It's always a joy to read the latest in Ian Rankin's Edinburgh based now retired John Rebus series, even as his health declines, he is suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), meaning he struggles to climb the stairs to his flat, which has him and Brillo, the dog, moving to a smaller place, helped by DI Siobhan Clarke. Clarke is on a new murder investigation, run by her work colleague and lover, DCI Graham Sutherland, with a team that includes DS Tess Leighton and DC Christin...

Following a diagnosis of COPD Rebus and Brillo the dog are moving ..... into a smaller garden flat downstairs from where he’s lived for years! DI Siobhan Clarke has a new lover, DCI Graham Sutherland. Clarke, Sutherland and DI Malcolm Fox from Major Crimes investigate the apparently motiveless murder of Saudi Salman bin Mahmoud, 23 years old, rich and killed in the unlikely venue of a carpark of a carpet warehouse. As Rebus is settling in on his first night, he gets a call from his daughter Sama...

This doesn't need another review so I'll just say time with Rebus is time well spent. He may be slowing down but some things haven't changed. If you were up against him, he'd drive you to drink. But as a victim, he's the guy you'd want to have your back. Bring on #24!

As this twenty third book in the series opens Rebus is moving house. Well strictly speaking he’s still in the same building but moving down from his upper floor flat to the ground floor. He’s suffering from COPD, a chronic disease that obstructs the flow of air to his lungs. That means no ciggies and no booze. Oh dear, this isn’t going to be quite the same John Rebus regular readers (like me) have grown to know and love. He’s retired now from his role as a senior Edinburgh detective but he stays...

Much like Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series, Ian Rankin allows John Rebus to age from book to book. Both detectives are retired but they can’t let go of their life’s work and know they still have valuable and unique skills. In “A Song for The Dark Times” Rebus has moved to a ground floor flat because the effects of COPD are making stairs much harder for him. When his daughter calls in a panic because her partner has gone missing Rebus travels to Northern Scotland to help her. He acknowledges...

lots of plot lines ... lots of characters ... keeps the pages turning ... but the resolution at the end was too quick and neither clear nor satisfying

I must confess that after all the waiting for this book to arrive, having pre-ordered it from Waterstone's and being that I am a huge fan of Ian Rankin and the Rebus series, I was really disappointed. The story starts out right enough, Rebus moving into a new place and then getting a call from his long-estranged daughter up north. But the two cases being investigated in the book, a murder in Edinburgh and a missing person in the north of Scotland, didn't intrigue me as much as a Rebus story usua...

Holy.....I read this slowly cos I wanted it to last. I think Rebus is the only detective left of the bunch I was reading as a teen. Every book has me scared it’ll be the last!

This is the least successful Rebus for a long time. The highlight is the superbly crafted prologue. The writing throughout is crisp and the story rattles along. The dialogue and the interplay between Rebus, Shiv and Fox are as good as ever. The real problem is the plot which peters out about three quarters in. The Brexit backdrop and the parallel with the 30s are clumsy and never really amount to much. Rankin is usually so deft at handling big themes and aligning them to the drama. The ending is...

I took the risk of train travel downtown to my library to pick up a special book to read on my birthday. All went well and I secured this latest Rebus episode that opens with Siobhan helping Rebus organize his new digs - same building but garden level. COPD has made stair climbing too difficult. In the midst of this work, a call for help comes from daughter Samantha. Her husband is missing, so Rebus heads out of town to help. The book is organized in seven days of action. The story is complex wi...

Ian Rankin's novels featuring Scottish Detective Inspector John Rebus have long been one of the best crime series going. Sadly, at least to my mind, Rankin decided early on to let the character age in real time, which means that, after over thirty years, Rebus is now retired and not aging well. After a long lifetime of drinking and smoking, Rebus has COPD and can no longer climb the stairs to the second-floor home where he has lived for years. As the book opens, Rebus is in the process of moving...

I have been craving a really good read with a great plot and strong characters and certainly got it with this book. Rebus may be retired but he still delivers. Apparently once a policeman always a policeman. Age may be catching up with him but the mind is still sharp. COPD has forced him to move to a ground floor apartment but he takes his cold case files with him for a little light reading. Then he gets a call from his daughter. Her partner has disappeared and begs him to come to the rural Hig

Ian Rankin seems to be setting up his dated Rebus series with succession planning by giving equal billing to the retired curmudgeon’s former partner, Siobhan Clarke, in the solving of a double murder in this his 23rd book in the series.This time, our retired detective, suffering from COPD, has moved home to a ground floor flat and has his former assistant looking after his dog while he gads about the Highlands trying to solve the murder of his estranged daughter’s partner. Siobhan has her own my...

It’s a shock to me to realize that I’ve been reading Ian Rankin’s books for over 30 years now. With writers like P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, and Reginald Hill gone, Ian Rankin is one of the few remaining of my favorite traditional British police procedural writers.Rankin has allowed John Rebus to age, and he’s done it in a realistic way. Rebus used to be a heavy drinker and smoker. Now he’s cut way back on his drinking and he no longer smokes, but his old ways have caught up with him and he has CO...

Ian Rankin has definitely still got it. After reading a couple of rather disappointing new books from long-established authors I approached this with a little trepidation, but I enjoyed it very much.Rebus is ageing with the rest of us and is now suffering from COPD. He is, therefore having to make changes to his way of life, including giving up smoking and cutting down on the booze. He is retired, of course, but he is still his old, dogged, determined, contrary and sometimes bloody-minded self.

It may have been a while since John Rebus retired, but the aging ex-detective still finds trouble follows him whereever he goes.Ian Rankin's Rebus novels have always been thoroughly entertaining. However, the recent entries in the series show that the author is having trouble squeezing his legendary creation into the crimes he is investigating. This latest story is more personal, so Rebus becoming involved is more natural.I've been reading the Rebus novels for many years & it's great to see this...

Rebus is retired from the police, and is moving into a new apartment with Siobhan's help. He gets a call from his semi-estranged daughter Samantha saying her partner, Keith, is missing. He drives up to the north of Scotland, where he learns that Keith was a history buff who who been researching some Scottish WWII prisoner detention camps. Could this hobby have had fatal consequences for Keith? What is Samantha's role in his disappearance? And does this case relate in any way to the one Siobhan's...

Rankin's cast of characters continues to age well and realistically, making the ongoing adventures of Rebus and crew still a joy to read (I had to look it up) 25 books later. Every book now, I worry could be the last, but Rankin continues to seamlessly stitch real world events and new (or in this case old) developments and the passage of time in the real world together with his established Edinburgh to make books that are satisfying and worth the time to read. In this one, Rebus has had to move

John Rebus is retired and suffering from COPD, but his detective skills kick in again when his son-in- law disappears, and his daughter becomes a person of interest for the local police. When Rebus's aggressive involvement criss-crosses over a case in Edinburgh that his protege, Siobhan Clarke, is working, it's off to the races in a worthy addition to Ian Rankin's series. Rebus may be slower, but he doesn't miss a step.

I can’t believe this is the first book I have read by prolific writer, Ian Rankin. It won’t be the last!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 n...