Sunday 23 September 2018

Ian Rankin - In A House Of Lies


Rating: 5/5

Review:
Classic Rankin

Rebus may have been told that he is in a “managed decline,” but I’m delighted to say that Ian Rankin certainly isn’t. In A House Of Lies is excellent.

When long-dead body is discovered in an abandoned car Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox are part of the MIT investigating. Rebus, now well retired from the force, was part of the original investigation and becomes involved in this, too – not always to the delight of the team. It’s classic Rankin: complex, well structured and nuanced, with his three central characters especially being extremely well drawn.

There’s a lot of good crime fiction being written at the moment, but for me, this shows why Ian Rankin still stands out from the rest and remains among among the very best writers in the genre. He generates an excellent and wholly unforced atmosphere, sense of place and feel of police work and his characters, plot and dialogue are all completely convincing to me. That long, shadowy, complex relationship between Rebus and Big Ger Cafferty is still a brilliant feature and Rankin is doing an excellent job of widening the central focus of the books to include Clarke and Fox. Most of all, In A House Of Lies is completely compelling; I was hooked and sorry to reach the end.

Probably all that really need be said is that this is a very fine Ian Rankin novel. The man is still at the peak of his form and I can recommend this very warmly indeed.

(My thanks to Orion for an ARC via NetGalley.)

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