My random adventure with Inspector Rebus continues. This time I came upon the thirteenth book in the series. Rebus seems to have lost it and threw a mug of tea at his boss in the room full of his colleagues. This cannot go unpunished, so he’s sent to Tulliallan, a police school, full of young recruits but also with one class for seasoned troublemakers.

After a series of deadly boring lectures, that are supposed to ingrain in them respect for authority, but seem to have the exactly opposite result, Rebus and his class are assigned an old unsolved murder case. As it happens it may be in Rebus’ best interest if they do not solve it. At the same time, Rebus has been asked to investigate some of his classmates, as his supervisors suspect that them not respecting any authority may be the least of their problems. Siobhan Clarke in the meantime works on a case of murdered art dealer. As always all the strands come together to form a complex whole.

I like that Rankin makes Rebus think a lot, he may not be the most sociable creature, but he likes to figure out what makes people click, what motivates them. He also indulges in a lot of introspection, with not very favorable conclusions. It was a very well-balanced book, slow enough to give time and space for character development, but picking up pace when needed so as not to be boring. As much as it is a part of the series it is still possible to read the books separately and without order, they still work. And it’s always good to have some reliable crime on the side, for when one is tired with other things. As much as Rankin’s books are dark somehow because I know what to expect of them they give me the feeling of cosines, a well-known and reliable read.

Photo by Violetta Kaszubowska