My mini review of EXIT MUSICJohn Rebus is facing his last week in the police force. He will turn 60 in 10 days and is legally required to retire. He has no vision of what he will do in retirement and is determined to work as he's always done, right to the end. Late at night, at the foot of Raeburn Wynd the body of a Russian poet is discovered.
So solving this crime will be Rebus' last case. But there is so much more to be resolved. Rebus' biggest unfinished business is with Big Ger Cafferty. He would dearly like to put Cafferty away forever, but is that going to be a legacy he will leave to DS Siobhan Clarke? And Shiv has problems of her own. Will she just move into Rebus' job as Detective Inspector and if she does, who will she choose to be her new partner?
In a sense this, their last case together, is an important test for her too, made all the more important when DCI McCrae decides that DS Clarke will be in charge of the case, with Rebus as a sort of mentor - if a loose cannon can ever be a mentor.
Rankin manages to bed this case against the issues of real time Scotland, focussing on Scottish independence, an issue that dominated the Scottish elections of 2006. Not a short read, but certainly an engrossing one. It left me hoping against hope that this isn't the last we see of Rebus!
My rating in 2007: 5.0
Ian Rankin on writing EXIT MUSIC
Bookzone interview with Ian Rankin on writing EXIT MUSIC
2 comments:
I just finished reading Naming of the Dead last month recently - my first introduction to Rebus, which had me asking, why did it take me so long to get to this wonderful series? I have Exit Music sitting near the top of my TBR and I'm really looking forward to it.
I think some of the earlier Rankin books were a bit "black" but I have enjoyed all the most recent ones. Did you like the video interviews?
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