Since Rebus retired I like the character Siobhan Clarke less and less. She has become a right little careerist and climber. I never liked Malcolm Fox from the time he was introduced in The Complaints, and like him less here. A teetotal prig swot, is what he is. Finally, Rebus's daughter is just a boring whiner. The twenty third novel featuring now retired Edinburgh police Inspector John Rebus finds him trying to help out his somewhat estranged daughter, Samantha, when her partner disappears. Meanwhile, former colleague DI Siobhan Clarke is caught up in the investigation of the murder of a wealthy Saudi student. At some point, some of the people in both cases intersect…could the cases be related? Or not?

Lately whenever I finish a Rebus novel, I always feel I've just said goodbye to a friend I may never see again. Book 23! And Book 24 has just hit the shelves. I will be devastated when this series ends, as end it must. Award winning Scottish singer songwriter, one of UK’s finest troubadours, with fans including Trainspotting author Irvine And so begins Rebus’ journey halfway across Scotland to be with his daughter, and granddaughter. Keeping him company on the drive, is a CD of songs put together for him by Siobhan Clarke. His former colleague, for whom he was an erstwhile mentor, who is now proving to be a lifelong friend. The CD is titled A Song for The Dark Times which is fitting. As is usual with Rankin’s novels, what starts off as a “simple” crime morphs into several stories which weave in and out of each other. Rebus’ daughter Sam begins to understand the reality of her Dad’s working life from her dealings with the police relating to her partner’s disappearance. It’s as if both father and daughter are starting to realise the missed opportunities to get to know each other as she grew up. How hard it would be to make amends.An early morning call at 5.00am means Rebus doesn’t have time to dwell on feeling unsettled in his new lodgings. His daughter, Sam, is distraught. Her partner, the father of her child, is missing.

Brexit), είναι όμως τόσο άτσαλο και από το πουθενά. Τα αστυνομικά αρκεί να είναι αστυνομικά ξερωγω (#γνωμημου), και όχι όπως άκουσα πρόσφατα αμπελοφιλοσοφίες σε ένα ελληνικό podcast για το αστυνομικό βιβλίο με δύο καλεσμένους, η δε τύπισσα που έχει γράψει από τα χειρότερα ελληνικά αστυνομικά εκτός του ότι είπε αυτές τις δηθενιές για πολιτικό περιεχόμενο στο αστυνομικό (να έχει και πολιτικό περιεχόμενο μάνα μου, αλλά ξερωγω να ασχολείται και ο αστυνομικός λίγο με την υπόθεση, έτσι για ξεκάρφωμα λέω εγώ), είπε ότι συμβουλεύται και δύο αστυνομικούς για αυτά που γράφει (λογικά κάποιον της Τροχαίας...). Καλά ο άλλος το παίζει true crime α λά ελληνικά... At least Rebus’ faithful companion, his wee dog Brillo, is there, keeping him company. He’s smuggled his way even further into Rebus’ heart, and now sleeps in his bed. A fact which Rebus vigorously denies. It still warms my heart that this mite is playing on Rebus’ “human” side, as while a fulltime copper, he didn’t have time to love another, whether family, lover, or other. It was all about the case load. He lived and breathed his work. Total commitment. And it wouldn’t be a Rebus novel without everyone’s favourite crim - Big Ger Cafferty - making an appearance. Rebus’ nemesis. Two sides of the same coin. Both old school. On opposing sides of the law. Time standing still for neither of them. In a Prologue, Rebus moves down two flights of stairs to the ground-floor flat in the same Arden Street tenement, with a lot of help from Siobhan Clarke. His first morning in the new flat, he gets a call from his daughter Samantha saying her partner, Keith, is missing. And they got my fingerprints. And all the time it was happening, I was thinking: this is what my Dad used to do; this is how he spent his working life. No emotion, no warmth, just a job to be got on with.'”The poem is the motto from the Svendborg Poems, written while Brecht was in exile from Nazi Germany. Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. I can’t believe this is the first book I have read by prolific writer, Ian Rankin. It won’t be the last!