Beggars Banquet (Hardcover)

Eight of the stories involve Inspector John Rebus, all are excellent. The others vary in time and location between modern London and eighteenth century Edinburgh ("The Serpent's Back"), taking in an almost lyrical look at the Sixties ("Glimmer") on the way. Many of the stories show the adroit plotting and sense of place we associate with Ian Rankin, especially "The Hanged Man", "Video, Nasty", "The Scheme of Things" and "Somebody Got to Eddie", with their intelligent and well-plotted twists.

Perhaps the only problem with this collection, a lot more consistent than Rankins previous "A Good Hanging" (and that collection was a lot better than most writers' best), is that the Rebus novels are so outstanding. The novel format allows Rankin space for his excellent exploration of character (particularly the sympathetic portrayal of the flawed but resilient Rebus himself), the teasing out of often complex (but never overly so) plots, the superb sense of place (with the old city of Edinburgh an uncredited character) and, perhaps most impressive of all, the accurate and inspired evocation of modern Scotland in all its aspects.

But, before the main course, the starters, and while we eagerly await Rebus' next outing in "A Question of Blood", Ian Rankin ensures that we do not go hungry with this Beggars Banquet.

21 stories, 8 of which are Rebus, and all of which are excellent. I prefer the non-Rebus stories, though...the Rebus ones lack something the others contain, and the ones without him are nice and fresh, its good to read Rankin when hes not writing about Rebus. It showcases his talent more, giving us a bigger picture of what he can actually do.

The first story is a good opener, not too complex, with Rebus on good form. The stories that follow vary in their topic and style From the historical story "The Serpents Back", which is excellently written and evokes very well the spirit and atmopshere of old-Edinburgh, to "Glimmer" which is written in a strange, drealike, blunt, shifting style, about 60's culture.

For people who like twists, there are plenty of those to be had, in particular in "Someone's Got To Eddie" and "The Hanged Man" (even if in that one the twist is not very adequately explained)

"The Wider Scheme" also has a great twist, which considering the first line, the reader really should be able to guess. "Unknown Pleasures" is a nice, meandering peace which ably demonstrates the far reaches of crime and its networks. "Herbert In Motion" one of the two CWA Dagger winning stories in this collection (the other being "A Deep Hole") is a very well written story, with a great plot and a nice little sting in it's tail.

All in all, this is a superb collection of stories. Not a single one of them is a dud. They vary in styles and topics, and are all very enjoyable. A very nice offering to tide us over until the release of his next Rebus, "A Question of Blood".

This is a short story collection not to be missed by anyone, fan of Rankin (if you're not yet, why aren't you?) or not.

For those of us addicted to this series, it is a rare pleasure to be able to visit Rebus' Edinburgh without seeing an entire day, or indeed weekend, disappear as we devour the latest installment from cover to cover.

And it's not just Rebus. As the "Jack Harvey" novels showed, Rankin is not afraid to mix styles and settings in this superb collection. Some of them aren't perfect, but they're all worth a read.