Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away south by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer.

And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. That sort of thing is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you.?' First published in 1987, it tells the story of Inspector Rebus investigating a series of abductions and murders of young girls. Or any of the authors I already mentioned.Knots & Crosses is the first novel in the inspector Rebus series. Pair with McDermid’s nonfiction book, Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime. Don’t be surprised if I read and review another book in the series this year. Overall, I liked Rankin’s writing style and the John Rebus character. So if you’re a bit squeamish and want to explore this genre, Rankin is a better choice than Val McDermid, for example. I don’t mind a gruesome murder mystery, and this didn’t seem even close to that level of description.

Even Rebus’s flaws are somewhat predictable. The characters are slightly dimensional, but not complicated. This feels akin to Sue Grafton’s writing rather than Stieg Larsson’s. On the other hand, I wished for more complexity.

On the whole, it was an absorbing and fast-paced read. I chose it because it fits a genre called Tartan Noir, and fulfills a reading challenge prompt for me. This book is just over 20 years old-a long-ago backlist bump choice. Unknotting the mystery takes just enough time, though. For his part, Rankin gives away some details of the villain. But he’s a bit slow on the uptake, as far as detective skills go. He never shies away from his whiskey, and doesn’t hesitate to bed an interested woman. Still, it’s not exactly a story you want to magically transport into. But Rankin adds a flavor of Scotland, and the audiobook narrator includes the proper Scottish burr. This is a story that could have occurred in any large city around the world. In fact, there’s nary a Highlander about. Knots and Crosses is not a fun romp in the world of kilts and tartans. And that’s all the more difficult for Rebus because he and the girl’s mother are currently separated. Someone is taking young girls, about the age of Rebus’s own daughter. Inspector John Rebus is a troubled man, assigned to the team investigating a series of abductions. Reading Knots and Crosses from Ian Rankin is a trip into the underbelly of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Knots and crosses rebus