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Title: A Question of Blood: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Mysteries)
ISBN: 0316159182
Author:
Ian Rankin
Publicate Date: 2005-01-01
Publish: 2005-01-01
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.60
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.50
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: A Very Good Why and Whodunit
Inspector Rebus is in the hospital because his hands had been burned and it seems he can't quite remember what happened. After he gets out he's called out on a shooting case at a private school. An ex-soldier went a bit nuts, killed two people, then himself. The question for Rebus is, why?
Also someone had been stalking Siobhan Clarke, Rebus prot??g?? and partner and this looks bad for Rebus, because someone burned up the stalker, killing him and those burns on Rebus's hands sort of make him look good for the killing. So now Rebus and Clarke have two crimes to solve, why did the soldier do what he did and who killed the stalker?a qaaaa
Ian Rankin writes terrific mysteries and this one is no exception. Rebus and Clarke are very believable characters who one cannot help enjoy reading about. You learn a lot about crime and how the police operate on the other side of the pond, plus you're treated to a good story as well. You can't go wrong with an Inspector Rebus story.
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2: Super Read
If you like "who dunnit" mysteries you will certainly enjoy this read!!
It is a good bedtime novel...can sleep like a baby afterwards!
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3: Rebus plays hurt but comes up a winner
"A Question of Blood" is the 14th book in the John Rebus series and delivers an engaging storyline--two murdered schoolboys, a snuffed out stalker of Rebus' partner, the death of an ex-cop and assorted mayhem revolving, as ever, around Inspector Rebus and his mates. Author Ian Rankin puts his anti-hero through the usual physical punishment which at times seems only reasonable for someone so anti-social and contrary as Rebus is portrayed. A secondary and interesting theme explored by this book (although not in nearly enough depth) is a look at post-traumatic ailments suffered by various characters central to the plot, including Rebus' own piled up issues.
This is a better than average read, driven largely by compelling dialogue rather than narrative and well-worth the time of any crime/mystery reader.
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4: What a find!
This is the first Ian Rankin novel I've read, but I'll make a point of reading them now. A really well designed mystery/police procedural by a Scottish author set in Edinburgh. The story begins with a school shooting, unfortunately an all too common event today, and not limited to the U.S. There was an earlier shooting in Scotland by a man who burst into a school, similar to Rankin's book. The actual shooting, as well as the whole gun control debate, are brought up in A Question of Blood, as well as other current issues U.S. readers will be familiar with, such as teenage gangs, the drug trade, Internet pornography and Goth kids, who might have stepped out of Columbine. The action is continuous and although there are a lot of characters and various subplots, you don't feel they get in the way of the story. Although the Scottish criminal justice system is somewhat different from the American, police and other personnel face similar problems. I found the book fascinating (I really hate that pseudo-word unputdownable) and recommend it to anyone who likes the mystery genre. Also on the school shooting theme, Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes, in a U.S. setting, is a good comparison read.
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5: Numpty?
I took a long time to warm to this book, which is one of series of stories about Scottish Detective Inspector John Rebus, a hard drinking loner, as you might expect. The author states in the preface that, in exchange for a donation to charity, he has taken to naming some minor characters after people who donate. I found this a bit weird, and strangely stereotypical. I took a long time to get into the story line, which moves along via Rebus's interior narration, and that of his young, admiring assistant Siobhan Clarke, and mixes in some dialog between them.
I found the best bits were the descriptions of Scottish society, I live in Ireland, so don't know the full details, but I identified with the descriptions of the modern media, the sodden weather, the drinking etc. I thought some of the street-criminal characters were quite believable also.
The plot hinges around a helicopter crash off the Scottish coast which killed a significant number of Government spy-types, an event which actually did take place. However, Rankin fictionalises what they were up to, I thought this might be insulting to the relatives of those who died, however I guess he has licence to do so.
The main weakness, I felt, was the clich??d nature of the lone, hard drinking detective, useless at relationships, but obsessively brilliant at his work. This has been done so often, you have to wonder what more could we be expected to put up with. Rebus finally drops his guard when he `rescues' his assistant Clarke, after suspecting she was involved in another `plane crash and gives her a big hug. NO HE WOULDN't, and the plane crash was put in for the TV mini-series. This last chapter takes a meandering story and puts it into a tailspin [yes, I know] Overall I won't be back to Rebus anytime soon
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