Okay, I've read all of the Rebus series. I suspect this is the final book, given the title. I don't often read the genre, but I've grown to love the warty, very human Rebus. He fights the world, and himself. I suppose I started reading these books because Rebus is set in Edinburgh, where I live. It adds a wonderful dimension when the story takes place in streets and pubs that you know (and I've just learned about a bodysnatching lookout tower from the book). So, you'll enjoy this book if you've

Anyone who follows my book reviews is probably already aware that I am a big fan of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series. Mysteries are my favorite genre and the Rebus series is really one of the best, in my opinion. Rankin can always be counted on to give us believable characters and situations and always there is in the background the wonderfully funky and historic city of Edinburgh, a smallish town in a smallish country where everybody and everything seems intertwined. And always in the middle...

Rebus has personality and onus. He just holds it. And this book occurs just prior to his scheduled retirement. It had a good plot and interesting balance to the Russian poet's murder. I've only read a few of these. It is the Scottish location police department hierarchy and peer pub snark factor that nearly always puts me off with these Rebus books, coupled with a bit of overload word verbosity. It did this time too, which knocks off an entire star. I bet he comes back as an unauthorized consult...

Seventeenth in the Inspector Rebus detective mystery series set in Edinburgh, Scotland.My TakePlease. Please, don't let Rebus retire…I want to read more about him! He's too interesting a character to sit back in an armchair with his music and Scotch.Rebus reminds me of Inspector Morse in that he's a bit cantankerous, "knows-all" (usually true!), and he has an eye for the ladies — besides the drink and the music! As for other characters, there's really only Siobhan Clarke who has been stuck with

Written as though it was possibly the last in a long and excellent series. Now of course we know it was far from the final book about Rebus, thank goodness!I love Inspector Rebus. He takes no nonsense from anyone, largely prefers to work on his own, or at least with just DS Clarke, and by the age of sixty is growing increasingly cranky with life and everything. He is also very smart and sees connections between events long before anyone else does.In Exit Music Rebus is working his final week bef...

As We Say Goodbye, Let Me Wish You Grace and Danger, November 18, 2007 "I never knew the road that carried me along Crazy sidewalk, concealed by pretty song You want my life from me I'll give you two You'll be no strife for me As we say goodbye Let me wish you as you fly. Grace and danger Sweet grace No danger Sweet grace No danger Grace and danger." John Martyn John Rebus hooked me into his life with his love of music and his style, and that is how he ends his career, style with 'Exit Music'-ho...

This is Ian Rankin’s second masterpiece. The first was Black & Blue.I have grown old with DI Rebus. I define the way I enjoy crime fiction from Ian Rankin’s, and Michael Connelly’s, writing. I read Exit Music as slowly as I could. I don’t want Rebus and his arch-enemy, Big Ger Cafferty, off my reading radar. I was not disappointed. Rankin is a fine storyteller. He and Rebus work through Edinburgh as one in this swan song. Or is it?The crime Rebus investigates is cleverly concealed and revealed b...

It is with sorrow that I read another in this great series as with each passing book I get closer to the end. To say this series has been a joy is an understatement. Rankin, through his wonderful character, Rebus, has introduced me to Edinburgh. So much so that my family and I, my wife is a huge fan of the series as well, travelled to Edinburgh for holidays. Seeing Waverley Station, Princes Street, the Oxford Bar, and all of Rebus' haunts was a lot of fun. Reading this book was too. A great read...

This is the seventeenth and allegedly last book in Ian Rankin's excellent series featuring Edinburgh Inspector John Rebus. Rebus was already nearly sixty years old before his creator was stunned to discover that sixty was the mandatory retirement age for detectives in Scotland. Accordingly, this book finds Rebus in the autumn of the year and of his career as well.Rebus has ten days do go when Alexander Todorov, a Russian poet, is brutally murdered after a reading. To all appearances Todorov was

I had extremely high expectations prior to reading this book. After all, this is the culmination of a long and amazing series. Perhaps, I would say, the best series of crime novels since Chandler. Maybe even better. This was the last one. DI John Rebus's last days before retirement.It was with a mix of dread and hope, that I picked it up and started reading. I wanted things to end well for Rebus, but I knew it wasn't going to be all rosy and happy either. It just wouldn't be Rebus, if that had b...

Do not worry this is not the last Rebus novel. A great story. Rebus like his name is an enigmatic puzzle. The Russian poet Alexander Todorov is murdered in what looks like a mugging. The investigation links Russian businessmen, Rebus’s nemesis Big Ger Cafferty and Rebus is retiring in a week. Lets just say its a busy week with suspension, suspicion and some interesting music choices. His partner Siobhan Clarke is taking over from him or hoping too. The investigation links politicians and once ag...

A four-star final quarter brought this book to three stars for me. This is my second read in the series but the 17th published. I happened to start at 13 and hopscotch up to here. Rankin doesn’t write to bring new readers on board informationally or emotionally, so it’s apparently a series to be read in order. He starts his books at a trot and keeps them rolling, but without feeling I know these people or the background for their choices or situations, I feel like I’m slogging through a busy cro...

Exit Music by Ian Rankin.I was more than sad to learn that this entry may be Rebus' last. Personally, I don't accept that or believe it for a minute! It seems since I first discovered Rebus I haven't been able to stop reading this series. My latest reviews in my Scottish groups and other mystery groups has me almost feeling a need to apologize for submitting one review after another all Rebus. It's actually not since Morse that I've become so attached to an Inspector and a series. His scotch, th...

Unfortunately, this story lacked interest over a pace too slow for my liking. I could not finish this novel because I kept falling asleep.

Bettie's Books

I have not read the Rebus series in order so I suspect that people who have would like this one even more than I did. An excellent police procedural (though with not a lot of procedure as Rebus isn't a rule-following kind of guy!) and I love the way Rebus (& Rankin) describes Edinburgh.

This is it. Rebus is over. For the first time, anyway. Rankin famously was not a fan of the TV versions of his work, and retired Rebus until the option expired. That's how we ended up with two standalone Malcolm Fox novels before Rebus shows back up to cause a ruckus.So now you have to read Exit Music in the knowledge that it's not the end, but was intended as a possible end. It works pretty well on that front, although it would have left a lot of people dangling over the precipice as Rankin lef...

What a proper ending to the Rebus saga. Rebus investigates the murder of a dissident Russian poet whose body is found by a car park. There are some Russian businessmen on a business trip in Rebus neck of the wood. He is almost there... ten days to the end of his watch. Can he solve the murder and leave the force in peace and give Siobhan the promotion she needs. Rankin gets more political in this novel and showcases the various political parties and ideas in the Scottish parliament. After a Hiat...

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.--- Before I get into this, last week my son was playing some EASports game -- FIFA something, I think. Anyway, I notice that he's playing Hiberian, and my first thought is, "Hey, that's Siobhan's team." That's a sign that I'm probably reading too many Rebus novels, right? Anyway, on with this post...“No sign of any abandoned cars in the multistory?”“Good point, Shiv, I’ll have someone check. Talk to you later.” The phone went dead, and she ma...

This audio CD version of Exit Music is superbly narrated by James Macpherson who brings the characters to life.The story itself is also absolutely brilliant. The streets of Edinburgh have never seemed so alive as they do from the pen of Ian Rankin. The characters are well thought out and interact well with each other throughout the story. The reader becomes totally immersed in the action from the outset.I heartily recommend this book and audio cd to everyone who enjoys a good crime story