Resurrection Men (Inspector Rebus Novels): Amazon.co.uk: Ian Rankin, James MacPherson: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

Rebus is back. Resurrection Men, the 13th DI Rebus novel, finds Ian Rankin’s doughty detective off the case. He explodes at his superior DCS Gill Templar over the increasingly frustrating murder inquiry into the savage killing of an Edinburgh art dealer and his punishment is a spell cooling his heels at the Scottish Police College in central Scotland. Rebus balks at his "retraining" but he’s not alone: he’s part of an ill-assorted group of similar officers--all with an attitude problem and a dislike of the institution they find themselves in. Given an old unsolved case to work on the group is obliged to polish up their teamwork while supervisors assess the reprobates. But some of the team have secrets not unconnected to the case they’ve been handed and Rebus finds that anything goes when it comes to keeping the past obscured.

This is Rankin in top form with Rebus rejuvenated by the edgy new milieu he’s dropped into. Complicating things, the Scottish Crime Squad asks Rebus to act as a link to someone who can deliver the inside dirt on an old nemesis, gangster "Big Ger" Cafferty. In Edinburgh, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke has to take over the case of the murdered art dealer and, like Rebus, finds herself getting closer to the unpleasant Mr Cafferty. Forget the miscast John Hannah in the TV movies, this is the real Rebus: gritty, idiomatic and etched in prose that wastes nae a word in its redefining of the crime novel. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Ian Rankin will be touring nationwide for the paperback of RESURRECTION MEN from 3 October to 17 October. Ian's 3-part documentary series, IAN RANKIN'S EVIL THOUGHTS, which he has written and presented, will be shown on C4 on Saturday evenings at 8pm starting on 30 November. PRESS:Ian interviewed Anthony Bourdain in OBSERVER 20 October to tie in to Dead on Deansgate. DAILY TELEGRAPH - Sarah Crompton, The Arts Column 13 Nov on TV adaptations: 'Ian Rankin is perhaps the best and most complext thriller writer in Britain today, but the television adaptation of his Inspector Rebus novels was a travesty' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 27 October Ian's Notebook SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE 27 Oct Making a Killing photostory on crime writers RADIO TIMES short story in 2 parts EDINBURGHSTUDENT 27 Nov - full page interview RADIO:R4 OPEN BOOK - transmitted 20 OctBBC WM REVIEWS: 'another lean, mean page turner' Jemima Hunt, GUARDIAN 'For aslice of gritty, gripping detective work at its very best'SOLDIER October ' 'This is Ranin in idiomatic gritty top form' WOMAN AND HOME, paperbacks of the month 'As Rankin unfolds his characteristically complicated and multi-stranded plot Rebus emerges again as just about the most interesting anti-hero in modern crime fiction. This is his 13th outing, and Rankin's invention and ability to find new ways of developing his character show no signs of flagging' SUNDAY TIMES paperbacks, pick of the week 'This is not your average police procedural, however. The thirteenth novel in Rankin's Rebus series is his most mature work yet. His pacing is so actue and the supporting characters are so well drawn that this book escapes the shackles of the crime novel genre and cn be classed as great fiction, full stop. Alan Jager, THE TIMES 'a monumentalreturn to form...Classic Rebus' LIVING ABROAD MAGAZINE 'The best Rebus book in years' GOOD BOOK GUIDE ' Other reviews in KENT MESSENGER EVENTS: (all dates/timesl listed on author events schedule)Talks:Bromley Central Library - Ottakars BromleyBath Theatre RoyalHammicks BasingstokeDead on DeansgateIlkley FestivalOttakars HuddersfieldWaterstones NewcastleCheltenham FestivalBirminghamFestivalBorders Glasgow Signing sessions:Borders Charing X RdWaterstones Leed --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

Ian, you've surpassed yourself! 4 Jan 2002

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Wow - what a start to the New Year! Rebus is my hero, and here he is, as crabbit and wasted as ever. Like many others, I stayed up late on Hogmanay, and into the wee small hours of the New Year, but this year I wasn't partying. Instead I absent-mindedly kissed my husband at midnight, and went straight back to my book.
I have devoured all of the Rebus books so far, and "Resurrection Men" must be one of the best crime novels ever written. A twisting, paranoid tale (as Rebus himself quotes, "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you...") A story of bent cops, an old case dredged out of Rebus's past, and DS Clarke becoming more and more like her mentor. I couldn't put it down.

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30 of 35 people found the following review helpful

Risen from the Falls 21 Jan 2002

By "nicstorr"

After reading "The Falls", I almost felt that Rankin had written a lazy book. The Falls didn't havethe normal 2/3 stories running at once, not much of the supporting cast (Ormi, Linford, Big Ger) etc. Now, I realise that Rankin was in fact not being lazy, he was just penning his masterpeice, RESSURECTION MEN. I, unlike other readers, wasn't entirely sure of the outcome, until the very end. I was enthralled by the twists, by the wide range of charactures, esp. the new DC Davie. Siobahn gets a much greater billing (including the concluding chapter, a sign of things to come?) and you really feel what Rebus would be feeling, at each twist and turn. I loved it. It was easily his best novel, and much better than The Falls. Weak parts? None really..

Well done Ian Rankin. I for one, dont want the series to end.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Not his best 1 Jun 2008

By L. Davidson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Resurrection Men" is highly rated by many reviewers but I thought that it was one of the less memorable of the Rebus books, with recent novels like "Fleshmarket Close" and "The Falls" surpassing it in my opinion. In "Resurrection Men" Rebus is sent for retraining at a Scottish police academy following an incident in which he threw a cup of tea at his boss. There he teams up with fellow officers who are also deemed to be disruptive and insufficently submissive to their superiors.Together they investigate an old murder case during the course of which many old skeletons from the past are unearthed. As Rebus gets to know his colleagues better ,he finds that they may be linked in some way with a case he was investigating prior to his retraining which concerned the murder of an Edinburgh art dealer. The plotting in this book is typically labyrinthine but the pace of the narrative is often slow .The novel is overlong and the story lacks genuine excitement until the final few chapters .