Exit Music by Ian Rankin
Exit Music is the 17th Rebus novel by Ian Rankin – preceding Standing in Another Man’s Grave, which I read earlier this year. I’ve been working my way through the more recent Rebus novels and was due to read Rather Be the Devil next. But I went back in time to Exit Music, mainly because I needed to read a paperback book so I could fit it in my bag when I went to see Ed Sheeran!
Published in 2007, Exit Music is the final novel before Rebus’s initial retirement. (The Rebus novels are written in real time, so he had to retire at the right time. Then the law changed and retirement for the police in Scotland was made later, so he could be brought back into the force in Saints of the Shadow Bible.)
Just 10 days before DI John Rebus is due to retire, a Russian poet is brutally murdered in Edinburgh. At the same time, a delegation of wealthy Russians is visiting the city and there is pressure from politicians and the banks for the murder to be solved quickly. The powers that be want the murder to be a mugging gone wrong – a case of wrong place, wrong time for the poet. But Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke believe there is more to it than that.
After a second murder, it feels to Rebus and Clarke as if there are too many leads and too many connections. From the Russian businessmen to the politicians and bankers to the teenage girl who first found the body – everyone seems to be connected.
And with just days to go until his retirement, Rebus can’t give up on his obsession with Edinburgh gangster, Big Ger Cafferty. To finally see him put away would be the best retirement gift he could get. Is even Cafferty connected to the Russians?
With the focus on Russian oligarchs in the news last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine, much of Exit Music feels somehow familiar. The story also takes place at the same time as the notorious poisoning of Litvinenko in London and the characters follow that story in the news and make reference to it.
Exit Music is another brilliant read from Ian Rankin. Rebus novels are complex, but they also feel very real and paint a picture of Edinburgh rarely seen by tourists. If you’ve never tried a Rebus novel before, but you enjoy crime or detective novels, I would definitely recommend you give them a go.
