Product Description

At night the summer sky stays light over Edinburgh. But in a shadowy, crumbling housing development, a junkie lies dead of an overdose, his bruised body surrounded by signs of Satanic worship. John Rebus could call the death and accident--but won't. Instead, he tracks down a violent-tempered young woman who knew the dead boy and heard him cry out his terrifyng last words: "Hide! Hide!" Now, with the help of a bright, conflicted young detective, Rebus is following the girl through a brutal world of bad deals, bad dope and bad company. From a beautiful city's darkest side to the private sanctums of the upper crust, Rebus is seeking the perfect hiding place for a killer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134122 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312963972
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus books are now translated into twenty-two languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America's celebrated Edgar Award for 'Resurrection Men'. He has also been shortlisted for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the USA, and won Denmark's Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the Deutscher Krimipreis. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews and Edinburgh. A contributor to BBC2's 'Newsnight Review', he also presented his own TV series, 'Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts'. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons.

Customer Reviews

Ian Rankin Paints With Words...
There are two sides of Edinburgh, Scotland. There's the side that tourists see: the city of Grayfriar's Bobby, of the annual Summer Festival, of the quaint pubs and the scenic castle sitting on a hill called Arthur's Throne. Then there's the other side of Edinburgh, the domain of Detective Inspector John Rebus. This Edinburgh is one of boarded up housing tenements inhabited by the hopeless, a city of AIDS ridden junkies and prostitutes, of deals made in back alleys at midnight amid violence and sometimes death.

Inspector Rebus is sent to investigate what appears to be a junkie's death in an abandoned housing estate. The man's body is laid out spread-eagle with Satanic symbols and candles decorating the room. While the other cops are convinced it's just another all-too-familiar overdose victim, Rebus gets the inkling there is more to it than meets the eye. A young female witness is found and tells Rebus that the last words the dead man said were "Hide! Hide!". Assisted by his protegé, Rebus explores the dark side of Edinburgh, seeking justice for a young man too easily dismissed both in life and in death.

Ian Rankin is the best mystery writer I've ever read. The character of Inspector John Rebus is melancholy, brooding, cynical, funny, intelligent, a workaholic and a perfectionist. He's both addicted and repelled by his work. Being a copper has absorbed his entire life. Rankin's style has been described as "Tartan Noir" and the label is fitting. But to think this book and the series it's part of are dreary would be a mistake. Rankin takes the reader to the depths of dark grittiness, then surprises with bright flashes of humor. Watch for tongue in cheek touches, such as a detective named Holmes and a superior named Watson. Do yourself a good turn and read not only HIDE & SEEK, but the entire Inspector Rebus series.

Excellent police procedural/mystery by under-rated author
I am a big fan of Rebus - and of anything Ian Rankin writes. Rebus is a believable cop - with lots of personality quirks and a not-so-perfect "home" life. The descriptions of his work environment and the politics involved in being a cop (in any country) are dead-on. Scotland comes alive - its weather, moods, citizens, crime. I highly recommend this book to any reader who is looking for something deep, different, and compelling.

On hunting a modern-day Mr. Hyde.
He had wanted to update Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" for modern times, Ian Rankin writes about his first Inspector Rebus novel, "Knots and Crosses" in the introduction to the 1999 British compilation "Rebus: The Early Years," which contains the first three installments of the series. Oblivious to the mere existence of such a thing as the mystery genre -- or so Rankin says -- he was stunned to soon hear his book described first and foremost as a crime novel. But eventually this characterization prompted him to have a closer look at the work of other mystery writers, and he found that the form suited his purposes just fine; that in fact he "could say everything [he] wanted to say about the world, and still give readers a pacy, gripping narrative."

Bearing in mind the original duality of Jekyll and Hyde, however, Rankin's tales are not dominated by a contrast painted in black and white. While the villains Inspector Rebus faces are certainly every bit as evil as Stevenson's Mr. Hyde, Rebus himself is far from a clean-slated "good guy:" Divorced, cynical, hard-drinking and a former member of the SAS, he is a brother in spirit to every noir detective from Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe to Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, James Ellroy's squad of crooked cops and Peter Robinson's Alan Banks. Nor is Rebus's Edinburgh the touristy town of Calton Hill, castle and Summer Festival (although the series has meanwhile sparked real-life guided tours to its most famous locations, too) -- as befitting a true detective of his ilk, Rankin's antihero moves primarily in the city's dark and dirty underbelly, which is populated by society's losers and where those who have "made it," those with money in their pockets, only show up if they have shady deals to conduct as well.

The title of Rankin's second Rebus novel, "Hide and Seek," is an even more overt play on Robert Louis Stevenson's famous dual character(s) than the mere juxtaposition of cop and killer in "Knots and Crosses;" and when the villain's identity is finally unveiled, the parallels between this book and Stevenson's become even more obvious. Here, Rebus is on the hunt for the killer of a junkie whose half-naked body is found in a run-down, deserted building in the Pilmuir housing estates -- the worst part of town, notwithstanding a nearby construction project involving high-priced luxury condominiums -- positioned crucifixion-style and near a drawing possibly hinting at Satanic rituals. And Rebus's only witness seems to be the young woman who had been living with the dead man for the last three months and heard him yell "Hide!" before pushing her out of the door, telling her: "They've murdered me;" but who is now more than just a little reluctant to cooperate, taking refuge, instead, behind an almost unbreakable rebel-against-society-facade, complete with peroxide hair, stud earrings and Attitude with a capital "A."

While this series had a terrific start already in its first two novels, published in 1987 and 1991, Rebus's character -- and Rankin's writing -- has evolved significantly over time. Thus, it is probably wise to read it in the order of publication. Contrary to his early nonseries books, however, which he views much more critically in hindsight, Ian Rankin overall still seems to be happy with his early Rebus books, commenting: "I can't read them without thinking back to my own early years, my apprenticeship as a crime writer. Read and enjoy." I have nothing to add to that ...

Also recommended:
Rebus: The Early Years (Knots & Crosses / Hide & Seek / Tooth & Nail)
Rebus - The St Leonard's Years
Rebus: The Lost Years (Let It Bleed / Black & Blue / The Hanging Garden)
Rebus: Capital Crimes (Dead Souls / Set in Darkness / The Falls)
Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus CD Collection: Resurrection Men, A Question of Blood, Fleshmarket Alley (Inspector Rebus) (Inspector Rebus)
Exit Music
Rebus's Scotland
Rebus
The Jack Harvey Novels
Rebus: The Complete Short Stories~Ian Rankin