{"id":1451,"date":"2014-08-27T07:55:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T14:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2014-08-29T19:11:31","modified_gmt":"2014-08-30T02:11:31","slug":"crime-and-politics-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=1451","title":{"rendered":"Crime and politics in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s always a pleasure to read a book review by Tom Dillon. He reads such interesting books. This time, he’s enjoying a bit of detective fiction, but as you might expect, it’s a bit more complicated than shoot-’em-up and whodunit.<\/p>\n

SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE. By Ian Rankin. Little, Brown and Co. 389 pages. $26 hardback. Also available in paperback and on Kindle.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Tom Dillon<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Do you ever get the feeling certain authors are playing around with you? That\u2019s how I\u2019m beginning to feel about Ian Rankin, creator of the Scottish detective John Rebus, after reading Rankin\u2019s latest, Saints of the Shadow Bible.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

I started reading Rankin\u2019s Rebus novels on a trip to Scotland in 2006, and I was immediately drawn in by a detective who puts solving crime above being deferential to authorities and nice to bigwigs. That\u2019s long been Rebus\u2019 modus operandi. It reminds me of some newspaper reporters I\u2019ve known.<\/p>\n

Rebus\u2019 life is police work. It\u2019s one of the things that broke up his marriage long ago and allows only occasional contacts with his daughter. That, and the fact that he\u2019s an out-of-shape older cop still smoking and drinking too much.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I followed Rankin\u2019s John Rebus novels right up through Rebus\u2019s retirement five years ago in the novel, Exit Music<\/em>. I said then that I didn\u2019t think retirement was a very good fit for Rebus, and boy, was I right. Barely skipping a beat, Rankin came out with Standing in Another Man\u2019s Grave<\/em>, in which Rebus is working part-time with a \u201ccold case\u201d unit looking at old crimes.<\/p>\n

And now here\u2019s Saints of the Shadow Bible<\/em>, in which the retirement age has been raised and the old guy is, believe it or not, back on the force \u2013 albeit at a lesser rank. He retired as a detective inspector; now he\u2019s back to being a sergeant, and his former prot\u00e9g\u00e9, female detective Siobhan Clarke, is his boss.<\/p>\n

Adding to the ironies, Rebus is paired with one of his old nemeses, Malcolm Fox, late of the Complaints Division of Police Scotland. Complaints is the unit that investigates rogue cops, and they\u2019ve had ample reason to look at the career of John Rebus through the years. Can Rebus and Fox, now on the road to becoming a detective himself, get along?<\/p>\n

Rebus, Fox and Clarke start out investigating a young woman\u2019s car crash that quickly turns suspicious. Her boyfriend is the son of a high-ranking Scottish politician involved in the Scottish independence movement, and neither wants to talk to the police.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s a subplot, a reopened old case involving some of Rebus\u2019 colleagues when he first joined the force more than 30 years ago. Those colleagues, known as the \u201csaints,\u201d swore an oath of loyalty on something called \u201cthe shadow bible,\u201d and now some of their work may be coming back to haunt them. Was John Rebus involved in corruption all those years ago?<\/p>\n

Handling those two plot themes at the same time is a tall order, but Ian Rankin has long since proved himself adept at such things. Further, he lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two sons, and his work shows he keeps a steady hand on the pulse of Scottish life and politics.<\/p>\n

The whole novel, published a few months ago, takes place amid the politicking for the Scottish independence vote, which has been scheduled for Sept. 18 this year (700th<\/sup> anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, for the record, which first achieved Scottish independence from England). But the vote is just part of the background. Don\u2019t expect a solution.<\/p>\n

More important is this look into John Rebus\u2019 early life as a policeman, and the delicate interplay between Rebus, Clarke and Fox as they both navigate the back roads of Scotland and try to come to terms with their former selves.<\/p>\n

As I said, I don\u2019t know where Ian Rankin is going with the late-life career of John Rebus, and I\u2019ve given up guessing. But wherever the destination, the trip is going to be adventurous. I\u2019ll keep reading.<\/p>\n