Hide and Seek: Ian Rankin

Hide and Seek is the second book in the John Rebus series featuring a Detective Inspector in the Edinburgh police. The series, written by Ian Rankin, started in 1987 with Knots and Crosses, and seemed to end in 2007 with Exit Music, the 17th Rebus novel. Rebus returned in 2012 in Standing in Another Man's Grave, and there are now over 20 novels in the series.

Description from the back of the book

In a shadowy, crumbling Edinburgh housing development, a junkie lies dead of an overdose, his body surrounded by signs of Satanic worship. Inspector John Rebus could call it an accident―but won’t. Now he’s got to scour the city―from the tunnels of its dark underbelly to the private sanctum of the upper crust―to find the perfect hiding place for a killer.

John Rebus is the first detective on the scene after the body of a young man is discovered.  The case seems straightforward enough, but Rebus follows up by talking to the young woman who reported the death. She and the victim had been living in the boarded up house where he was found She tells him that the body was in a different location in the house when she found him; also she is worried that someone is trying to kill her. All of this enforces Rebus's feeling that something more is going on.

Just as Rebus gets interested in this case, he is pulled off regular duties to work with a new drugs task force, which will have him socializing with some of the rich and powerful citizens of Edinburgh. He does continue looking into the death on the side, as the task force work is delayed. Thus Rebus is dealing with both the poorest people in the city and the richest in this case.

Rankin does not paint a pretty picture of the police force in Edinburgh. This is the dark and gritty side of Edinburgh. The plot deals with corruption in the police department and in city government. I always like a story about corruption and how people deal with it.

There are hints of personal issues in Rebus's life but they never come to the forefront in this book. Two continuing characters are introduced:  Detective Sergeant Brian Holmes, who does footwork for Rebus, and his boss, Detective Superintendent Watson. I especially enjoyed the sections involving Holmes.

This is our introduction to Rebus in this book:

John Rebus stared hard at the dish in front of him, oblivious to the conversation around the table, the background music, the flickering candles. He didn't really care about house prices in Barnton, or the latest delicatessen to be opened in the Grassmarket. He didn't much want to speak to the other guests—a female lecturer to his right, a male bookseller to his left—about… well, what ever they'd just been discussing. Yes, it was the perfect dinner party, the conversation as tangy as the starter course, and he was glad Rian had invited him. Of course he was. But the more he stared at the half lobster on his plate, the more an unfocussed despair grew within him. What had he in common with these people? Would they laugh if he told the story of the police alsatian and the severed head? No, they would not. They would smile politely, then bow their heads towards their plates, acknowledging that he was… well, different from them.

This is not the best police procedural I have ever read, nor is it the worst. I found it believable, interesting, and it kept me turning the pages. I plan to continue reading the series, not the least because I have the next eight books in the series, plus a few more. And I have heard that the series gets better and better.

This is my first submission for the Read Scotland 2017 challenge hosted by Peggy. Peggy is now blogging at Peggy's Porch.

-----------------------------

Publisher:   St. Martins Paperbacks, 1997. Orig. pub. 1991.
Length:       210 pages
Format:      Paperback
Series:       John Rebus, #2
Setting:      Edinburgh, Scotland
Genre:        Police procedural
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Short Story Reading in February 2017, Part 1

In late January, Richard Robinson at Tip the Wink suggested Short Story February, where we will focus on short stories during that month. I have read a couple of books for previous commitments this month, but for the most part, I have been reading short stories this month.

I finished one book of short stories by Michael Gilbert, Game Without Rules. There are eleven stories in this book, and they are all about the spies, Mr Calder and Mr Behrens. Both are in their fifties, and called upon when needed to handle special projects and missions. It is a wonderful book and I loved all the stories. I cannot even name a favorite. I will do a separate post on this book later.

The stories in this book are:

1. "The Road to Damascus"
2. "On Slay Down"
3. "The Spoilers"
4. "The Cat Cracker"
5. "Trembling's Tours"
6. "The Headmaster"
7. "Heilige Nacht"
8. "Upon the King..."
9. "Cross-Over"
10. "Prometheus Unbound"
11. "A Prince of Abyssinia"

The rest of the books I sampled stories from, although I do hope to finish one of two of them before the end of the month. They are:

Miniatures by John Scalzi
Miniatures is a small book full of very short stories. The stories are all science fiction, but of the ones I have read so far, they are all so light and humorous that they really don't feel like science fiction at all.

1. "Pluto Tells All"
2. “Denise Jones, Superbooker”
3. "When the Yogurt Took Over"
4. "The Other Large Thing"
5. "The State of Super Villainy" ( follow-up to Denise Jones, Superbooker)
6. "New Directive for Employee-Manxte Interactions"

IN SUNLIGHT OR IN SHADOW: 
Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
edited by Lawrence Block

1. "Girlie Show"  by Megan Abbott
2. "The Story of Caroline" by Jill D. Block
3. "Soir Bleu" by Robert Olen Butler
4. "The Truth About What Happened" by Lee Child
5. "Rooms by the Sea" by Nicholas Christopher

I especially liked "Girlie Show", a story about a woman who is forced by her husband to pose for the painting he is working on. A dark story with a very good ending.
And "The Story of Caroline" about a daughter who wants to see her birth mother.
And "Rooms by the Sea", which is about an unusual family with an unusual house, with elements of magical realism.

Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics
edited by Lawrence Block

1. “Mrs. Manstey’s View” by Edith Wharton (1891) – This was the author’s first published short story.
2. “A Poker Game” by Stephen Crane (1902) – Didn't really get this story.
3. “The Furnished Room” by O. Henry (1906) – Dark with an ironic ending.
4. “Spanish Blood” by Langston Hughes (1934) – Set in Harlem,during the Prohibition era.
5. “Sailor off the Bremen” by Irwin Shaw (1939) – A tale of revenge, very noir. Lots of violence, the darkest tale so far.
6. “My Aunt from Twelfth Street” by Jerome Weidman (1939) – A strange story about a young boy who visits his aunt, a Galician, who refuses to live in the same neighborhood as her relatives and others of the same background. 

OxCrimes (introd. by Ian Rankin, ed. by Mark Ellingham and Peter Florence)

1. "Buy and Bust" by Simon Lewis
2. "I’ve Seen That Movie Too" by Val McDermid
3. "Caught Short" by Anthony Horowitz
4. "An Afternoon" by Ian Rankin

All of those stories were very good. The Anthony Horowitz story was darker than I expected from him. The story from Ian Rankin was unusual in that it was written before he had begun writing crime fiction novels. It was interesting but a bit confusing to me, but I did enjoy the comments by Rankin that followed the story.

I had read the first two stories in this book earlier:  "The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us" by George Pelecanos and "Case of Death and Honey" by Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed both of those stories also.