Author: Ian Rankin

BOOK REVIEW: Rather Be The Devil by Ian Rankin

Posted November 10, 2016 by @amanhimself in 5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Crime & Mystery, Thrillers / 0 Comments

Rebus is back. And he’s not getting old, age seem just a number for him and his creator, Ian Rankin. He’s 21 books old now. Rather Be The Devil is the new entitlement released on November, 3rd. When I heard earlier this year that Ian Rankin has rejected to my request for an interview with for a third time in three years, I thought, ‘Oh Boy! Either I am a pretty bad interviewer or he’s upto something really good. Probably a new Rebus novel. I’ll take that gladly, sir.’ Rebus is into his retirement for almost a couple of years now. But curiosity is a disease and when one’s neurone start sending the type of electrical signals, the giant awakens. […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin

Posted November 14, 2015 by @amanhimself in Books, Crime & Mystery, Reviews / 2 Comments

There are few authors who after becoming bestsellers keep on improving as a writer. With them, their characters grow, their stories become unforgettable and its a bliss for the readers. Rankin is one of them. After he got his hard work paid of with the publishing of Black and Blue in 1997 rewarding him Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger for best crime novel. Since then, having reading almost every novel written by Rankin that includes his creation of John Rebus, a Detective Inspector who is known for bending rules, and getting the cases he is assigned, under his skin. Standing in Another Man’s Grave, came three years back and is listed as the 18th book in John Rebus series. It is […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin

Posted November 2, 2015 by @amanhimself in Books, Reviews / 4 Comments

John Rebus is back. Old, fat, still surviving on booze and nicotine. This time he is back with some old fellows as DI Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox, and his old Dr. Hyde resembler, Big Ger Cafferty. With new villains and other fresh characters such as Daryl Christie and James Page, introduced only two novels back in Standing in Another Man’s Grave, Rankin has indulged us readers into a deeper mystery this time. Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is investigating the death of a senior lawyer during a robbery. But the case becomes more complex when a note is discovered, indicating that this may have been no random attack, and when local gangster Big Ger Cafferty receives an identical message, Clarke decides that the recently […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin

Posted October 22, 2015 by @amanhimself in Books, Crime & Mystery, Reviews / 14 Comments

One of the good things about the contemporary crime fiction that can happen to itself is John Rebus and his creator Ian Rankin. Without Ian Rankin, there would have been no John Rebus. Rankin has certainly set a benchmark with his John Rebus’ series and Mortal Causes is the sixth book in this series. Without John Rebus, I won’t be reading as much crime fiction as I do. I started reading John Rebus, even before I laid my hands on Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Things are even darker than usual this time in Mortal Causes. It is August during the Edinburgh Festival when Inspector John Rebus is called to investigate a brutally tortured body found hanging in the medieval subterranean streets of Edinburgh. The death […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Tooth And Nail by Ian Rankin

Posted August 8, 2015 by @amanhimself in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

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 […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Dead Souls by Ian Rankin

Posted May 14, 2015 by @amanhimself in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

This is my fifteenth John Rebus novel, and before starting this book I had a question in my mind. When an author as successful as Rankin has been with his tough and idiomatic Scottish thrillers, a problem sets in after several books: how to keep the formula fresh? One thing is that, after reading a John Rebus’ book, I have an anguished feeling of visiting Edinburgh, see all those places describe the author with my own eyes. The series is set in Edinburgh and Rankin displays an unnerving knowledge of, seemingly, how crime works there. Rankin has a very unique of displaying simplistic events. His engrossing words will get under your skin. The novel, Dead Souls, starts on a greater node. In the prologue […]

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BOOK REVIEW: The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin

Posted March 25, 2015 by @amanhimself in Books, Crime & Mystery, Reviews / 0 Comments

The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin is the ninth novel in John Rebus series. I have never felt that I should read Rankin’s Rebus series in chronological order. I feel, by starting in the middle, going straight back to the first of books and then steadily moving forward, is what works for both John Rebus and me. The novel opens on Guy Fawkes night as DI Rebus meets his daughter for a meal. As usual, Rebus is involved in the case of the alleged war criminal and lean about the crimes he may have committed. As Rebus investigates he researches the past and wonders about how it could have happened. There is never a doubt for me on picking a […]

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Book Review: Strip Jack by Ian Rankin

Posted February 7, 2015 by @amanhimself in Books, Crime & Mystery, Reviews / 0 Comments

Rebus’ life is full of twists and turns, some are the creation of his own actions along with jeopardising investigations he is often involved in. Strip Jack is another one of those. The depth Rankin bestows in his character is enchanting. Rankin’s words complete Rebus. They’re companionship is brawny. Without one of them, I cannot imagine other one’s world. I have read more than half of the books published under John Rebus’ series and this one is a masterpiece. If you ask me, why? For the reason that I have never seen any of the Rankin’s story to start and end at equal levels so astonishingly. The story begins with a police operation. Raiding a brothel in a relatively high-class […]

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A COOL HEAD BY IAN RANKIN: A BOOK REVIEW

Posted February 21, 2014 by @amanhimself in Books, Crime & Mystery, Reviews / 0 Comments

Ian Rankin’s A COOL HEAD is a one hour read. Very light read, just 107 pages, written for the BBC’s Quick Read series which “are designed to be read and enjoyed by avid readers and by people who never had or who have lost the reading habit”. The story starts with Gravy, a thirty-something suffering from OCD (Obsessive–compulsive disorder, that’s my guess), working at the graveyard when a flashy BMW drives up to him. From out of the car steps out a friend of Gravy’s, who’s got a bag in one hand and a hole in his chest. Unable to grasp the seriousness of the situation, Gravy thinks this is just another visit from his friend. However, when his friend’s fate is […]

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SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE by IAN RANKIN- A BOOK REVIEW

Posted January 31, 2014 by @amanhimself in Books, Crime & Mystery, Reviews / 0 Comments

There is no doubt why Ian Rankin is one of the best crime fiction writer in all over Britain. And Certainly John Rebus is the “Sherlock Holmes” of modern crime fiction. Or I should say in clear words, certainly the best detective of modern crime fiction. The enigma which surrounds John Rebus is the essence a reader reading Rebus must feel. And Ian Rankin maintains that enigma, that aroma of mysteriousness consistently. He is doing for past 19 books. Not one Rebus I read, and felt discomfort. This is an art and Rankin is the master of this art of consistency in storytelling. I was once disappointed and sad when I read Exit Music which was once the last book […]