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Sep 11, 2015wyenotgo rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
A better than average crime thriller. Rankin could be thought of as a British equivalent of David Hosp. That is, his protagonist (in this case a police detective) is not an arms-length professional sleuth but is directly and very personally involved with the crime situation. And like Hosp, Rankin's characters are damaged, conflicted individuals, muddling along rather than the sort of clever, crafty, ingenious operatives created by such writers as Christie or Doyle. As such, Rankin's Inspector Rebus is quite a believable fellow and the series of crimes he is facing here are likewise realistic. Despite all that, for me the book failed to build up to the level of emotional involvement that the situation ought to have reached in the later chapters, partly because Rankin didn't take the trouble to develop the character of his daughter Sammy or Rebus' relationship with her and partly due to Rankin's low-key style. All of which places it in the ranks of fairly routine 3-star crime novels; diversionary reading but ultimately pretty light fare.