A Song for the Dark Times: The Brand New Must-Read Rebus Thriller
As seen:
By Ian Rankin
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1 review
From the iconic Number One bestseller Ian Rankin, comes one of the must-read books of the year: A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES
‘Genius … Only great novels capture the spirit of the age. This is one of them.’
THE TIMES
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’He’s gone…’
When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days.
Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect.
He wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?
As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast – and a small town with big secrets – he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn’t want to find…
PRAISE FOR A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES:
‘Magnificent … utterly unputdownable and an immersive pleasure.’
MARIAN KEYES
‘This is Rankin at his best, Rebus at his best, storytelling that meets the moment and transcends all genres and expectations.’
MICHAEL CONNELLY
‘An outstanding addition to one of the finest bodies of work in crime fiction.’
MICK HERRON
- * * * *
PRAISE FOR THE ICONIC NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER:
‘Ian Rankin is a genius’
LEE CHILD
‘A master storyteller’
GUARDIAN
‘Rebus is one of British crime writing’s greatest characters: alongside Holmes, Poirot and Morse’
DAILY MAIL
‘Great fiction, full stop’
THE TIMES
‘One of Britain’s leading novelists in any genre’
NEW STATESMAN
‘Rankin is a phenomenon’
SPECTATOR
‘Worthy of Agatha Christie at her best’
SCOTSMAN
‘The king of crime fiction’
SUNDAY EXPRESS
Reviews
I’d waited so long to get a copy of this from the library that the paperback had been published by the time I did. But it was so worth the wait!
Okay, I admit I’m a Rebus fan, so maybe it’s not surprising I enjoyed it but I love the fact that Rankin can make a story about a grumpy, bull-headed, retired detective so compelling. In the sleeve notes the mystery underpinning the novel didn’t sound that promising, but somehow all the little story-threads were woven into something interesting, clever and complicated. It was huge fun to read.
As usual there are two crimes. In Edinburgh the police are investigating the death of a young Saudi called Salman bin Mahmoud. He was unknown to them and there’s no obvious motive for the killing, so the team have very little to work with. The second crime is the disappearance of Rebus’s son-in-law, which has him chasing north to help his daughter.
While Rebus is sticking his neck out in the small town of Tongue in the northwest Highlands, there seems no likelihood that he could become involved in the Edinburgh case. But he does, because the two stories link in the most tenuous ways, through the characters rather than the crimes.
The Edinburgh case involves some familiar names: Detective Inspector Malcolm Fox, has been parachuted in from the Major Crimes Division and Cafferty the crime boss is circling on the edges, so it’s not long before the murder investigation morphs into something a bit more intricate. And back in Tongue, after Rebus has discovered his son-in-law’s body, he’s desperately trying to stop DS Robin Creasey arresting his daughter so starts digging into some long-held secrets relating to a POW camp that was located outside the town during WW2.
There’s something comforting about Rankin’s Rebus stories and, in my view, this is another excellent addition to the series. Entertaining, interesting and welcomingly familiar it earns 4.5 Stars from me.
Review by: Cornish Eskimo
