The Falls

Starred review from October 1, 2001
A number one U.K. bestseller, Rankin's 13th novel featuring Scottish Det. Insp. John Rebus may be his breakout book in the U.S. Rankin's brilliant evocation of a moody Edinburgh, deeply human characters and labyrinthine plot give dimension to this always absorbing series. With his stubborn insistence on tying up the frayed ends of every knotty clue, and iconoclastic refusal to be a team player, hard-drinking Rebus is a bane to his superiors but a blessing to readers. University student Philippa Balfour, daughter of the powerful head of a private bank, disappears; the few clues are incongruous—a puzzling Internet role-playing game she participated in and a doll in a tiny wooden coffin found near her discordant family's home. Rebus's assistant, Det. Constable Siobhan Clarke, tackles the mysterious Internet game; Rebus ignores his superiors by obsessively following the coffin's obscure historical implications, aided by museum curator Jean Burchill, a friend of newly appointed Det. Chief Supt. Gill Templer and a promising anodyne to Rebus's lonely personal life. Readers won't be able to skim this dark, densely written novel, but they won't want to. Artfully placed red herrings, a large cast of multifaceted characters and a gripping pace will keep them engrossed. And Rebus is a character whose devils and idiosyncrasies will leave them eager for more. (Nov. 8)Forecast:A bestseller in Ireland, Australia and Canada as well, this novel may achieve similar heights here, spurred by a tour by the Edinburgh author, winner of Britain's Gold Dagger Award.

Starred review from August 1, 2001
Rankin has long been celebrated by connoisseurs of hard-boiled British procedurals; now it seems he's ready to make the jump to mass-market commercial success. His latest thriller is already the number-one best-seller in the U.K.; perhaps the only thing holding it back from similar success here is the appalling American trend toward teetotaling hard-boiled heroes. Rankin's hard-drinking, chain-smoking, terminally melancholic hero, Edinburgh detective John Rebus, feels most comfortable in "small, smoky bars filled with disappointed men." He has plenty to be disappointed about this time: he's decided to sell his flat but has nowhere to go; he's feeling more and more alienated from his younger, team-player colleagues; and he can't seem to get a handle on his latest case--the disappearance and probable murder of an Edinburgh coed. Then a link turns up to a series of disappearances dating back 30 years, and Rebus hits the trail like a dog after a bone. The bone proves elusive, but the trail is rich with Scottish history, leading all the way back to a centuries-old case involving body snatchers selling cadavers to medical students. Paralleling the historical path on which Rebus treads, his protege, Siobhan Clarke, follows a twenty-first-century lead involving the victim's obsession with online game-playing. Rankin handles both strands of his plot superbly, juggling Rebus' cadavers with Siobhan's e-mails while the suspense builds to a remarkably exciting finale. Best of all, though, is the ever-deepening, ever-darkening portrait of the aging Rebus, the anti-organization man trapped in a world where mavericks are an endangered species--except at a few "small, smoky bars" where they sip whiskey with the other dinosaurs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2001
In his latest police procedural, Edgar-nominated Rankin (Set in Darkness) explores Edinburgh's gruesome past and dark present. Investigating the disappearance of Philippa Balfour, a young woman from a wealthy banking family, Inspector John Rebus has only two clues to work with: an e-mail message on Philippa's computer, indicating that she was playing an online game with the mysterious Quizmaster, and a tiny wooden coffin found near the Balfour family home. While Detective Constable Siobhan Clarke attempts to track down the Quizmaster by playing the game in Philippa's place, Rebus focuses on the coffin. Is there a connection with 18th-century body snatchers, or is the link more contemporary? The possibility of a serial killer also arises. Combining complicated multiple plot lines with finely drawn characters and fascinating Scottish lore and settings, Rankin once again proves himself a master of the gritty British crime novel. For all mystery collections. Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.