Standing in Another Man's Grave

by Ian Rankin

This is, I think, the second book in the Rebus series that I have read.  In this book Rebus has retired, but couldn't stay away so he is working on some cold cases. Then, the mother of a girl who was reported missing years ago contacts Rebus and convinces him that a number of girls have disapppeared along the A9 highway in northern Scotland and she thinks her daughter is one of the victims.  Rebus is estranged from his daughter, this is probably what interests him about her claims.

Rebus believes her and starts looking at some of the other cases, plus a recent disappearance and gets his superiors to agree that they may be connected.  Rebus is then reassigned to a team working on the current murder plus the others,

While Rebus is working on the story he is being "pursued" by Malcolm Fox of the "Complaints" department. Fox doesn't like Rebus's methods nor the company he keeps (a criminal whose life he saved).  He is trying to pin something on Rebus and prevent him from reapplying to the force now that the retirement age has been raised.  He is concerned that Rebus is a bad influence on young officers and warns one young woman that associating with Rebus could harm her advancement.

Rebus is passionate, even obsessive when he is working on a case.  He also has street smarts and good instincts.  It is is grunt work and suggestions that eventually leads to the discovery of 5 bodies and it is he who figures out who the serial killer is. However he is hard smoking, hard drinking and doesn't think anything about ignoring police procedures to get crimes solved.  He meets with three different criminals and tries to get the assistance of one of them to get a confession out of the murderer.  He gets his superiors and his colleagues very upset because of his bravado and behaviour.  However, not all of his colleagues can be trusted.  Some of them inform on him or leak news to the media when they shouldn't.  A good portion of the book is spent on the conflicts between police officers themselves. Rebus never does what he is told, often ignoring direct orders.  The superiors are not portrayed in a very positve manner.  They are portrayed as more interested in their career advancement than in actual police work.

Most detectives in mystery novels are renegades but I don't know of anyone that is as undisciplined as Rebus. However, having only read one other in the series perhaps this is only manifest to this extent in this novel. Rebus does a great job of portraying the Scottish pubs and locals in the story.  The settings, including the pub scenes add colour to the story.  He does a great job of describing the vast open spaces in the north of Scotland.

There is a new Rankin novel out which involves Rebus and Fox working together.  I think I will have to read it, to see how that works out.