Series: Inspector Rebus #3
Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Detective
Tooth and Nail is the third novel by Ian Rankin featuring Inspector John Rebus. Rebus is sent to London to help detectives hunt a serial killer dubbed the Wolfman by the press. In the previous year, in some reviews and an essay on John Rebus, I have talked about Rebus a lot. My love and hate relationship with him and his actions and why he is to be considered as one of the most proficient detectives written in the contemporary world.
Rebus arrives in London just as news of a new victim of the serial killer begins broadcasting over the news. Rebus goes directly to the scene of the crime and is shocked to see the brutality first hand of a case he has only read about. Rebus attends the autopsy and spends some time with the lead detective, uncomfortably aware that this detective seems to think he is some sort of expert based on one case Rebus worked several years before.
Meanwhile, he is as usual vulnerable to some aspect of the story. He is new to London, despise it, and his ex-wife and teenage daughter live in London and a visit with them reveals that his daughter is dating someone who is not the kind of person a copper would choose for his daughter. Despite, Rebus investigates the Wolfman in his own fashion, drawing help from a psychologist who claims she can profile the killer based on his victims, while at the same time dealing with a family crisis involving his sixteen year old daughter. The Wolfman- so named because the first victim was found dumped in Wolf Street, and is a vicious, cannibalistic killer, whose tendencies and proclivities have thus far defied an explanation.
This book mostly emphasizes Rebus’s status as an outsider, in this instance making it overt, and diminishing his role to a small fish in a big pond. The pace of which the story moves further is marvellous. Rankin does well, yet again, in immersing his readers in the world of British crime fiction with a touch of his own. A reader will like to read this book in a sitting or two. Not more than that. The only thing that did not work for me is the ending yet one who is a regular reader of John Rebus’ series cannot ignore this book which is sometime entitled The Wolfman.
4 out of 5.
Leave a Reply