Dead Souls: From the iconic #1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES

Product Information

In this entry,as in most of the Rebus books, there is a lot going on and none of it provides easy answers for Rebus and his mates.

Rebus' actions in the opening pages cast enough of a shadow on him that his very brief involvement on another case is used by the defense to cast a shadow on the police's investigation. Rebus chases a released pedophile when he is supposed to be trying to catch someone who has been poisoning the animals. A variety of issues/ possible crimes featured in this story, but while there were twists and turns, the stories seemed believable. He has to confront this once again when he discovers that the reason behind the suicide of his police colleague Jim Margolies was fear that he was becoming like his incestuous father.And then a fragment of Scotland’s criminal history is repatriated at the end of a life sentence for murder. Then there is the case of a missing boy who goes missing right around the time that it is discovered that Darren Rouse, the convicted pedophile, is living in the same apartment complex. In the beginning of the book he is part of a stakeout of the Edinburgh zoo trying to find the person who is poisoning the animals. Gritty, interesting mystery peopled with an varied, excellent cast, headed by cynical, war weary Detective Inspector John Rebus of Edinburgh's crime squad. John Rebus volume, Ian Rankin (The Falls) has traded the full-length police procedural for a collection of 12 gripping stories.

Rankin being Rankin, there are a panoply of other features with which Rebus has to contend: a third case involving the missing adult son of two of Rebus' childhood friends; a fling with an old high school flame; thinly-veiled criticism of the 1% (fifteen years before it was popular); the fallout from his daughter's near-death experience in the previous book; the responsibility of the media not to turn killers into celebrities; and so on.Inspector Rebus remains to be a troubled soul but also a driven fighter against injustice and crime. He is also reliving his past after an old girlfriend asks him to investigate her missing son Damon’s disappearance. When the social workers claim he is there for legitimate educational reasons, Rebus is faced with a dilemma - should he be outed to protect local kids or given a chance to start anew?