Hide and Seek (John Rebus #2) by Ian Rankin****
Reading dates: 18 November – 8 December 2020
I really did not liked the first Inspector Rebus novel but memory is a bit fickle so I decided to go back to Rankin and give him a another chance. I am glad I did. While this is far from being my favourite crime novel or innovative of a formulaic genre, it is a solid plot, not easily discernible but completely believable and well tied together, with good scenes, and a development of the main character.
Here Rebus feels a little more like Mankell’s Wallander, inward, assailed by moral questions. I liked it. It suits him and it suits Edinburgh, which comes more alive and is more recognisable than in the previous novel. The sidekick is wonderful, the baddies are despicable and, the best, the crime is not neatly resolved. This is very fitting and shows some courage. I will give the next in line a go in my crime fiction writers rotation.
