For the first time in ten books starring Detective Inspector John Rebus, Ian Rankin explores this issue in Dead Souls. As with most of the books in this series, there are two cases that first seem unrelated but which eventually intertwine in ways that are compelling and inevitable, and in this case both of them touch on the question of how much a criminal's past is to blame for his present. The more obvious example is Darren Rough, a convicted pedophile (who himself was a victim of sexual abuse as a child living in an orphanage) who served his jail sentence and has now been set free. When Rebus discovers that Rough has been assigned an apartment with a view of a children's playground, he "outs" Rough to the other tenants with disastrous consequences. Rebus' lady friend Dr. Patience is fleshed out a little more than usual here, usually she is the woman Rebus is hardly with, often choosing to spend solitary time at his own flat. This is one of the darker Rebus tales (not that any of them are especially light!) involving, as it does, pedophiles (who may or may not be linked to the Church), the suicide of a colleague, a psychopathic serial killer, and a bittersweet trip down memory lane as he is drawn into the search for a missing person, son of two of his classmates in school. Scotland is a small country and Edinburgh still has something of a village culture. You just know that somewhere along the way all these disparate stories are going to intersect and the result will probably not be pretty. But it will be entertaining.

Each strand has a mystery at its core - who is the blond girl that the Misper is last seen with, is the psycho responsible for a 20 year cold case and who is the third man in the paedo case? This is my fifteenth John Rebus novel, and before starting this book I had a question in my mind. When an author as successful as Rankin has been with his tough and idiomatic Scottish thrillers, a problem sets in after several books: how to keep the formula fresh? Jim Margolies is an up-and-coming police officer who inexplicably takes his own life by jumping from Sailsbury Crags on the city’s edge. Basically, this is one of the subplots of Dead Souls -- Rebus' looking for the missing son of a people he knew in school -- in its original form. It'd be modified, expanded, and given a different ending in the novel. There's a subplot, mildly related, involving organized crime and gambling -- in much the same way that other crimes were associated with the missing person's case in Dead Souls. In addition, a convicted murderer who spent 25 years in an American prison has been released and deported to Edinburgh, where he grows up. He is seeking to settle old scores but not until he spends some time with a local reporter talking about his life for a series of articles.

The psychologist had warned the authorities of this. The psychologist said, Cary Oakes has little concept of right and wrong. There were lots of psychological terms applied to this. The word ‘psychopath’ wasn’t used much anymore by the experts, but reading between the lines and the jargon, Rebus knew that was what they were dealing with. Anti-social tendencies … deep-seated sense of betrayal … Rebus investigates when a number of women are killed with the same modus operandi as that used by 'The Preacher', a prolific serial killer active in Edinburgh during the 1980s. But is a copycat killer at large, or has 'The Preacher' returned to finish what he started? Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Rebus is a British television detective drama series based on the Inspector Rebus novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin. The series, produced by STV Studios for the ITV network, was broadcast between 26 April 2000 and 7 December 2007, and consisted of fourteen episodes across four series.

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Rebus investigates when an unidentified body is found in the grounds of a local Edinburgh hotel which is due to play host to the World Trade Summit. When another body is found in the grounds of Edinburgh castle, Special Branch intervene and warn Rebus off the case. Rebus finds himself being investigated by an old friend after a murderer walks free on a technicality. Matters are made worse when the suspect and his brother are found dead, and the prosecutor in the case is found to have been paid off to discredit Rebus and his colleagues. Tagged with: ★ 4 Stars, 1990s, British, Edinburgh, Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, Hard-Boiled, Literary, Midlife Crisis, Murder, Paedophilia, Police Procedural, Revenge, Review

Rebus investigates the murder of a retired obstetrician, who is found dead in his home having been the victim of torture. A clue left at the scene by the killer leads Rebus to the local museum, and puts him onto the trail of a stalker targeting a university student.

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There's very little light in this novel, there's introspection, there's despair, there's hatred, fear, prejudice, and opportunists taking advantage of all of that. But somehow the book never seems slow or ponderous -- just Rebus chugging along, doing his thing. There's also some strong action -- some we see as it happens, but most we hear about after the fact (years or days alter). If you stop and think about how many criminal seem to "get away" with their crimes (as defined by not being charged/tried), it's not that satisfying. If you think about the book in terms of Rebus (and through him, the reader) understanding what happened and why -- it's satisfying, not really cheerful, but satisfying in that regard. The First Stone" is the first and only story to be featured throughout the series which is not based upon a full Rebus novel, rather a novella from a collection of short stories. "Knots and Crosses" is the only story which despite bearing the name of a Rankin book, does not share the plot.

While investigating a poisoner at Edinburgh Zoo, Detective Inspector John Rebus sees Darren Rough, a known paedophile, seemingly photographing children and decides to 'out' the man, in spite of assurances that he wants to reform. Later Rebus tries to help Darren, thinking better of his action, but is unable to stop him being murdered. It's an entertaining enough little story - we get a few glimpses into Rebus' childhood, meet some people from his past, get the eureka moment as he (alongside Farmer Jim) solve the crime. It's just that there wasn't a huge amount of mystery or high stakes surrounding the crime in the first place, I doubt we'll see the people from his past again, and his childhood story doesn't really change anything. My only criticism of the book is Rebus himself. He drinks too much, breaks the rules, challenges authority, and is loved and loathed by his superiors. He also carries more than his fair share of Demons. That doesn’t make him a bad character, but the pencil portrait could just as easily be applied to Dave Robicheaux, Matthew Scudder or Bernie Gunther.

Summary

There is a powerful underlying theme. Each subplot echoes the idea that our past moulds our future, and questions how much control we have over our destiny. The paedophile Darren Rough was abused in a care home as a child. How much of his adult behaviour is caused by that experience? Rankin echoes that question in each plot line, questioning how much of our future is predetermined. One thing is that, after reading a John Rebus' book, I have an anguished feeling of visiting Edinburgh, see all those places describe the author with my own eyes. The series is set in Edinburgh and Rankin displays an unnerving knowledge of, seemingly, how crime works there. Rankin has a very unique of displaying simplistic events. His engrossing words will get under your skin. Ian Rankin has created a compelling fictional figure in John Rebus. He is, at his core, a deeply moral character, but he has lost much of his faith, along with many friends and family members, along the way. Drink is his anesthetic of choice and he seems to require more and more of it to ease his pain. This cannot be leading to a good place.