue, if not at the beginning of the series.

Fictional detective meets real life mystery
Rankin combines history (references to Burke and Hare and the tiny coffins found on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh in 1836 and thought by some to have been left as a memorial to the victims of aforementioned duo), and up to the minute internet e-mail gaming to produce one of the better Rebus thrillers. Rebus is his usual shambolic self, breaking the rules, drinking too much too often and yet still managing to start a relationship! Siobhan Clarke gets a more prominent role as she starts to get hooked on the internet game set by "The Quizmaster" who may or may not be the abductor of a privileged university student. The nitty gritty police work undertaken as the officers search for the student allows Rankin to introduce a variety of characters which sets you racing to the finish in order to discover the level of significance they each hold (or don't hold). All this combines to make "The Falls" an exciting read with many a twist and turn. I was gripped from the outset, I enjoyed the historical element and felt it added to the tension of the fictional story. The tiny Arthur's Seat coffins can be seen in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and are all the more spooky for the fictional links Rankin introduces in this book.