The Naming Of The Dead

As usual a crafted and enjoyable Rebus story. However there are too many coincidences between the characters in the plot for my liking.

A Scottish Tale (1/1 people found this helpful)

A worthy addition to the Rebus series, not his best, but again you cannot fail to smile at some of the boozy inspector's antics and quotes. He's the anti-hero we'd all love to be (if we didn't have a mortgage to pay and kids to feed), preferring the company of the local gangster or barfly to his contemporaries in the force. Doing it his way and some.
The backdrop of the Scottish G8 and 7/7 London bombings gives this murder hunt a very up to the minute feel, but in some ways it is over-researched and contains too much detail on the former event. I enjoyed this book but did find it a tad over long and to be honest I'm still unsure why he gave Jacko a good kicking in the epilogue. If someone could enlighten me to save me re-reading parts I'd be most grateful!
Not highly recommended for the slightly convoluted plot, which almost seems secondary, but more so for the colourful characterization of the DI you'd like to share a pint with and his faithful sidekick DS Clarke, who starts falling into (his) bad ways. Will we soon see Siobhan get her own book one day...don't bet against it. Though "Clarke" doesn't have the same poetic edge does it!

Too long and ponderous (0/1 people found this helpful)

I have read several of the Rebus novels and mostly enjoyed them. This book was well written but I found it dragged.

The political and topical aspects were interesting and I read the book to the end after having "suspended" it the time to read two others by different authors. To my mind, this is definitely not Rankin's best novel.

Back to form (1/1 people found this helpful)

I must admit, I've found the last two or three Rebus novels to be hard going. Some of the humour that permeates the earlier books was sadly lacking, and the double act of Rebus and Clarke was missing a certain spark.

Well, Rankin has very much hit his stride again with "Naming of the Dead." An absolutely barnstormer of a book, with Rebus at his most wry and (entertainingly) curmudgeonly. Rebus and Clarke are working together again, although not in the way you might be used to, and there are plenty of bad guys with whom for them to cross swords.

Add to that a carefully-researched G8/Live8 backdrop, many twists and turns to keep you guessing, Rankin's usual genius at bringing Edinburgh to life and an anecdote about George Bush that just might be true... and you've got one of Rankin's very best.

I'm so glad he's regained form - with Rebus retiring in the next (and thus, last) of the series, Rankin was running out of chances to give us our Rebus back.

Highly, highly recommended.

A slight improvement on the previous 2 books in the series. (8/8 people found this helpful)

I finished "Naming the Dead" by Ian Rankin today. It's a John Rebus detective novel set against the backdrop of Live 8 and the G8 conference that took place in Edinburgh in 2005 (the one with a greater emphasis on African poverty issues pushed by Bono).

For those that don't know Rankin's main character, Rebus is an alcoholic Scotish detective with an attitude problem and an instinctive need to cross the lines in the sand that his superiors place before him (which makes him sound a lot like other modern detective thriller characters). While the main crux of Rankin's stories are the mysteries, he uses it to have a dig at politicians, the establishment and the grind of every day life there.

In this book Rebus is investigating the death of three rapists who have been killed by a serial killer. During this investigation he looks into the seemingly accidental death (or suicide) of a local MP (the 2 are loosely conected we find).

If you look at the crux of the mystery itself, it has a similar structure to a Hercule Poirot mystery. I won't tell you which though one because I can't remember the title and it'd give the story away. It's a better book than the Poirot novel, because it's better written, but (at its' heart) it still has that Poirot structure supporting it I think.

It's a good book because of the grainy grind that goes along with the story, but some people might feel cheated that all the got was a warmed over Poirot mystery, when they were expecting something more.

The Naming Of The Dead

Ian Rankin

Reader Reviews:

coincidence abounds (0/0 people found this helpful)

A Scottish Tale (1/1 people found this helpful)

Too long and ponderous (0/1 people found this helpful)

Back to form (1/1 people found this helpful)

A slight improvement on the previous 2 books in the series. (8/8 people found this helpful)

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