Fleshmarket Close, by Ian Rankin, is the 15th novel to feature John Rebus, the very singular Scottish detective. The book opens with the murder of an illegal immigrant in an Edinburgh housing scheme, and Rebus is on the team investigating ... despite his superiors moving him to a different police station, where he hasn't even his own desk! Anyone might think about retiring, but not Rebus. Instead, he gets the bit between his teeth and picks his way through the evidence and suspects, to find out what happened and why. This takes him to an asylum seekers' centre, as well as having to have a quiet word with Big Ger Cafferty - the aged head of Edinburgh's sleazy underworld. Meanwhile, Siobhan, Rebus's closest colleague and friend is sucked back into one of her old cases, when the sister of a girl who killed herself following her rape disappears. And then there's the matter of two skeletons found buried in the cellar of a pub in Fleshmarket Close. Are all three cases linked in some way? Well, of course they are, but how and why provides the fun of reading the book. As always, Ian Rankin masterfully brings all the different threads of the story together and throws in some more of the personal relationship stuff suffered by Rebus and Siobhan. If only Rebus could get his head out of the bottle at times, maybe his love life would improve ... just saying! A very satisfying read and I raced through it!
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 482 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from my husband.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.
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