Product Description

The leaders of the free world descend on Scotland for an international conference, and every cop in the country is needed for front-line duty...except one. John Rebus's reputation precedes him, and his bosses don't want him anywhere near Presidents Bush and Putin, which explains why he's manning an abandoned police station when a call comes in. During a preconference dinner at Edinburgh Castle, a delegate has fallen to his death. Accident, suicide, or something altogether more sinister? And is it linked to a grisly find close to the site of the gathering? Are the world's most powerful men at risk from a killer? While the government and secret services attempt to hush the whole thing up, Rebus knows he has only seventy-two hours to find the answers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #476064 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Rankin's overly complex 18th book to feature Edinburgh's Insp. John Rebus (after 2005's Fleshmarket Alley), Ben Webster, a Scottish delegate to the Group of Eight summit, dies suspiciously a couple of days before the world's leaders gather in Scotland in 2005. While his colleagues are preoccupied by ensuring security at the conference, Rebus is devoting his energy to the murder of Cyril Colliar, a recently released violent sex offender. No one really cares about the case except for Rebus, and that's mainly because Colliar was muscle for Edinburgh's crime boss "Big Ger" Cafferty, with whom Rebus has tangled in earlier novels. Rebus is more than willing to flout authority in his dogged pursuit of Colliar's killer, who may be a vigilante intent on punishing rapists. Webster's death, never wholly resolved, does connect with Rebus's investigation, but the link is tenuous at best. Rankin deftly captures the mad circus—the media, the security, the demonstrators—of the G8 summit, but this background muddies the narrative waters. He's at his best when he focuses on Rebus and the city of Edinburgh itself. 6-city author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Rankin's U.S. publishers have been cashing in on the author's celebrity lately by reissuing his early work, originally published in the UK under a pseudonym, but now Rankin fans can get back to the really good stuff: a new John Rebus novel. Coming off what is arguably the best Rebus of all, Fleshmarket Alley (2005), Rankin faces a stern challenge, and while the new offering isn't quite among the series' elite, it's still a damn good book. It's July 2005, and Bush, Blair, and other international leaders are coming to Scotland for the G8 conference to be held outside Edinburgh. Anything but a company man, Detective Inspector Rebus finds himself relegated to the sidelines until he takes a call that lands him smack where he's not supposed to be: butting heads with conference organizers in an attempt to make sense of the apparent suicide of an attendee at a preconference dinner. The plot mushrooms out from there, of course, encompassing an ongoing serial-killer investigation and personal crises in the lives of both Rebus and his partner and protege, Siobhan Clarke. The focus on international events (including the London subway bombing) adds thematic heft to the novel but takes away a bit from the always-fascinating exploration of Rebus' melancholic heart of darkness. Still, Rankin continues to juggle his plot strains superbly and to add depth to the characterization of Clarke, whose multidimensionality nearly equals that of Rebus himself. Required reading for crime-fiction followers. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"For Rankin's fans all over the world, Rebus is the ideal sleuth." (The New Yorker Clive James )

"The fifty-something Rebus is surely one of the most rounded, warts-and-all characters in modern crime fiction. . . . Those who want to plunge deep into a world of convincing characters and brilliantly rendered atmospherics can't do much better than this." (Washington Post Patrick Anderson )

"The best living British crime writer." (Lee Child )

"There is a reason this guy is a #1 bestseller all over the world. Pick up The Naming of the Dead, read the first few pages, and then thank me later." (Harlan Coben )

Customer Reviews

Rebus subeRstar
With this new addition to the long running Rebus saga, Rankin/Rebus have re-confirmed their top ranking in the world of cop fiction. Silver goes to the Michael Connelly/Harry Bosch team.
Rebus and Bosch have a lot in common. Both are usually a pain in the neck to their superiors. Both are near retirement (Bosch actually was already retired but could not bear it and came back), both were married and are fathers, but live alone. Both are boozers, but not druggies, both music addicts, though one more in rock, one in jazz.
This sequel is set in the surroundings of the G8 summit in Scotland in 2005. Rebus is being sidelined by his superiors, i.e. assigned to side shows and not the main event, so as to minimize embarrassments for his bosses, but of course that idea fails.
Rebus' protege Siobhan Clarke is involved in the protest demo against the summit. This is part of her family background. She became a cop out of contrariness against her parents, who are aging hippies and beacons of righteousness, with a long track record of political lecturing back into the good old 60s.
Security forces try to keep the summit trouble free, which is upset by an apparent suicide and an emerging serial killer, not to mention the usual anarchists' and neo-nazis' attempt to surf the good people's demo. Not to mention either the bickering among the services and their pecking order fights.
Though the whole is a trifle over the top in political patronizing, it is solid cop fare.

Fast Pace, and Exciting
The book is set in Scotland in July 2005, when one of the most important events in modern history is due to take place. The G8 summit, a meeting attended by some of the world's most powerful men. Virtually every day there is some form of demonstration or protest and the thin blue line is stretched to its limits.

Detective Inspector Rebus has been sidelined, until an MP's apparent suicide coincides with clues that a serial killer may be on the loose. The powers that be are keen to keep the lid on both the suicide and the possibility of a killer on the loose. They would not make good headline reading while such important people are around and the possibility of overshadowing such an important meeting does not bear thinking about. But they have not taken into account the fact that Rebus has never been one to stick too closely to the rule book.

When a colleague of Rebus, Siobhan Clarke becomes involved in finding the identity of the riot policeman who assaulted her mother, it looks as though both of them may be involved against both sides in the conflict.

Smoking, drinking, and sleuthing.
Ian Rankin's "The Naming of the Dead" is a convoluted and lengthy police procedural that takes place during a chaotic time in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. The novel opens with John attending the funeral of his younger brother, Mickey, who died at fifty-four of a sudden stroke. Rebus is feeling his age in many ways; too many cigarettes and too much alcohol have taken their toll on his physique. He has been a cop for thirty years, but the job that has defined him for so long no longer earns him the respect of his colleagues. John's supervisors have little use for a detective who is often insubordinate and tends to follow his own instincts rather than standard police procedure. His bosses are waiting impatiently for John to retire, a step that he is reluctant to take.

Rebus and Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke become embroiled in what appears to be the murder of three sex offenders by a serial killer. Their investigation takes place against the backdrop of the G8 summit in Scotland, a conclave that is threatened by waves of protestors who have vowed to make their voices heard. Suddenly, one of the delegates, a Labor MP who was staying in Edinburgh Castle, falls or is pushed to his death. Although this is not, strictly speaking, John's case, he soon starts digging for evidence, and before long the cynical and sarcastic Rebus manages to get himself and Siobhan into a great deal of hot water.

"The Naming of the Dead," at four hundred and fifty pages, could have been trimmed quite a bit. The plot is extremely busy, there are too many secondary characters, and the narrative quickly loses steam. John's penchant for trouble leads him to confrontations with some thugs working for Special Branch as well as with James Corbyn, Edinburgh's chief constable, Morris Gerald Cafferty, known as Big Ger, "a villain of long standing" who has "fingers in every imaginable criminal pie," and a lay preacher, Councilman Gareth Tench, an unctuous politician with a thirst for power. Cafferty may know something about the killings that John is investigating, but Big Ger wants something in return for his cooperation. Rankin introduces a host of red herrings that keep the detectives busy chasing down leads before they finally learn the horrifying truth.

Rankin relies far too much on coincidences and far-fetched connections to tie up his loose ends, and the story's sluggish pacing makes reading "The Naming of the Dead" more of a chore than a pleasure. Still, John Rebus is a delightfully irreverent and sharp character who seeks justice even for victims whom most people would consider better off dead. Siobhan Clarke, a promising detective on her way up the ladder, is torn between loyalty to John and a desire to please her superiors. She knows that her friendship with Rebus is becoming a distinct liability. Until the last page, John frantically tries to even every score, regardless of the enemies that he makes in the process. Alas, even Rebus and Clarke cannot carry this book all by themselves and, like John's career, this series may at last be winding down.