A Heart Full of Headstones: The Gripping New Must-Read Thriller from the No.1 Bestseller Ian Rankin

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Rebus shares top billing this time with Siobhan Clarke, the eager Detective Inspector who has been his long time friend. Clarke is investigating the murder of an ex-policeman who had been threatening to blow the gaff on the goings on at the notorious Tynecastle Station. There are plenty of cops who’d rather this didn’t happen, so there are suspects aplenty. Even Rebus himself seems to be somewhat tainted by historic association with the one time leader of the motley station crew. Ian Rankin σε αυτή την τελευταία περιπέτεια του Ρέμπους - του επιθεωρητή που κανείς δεν μπορεί να καταλάβει πως δουλεύει το μυαλό του και πως παρόλες τις αντισυμβατικές μεθόδους του, πάντα βρίσκει τη λύση. He's long retired by now, and ailing, but he still wants to put away bad guys (or help Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke put them away). This time, ostensibly doing a favor for his long-term nemesis Morris "Big Ger" Cafferty, Rebus goes looking for a man once in Cafferty's employ, missing and presumed dead. This bit of unofficial sleuthing collides with a real case that Clarke is investigating: a policeman from the Tynecastle station who is abusing his wife, then disappears.

Book 24. Will there be a Book 25? I really don’t know. This book didn’t finish at all how I thought it would, even though I did catch my breath - literally - at a particularly pivotal moment (no spoilers!). I thought that was it, but it seems there is still enough bluster and doggedness in John Rebus for the series to continue. I’d like to think so anyway. Fingers crossed. I’ve been anxious when reading the last few books, wondering how they would end, as this series has been such an important part of my reading life. Huge. I even had a friend take a foto of the infamous Oxford Bar when they were in Edinburgh. Wherever Ian Rankin, and John Rebus end up taking me, I’m now ok with that. Cheers to them both. And a scratch and belly rub for Brillo.A couple of my recent fiction reads have included the effect of COVID at the time. Rebus has a lanyard that excuses him from wearing a mask. I wonder how long it will be before a writer centres a crime around the conditions that COVID created? By the end, we know what crime Rebus is accused of committing, but we don’t know the outcome of the trial, and there are still some miscreants who have not been charged. So this is part one of a two-part story—a fact that has some readers unhappy. Not me. I can’t wait for the next instalment. Will Rebus escape once again, or will he finally end his career? He is physically unwell—if not jail, is his death in the future?

Rebus could still hear singing coming from the Meadows, and a dog barking, and a distant siren. Somewhere, someone needed help. Somewhere, bad things were happening. He’d spent his whole life in that world, a city perpetually dark, feeling increasingly weighed down, his heart full of headstones. Like all pandemics, there are those that succumb, those that struggle through, and those that seek to profit, in this case by “Furlough Fraud”. No shortage of slippery characters here: a well-connected land developer, a lettings agency once owned by “Big Ger” and tenuous links from there to a man “Big Ger” reputedly had eliminated. His new henchman, Andrew, was at one time employed by underworld figure Darryl Christie, currently serving a 25 year sentence. Aside from the edgy humour, the author drops in descriptions of the city itself.

There is subtly in the title and in some scenes where Rebus is listening to music. The reader might find it interesting to research the singer Jamie Leven the Scottish singer and his relationship with Rankin and Rankin’s use of Leven’s lyrics. I won’t be presumptuous and refer to the esteemed author as Sir Ian, but because he is British, and part of the more decent, civilized northern sector of that isle I will congratulate him on his noble hood. Many thanks to both Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of A Heart Full of Headstones.

A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts, on Channel 4 in 2002. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, and opted to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons. Well, it’s always going to be five star for my favourite detective of all time and yes, I have read all 24! Big Ger Cafferty (Rebus’ longtime nemesis) surveys the vista of Edinburgh through a telescope from the prized position of his penthouse unit. Keeping his eyes firmly peeled on the City he once ruled with drugs and fists. The novel starts with Rebus on trial but given his long association in various forms with Big Ger Cafferty maybe not a huge surprise! Siobhan meanwhile is working on a case that involves officers at Tynecastle police station long known to be rotten to the core but as yet unproven. However, as Malcolm Fox is also on the case and knowing his dogged nature then maybe certain officers should be hot under the collar.Malcolm Fox (he who once had his own series) also makes an appearance, which in my eyes is a little less welcome. The slimy ex-Complaints officer has risen up the ranks and now seems to have the ear of the Assistant Chief Constable. He’s riding shotgun on the Tynecastle situation, the top brass being keen that the nefarious acts of the past don’t see the light of day. In fairness, he’s grown into a pantomime villain of a figure who offsets Clarke and Rebus well here. As fans of Rebus know he doesn’t always do things the right way but he does do them for the right reasons. Fmr. Officer Haggard has been threatening to bring all those hidden sins out in the open if charges against him for domestic abuse are not dropped. Then he is found murdered in an apartment he could ill afford. How did Haggard afford that apartment and who rented it to him? More important is who killed him and why?

This is definitely a great book for long time fans, as the repeat characters show the paths they’ve chosen. And where their loyalties lie. Rebus, now retired, has been summoned by crime lord Big Ger Cafferty in his request to find a man long disappeared and one many thought killed by Cafferty. Cafferty explains to Rebus he would like to make amends with the missing man and while Rebus agrees to do so, he is greatly suspicious of Cafferty's stated purpose. In the 24th installment of Ian Rankin's John Rebus series, Rankin again delivers a reliably good novel in the series. John Rebus is accused of a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. It's not the first time the legendary detective has taken the law into his own hands, though it might be the last...

Comments

This was one that I couldn’t stop reading. As soon as my eyes were rested, I’d start another chapter. Yet it wasn’t a fast thriller. With its large cast of characters, I probably would have been lost except that I had been reading the Rebus novels for more than two decades, so many of the recurring players and their past interactions were well fixed in my memory. Rankin has used a common literary device where he starts the story near what is probably the end of the story. In the opening paragraphs John Rebus is in court on trial for an unknown offence. It whets the appetite of the reader to continue to read to discover why this antihero has finally being prosecuted. We know he bends the rules but, this time has he broken the rules? I am not sure if this hook is necessary in a Rebus’ novel. I can't help but think that once you get to a certain age most of us will have one or two headstones in our heart. And some will have more than others. Clarke finds herself on an inquiry involving a police officer facing charges of domestic abuse against his wife, the suspended officer, Haggard, is part of the notorious Tynecastle police station with its long history of brutality and corruption. Haggard is willing to do whatever it takes to avoid charges, including hanging out his colleagues to dry, he is willing to air the station's dirty linen, naming names, including a barely concealed allusion to Rebus himself. This alarms the hierarchy at Police Scotland and Haggard's former colleagues who are willing to do whatever it takes to try and protect themselves. As the book progresses, Clarke and Fox find themselves working on a murder investigation that Rebus takes a close interest in. Crime boss Big Ger Cafferty continues to make his presence felt, despite being in a wheelchair after being shot, as he asks Rebus to locate a former employee of his, ostensibly so that he can express his remorse. At the same time, police detective and long-time ally Siobhan Clarke is tasked with a domestic violence case involving a police detective. The case soon becomes a sprawling investigation involving decades of police corruption and misconduct based out of a historically notorious police station that certainly will involve much larger implications and possibly even John Rebus.