Last month Ian Rankin came to town and on a cold, snowy night and he had a packed house with fans that came from as far as Pennsylvania and New York.  I must again give a shout out to our library system, who always brings in the big names (this month I’m seeing Harlan Coben and next month Stephanie Evanovich and Heather Morris).  Anyway, I loved Ian’s first Rebus book and really wanted to spend an evening with a legit Scottish accent.  So my mom and I went (he is signing her book here).  He was delightful.  He spoke for about an hour and took a lot of questions, some very serious ones about current affairs, like Brexit, and managed to educate and entertain.

Hide and Seek. Finished 3-7-19, 4.5/5 stars, mystery, 272 pages, pub. 1990

Book #2 in the Inspector Rebus series (1-Knots and Crosses)

A junkie lies dead in an Edinburgh squat, spreadeagled, cross-like on the floor, between two burned-down candles, a five-pointed star daubed on the wall above.

Just another dead addict – until John Rebus begins to chip away at the indifference, treachery, deceit and sleaze that lurks behind the facade of the Edinburgh familiar to tourists.

Only Rebus seems to care about a death which looks more like a murder every day, about a seductive danger he can almost taste, appealing to the darkest corners of his mind …    from Goodreads

So, Inspector Rebus is back.  I looked back at my thoughts on the first book and saw that I was concerned about how much alcohol everyone drank.  Well, I’m happy to say that Rebus, at least, was a bit more restrained.  It’s a year later and he has no contact with his family and his girlfriend is gone and he seems…okay?  He gets an invite to the big boys club and he takes it, if a little unwillingly.  He needs to sign off on an overdose and move on to a more cushy job, but he just can’t let it go.

When we met Ian I mentioned how much my mom enjoys dead bodies and he said that his series had a low body count.  That may be true later in the series (it’s over 20 now) but this one seemed to have its fair share of corpses.  All well deserved in my opinion.

As with the first book I love the Edinburgh setting and the often surly Inspector Rebus.  The plot will keep you reading, I promise.  I can’t wait to continue with this series.  And if you get a chance to hear Rankin speak, take it!