Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin
Rather Be the Devil is the 21st Rebus novel by Ian Rankin and the sequel to Even Dogs in the Wild.
John Rebus really is retired this time and struggling with both his health and filling his time. To keep himself busy, he starts to look into an unsolved murder from 1978. There are plenty of suspects for the murder of glamorous socialite, Maria Turquand, many of whom are still living in Edinburgh.
Meanwhile, someone has attacked Edinburgh gangster, Darryl Christie, outside his own house. Could Big Ger Cafferty or Glasgow gangster, Joe Stark, be to blame?
DI Siobhan Clarke isn’t happy that DI Malcom Fox has been promoted to a new team. And she’s not happy when he returns to Edinburgh to get involved with her investigation.
When a club doorman is murdered, is it connected to the attack on Christie, or even Rebus’s historic case? Before long, Clarke, Fox and Rebus are all working together. And Clarke’s new boss is very unhappy that Rebus keeps wandering into the investigation room and coming up with his own theories. It’s almost as if he’d never retired…
t’s interesting to read how an old cop deals with retirement – or doesn’t deal with it. Policing is all Rebus has ever known and his colleagues, particularly Clarke, are closer than family. Without policing, he has no purpose. It’s lucky that a few of the older criminals insist on only being interviewed by Rebus rather than the newer detectives!
Rather Be the Devil is another brilliant page turner from Ian Rankin. Lots of old characters from the previous books are back, along with a few new ones.
I’ve almost finished my journey through the more recent Rebus novels, with just one more to go. Then I plan to go right back to Let It Bleed (book 7) and read the books I haven’t previously read. If you enjoy crime fiction and have never read a Rebus novel, I would definitely recommend them.
