Product Description

Gregor Jack, MP, well-liked, young, married to the fiery Elizabeth - to the outside world a very public success story. But Jack's carefully nurtured career plans take a tumble after a 'mistake' during a police raid on a notorious Edinburgh brothel. Then Elizabeth disappears, a couple of bodies float into view where they shouldn't, and a lunatic speaks from his asylum... Initially Rebus is sympathetic to the MP's dilemma - who hasn't occasionally succumbed to temptation? - but with the disappearance of Jack's wife the glamour surrounding the popular young man begins to tarnish. Someone wants to strip Jack naked and Rebus wants to know why...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22781 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Ian Rankin is a regular No.1 bestseller, and has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Diamond Dagger. He lives with his family in Edinburgh, and in 2003 received an OBE for his services to literature.

Customer Reviews

Fourth Rebus mystery - a good story, well told
The fourth of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels, and one which I found stylistically unsettling. It opens with a police raid on a brothel and the discovery of an MP, caught in apparent flagrante. The case takes on its inevitable sensational aspect as the tabloid press seek to exploit the potential, but for the police matters become somewhat stalled by a brutal murder. Is the murder linked to the MP's problems and his collapsing world, or is it a separate, distinct crime, mundane but for its violence?

Rankin has Rebus quitting Edinburgh for a Scottish tour. He will range from Fife to the Highlands. In the process it becomes an almost 'cosy' little mystery as the investigation takes in the MP's world, a world of success and cronyism. However, it's also a novel which explores the nature of relationships, of infidelity, loyalty, and jealousy - it looks at love, at lust, at the problem deciding whether or not you can cope with having to share space with another human being ... or cope with not being able to share that space.

The plot gets a bit too fluid in places - Rebus seems to have carte blanche to roam off his patch and make use of resources from other Scots police forces. Rankin's approach contrasts with that of some eminently successful English crime writers, who create believable small villages or rural patches (think St.Mary Mead or Midsomer) in which the death rate is far in excess of Baghdad's. You sense that he feels Edinburgh is too claustrophobic an environment, that is can't sustain sensational murder after sensational murder.

Rankin is a better writer when he stays within Edinburgh - 'Strip Jack' feels a bit forced in places, a bit up-market. Nevertheless, it's a good story well told (as usual).

Another cracking Rebus tale, but not one of the very best.
Ian Rankin never disappoints in his Inspector Rebus stories, but while this one is certainly very good it never quite reaches the realms of excellence that some of the other novels achieve. Maybe it's the fact that a lot of the action takes place away from the claustrophobic Edinburgh environment and underworld that Rankin usually brings so vividly to life. A breath of fresh country air may not always be recommended. Still, if you are a Rebus fan, or even if you are just looking for a good read in the crime genre, you will enjoy this.

A brilliant novel from Scotlands best writer
This book is well worth a read.

It was the first book I read in the Inspector Rebus series and i've been hooked since.

Miss it, miss out.