Product Description

Mike Mackenzie is a self-made man with too much time on his hands and a bit of the devil in his soul. He is looking for something to liven up the days and settles on a plot to rip-off one of the most high-profile targets in the capital - the National Gallery of Scotland. So, together with two close friends from the art world, he devises a plan to a lift some of the most valuable artwork around. But of course, the real trick is to rob the place for all its worth whilst persuading the world that no crime was ever committed...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #863 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
'Fast, slick and exciting' (William Leith EVENING STANDARD )

'Inspector Rebus is absent from Ian Rankin's latest thriller but Edinburgh is as important a character as ever. Rankin expertly portrays the gang's different personalities as the plot thickens and darkens' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

'The unravelling of the plan shows the author at his best: while the trio's motives for risking jail sometimes stretch credulity, the inexorable growth of mistrust within the gang is expertly and convincingly traced' (John Dugdale SUNDAY TIMES )

'This is Rankin's first stand-alone thriller for more than a decade. When two friends devise a plan to steal some of the world's most valuable artwork, their only option is to make it look like no crime has been committed' (EDINBURGH EVE NEWS )

'Fast, slick and exciting' (LONDON LITE )

'This is not Rebus, but it's fast, slick and exciting' (THE SCOTSMAN )

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

A Break From The Day Job
You're a celebrated crime author and you've just retired your most famous character - DI John Rebus, as if you didn't know - so what do you do next? Answer, you write an old-fashioned heist caper.

You'll have read the plot synopsis so I'll not summarise it again, I'll simply confine myself to making a few general points about the book:

First of all, this originally ran as a serial in the same publication that first printed Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch-lite `The Overlook' before it was published as a novel last year. I don't know if Ian has padded out `Doors Open' prior to publication, but it doesn't read like a novel stretched beyond its natural length.

I found `Doors Open' to be a satisfying read, even if it doesn't come close to approaching the quality of the best of the Rebus novels. For anyone else it would be decent little book, but Rankin has set his own standards so high, that you're perhaps looking for a bit more. I personally suspect that he wrote this as a bit of light relief after creating the increasingly complex plots of the `you know who' series for the past twenty years. That and the large wad of cash he was apparently paid for writing it.

His policeman here, DI Ransome could not be less like John Rebus if he tried. For a start, he doesn't rush bull-headed into things with no care for insulting his betters - or anyone, else for that matter. Ransome has a facility for diplomacy when among his peers (his counterpart from another station is the one officially investigating the art theft) and has subtle plans for his own advancement. He's no less effective than Rebus, but like I say, his methods are totally different. However, in local Edinburgh gangster Chib Calloway he's created a baddie cut from the same cloth, or perhaps that should be, hewn from the same block of granite, as 'Big Ger' Cafferty from the Rebus novels.

There are a few times in this novel where Rankin has his characters spit things out... as in "`Blah, blah, blah', he spat". This despite the fact that the sentences often contain no sibilants. This is a bit lazy, and proves to me that Ian himself regards this as no more than a frippery; a break from the real day job. Having said that, it's still a professional effort and contains a good number of decent twists.

In summary, this is an effective and efficient little thriller. It's Ian Rankin writing in a much lighter vein - but it's no less enjoyable for that. If I'm going to be picky, there are writers around like Christopher Brookmyre who, frankly, do this kind of thing much better. Still it's a nice enough stab at something different, and it's never less than entertaining. But it isn't major league Rankin and anyone approaching it with that expectation is going to be disappointed.

This is so sad
I'm a great Ian Rankin fan. At least, I thought I was. I realise now that I'm a great Rebus fan. I came to this book desperately wanting to like it and I couldn't. How can any press reviewer say it shows Rankin's ability to move beyond Rebus? What it shows is the exact opposite. The exposition is overdone, heavy, leaden. The characterisation is hopeless (Big 'Ger Cafferty was always a questionable gangster -- risible, in fact -- but one accepted him because Rankin wrote him. But Chib Calloway -- Chib Calloway is the most unbelievable gangster in the history of crime fiction). This book is terrible. It's awful. Until now, when Rankin published a book I bought it. I may never buy another.

Open Doors
This was the worst book by Ian Rankin I have read - in fact I became so fed up with it that I abandoned it before the end. It was difficult to believe it was actually written by him; the characters were cardboard cutout and the plot was, frankly, laughable.
It seems that he has now found a new person on which to write his next series. Thank goodness.