by Ian Rankin
© Rankin
ABOUT IAN RANKIN
Ian Rankin, OBE, writes a huge proportion of all the crime novels sold in the UK and has won numerous prizes, including in 2005 the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger. His work is available in over 30 languages, home sales of his books exceed one million copies a year, and several of the novels based around the character of Detective Inspector Rebus – his name meaning ‘enigmatic puzzle’ – have been successfully transferred to television.
Introduction to DI John Rebus
The first novels to feature Rebus, a flawed but resolutely humane detective, were not an overnight sensation, and success took time to arrive. But the wait became a period that allowed Ian Rankin to come of age as a writer, and to develop Rebus into a thoroughly believable, flesh-and-blood character straddling both industrial and post-industrial Scotland; a gritty yet perceptive man coping with his own demons. As Rebus struggled to keep his relationship with daughter Sammy alive following his divorce, and to cope with the imprisonment of brother Michael, while all the time trying to strike a blow for morality against a fearsome array of sinners (some justified and some not), readers began to respond in their droves. Fans admired Ian Rankin’s re-creation of a picture-postcard Edinburgh with a vicious tooth-and-claw underbelly just a heartbeat away, his believable but at the same time complex plots and, best of all, Rebus as a conflicted man trying always to solve the unsolvable, and to do the right thing.
As the series progressed, Ian Rankin refused to shy away from contentious issues such as corruption in high places, paedophilia and illegal immigration, combining his unique seal of tight plotting with a bleak realism, leavened with brooding humour.
In Rebus the reader is presented with a rich and constantly evolving portrait of a complex and troubled man, irrevocably tinged with the sense of being an outsider and, potentially, unable to escape being a ‘justified sinner’ himself. Rebus’s life is intricately related to his Scottish environs too, enriched by Ian Rankin’s attentive depiction of locations, and careful regard to Rebus’s favourite music, watering holes and books, as well as his often fraught relationships with colleagues and family. And so, alongside Rebus, the reader is taken on an often painful, sometimes hellish journey to the depths of human nature, always rooted in the minutiae of a very recognisable Scottish life.
The Oxford Bar – Rebus and many of the characters who appear in the novels are regulars of the Ox – as is Ian Rankin himself. The pub is now synonymous with the Rebus novels to the extent that one of the regular medical examiners called in to assist with investigations is named after the pub’s owner, John Gates.
Edinburgh plays an important role throughout the Rebus novels; a character itself, as brooding and as volatile as Rebus. The Edinburgh depicted in the novels is far short of the beautiful city that tourists in their thousands flood to visit. Hidden behind the historic buildings and elegant façades is the world that Rebus inhabits.
For general discussion
regarding the Rebus series
How does Ian Rankin reveal himself as an author interested in using fiction to ‘tell the truths the real world can’t’?
There are similarities between the lives of the author and his protagonist – for instance, both Ian Rankin and Rebus were born in Fife, lost their mothers at an early age, have children with physical problems – so is it useful therefore to think of John Rebus and Ian Rankin as each other’s alter egos?
Could it be said that Rebus is trying to make sense in a general way of the world around him, or is he seeking answers to the ‘big questions’? And is it relevant therefore that he is a believer in God and comes from a Scottish Presbyterian background? Would Rebus see confession in both the religious and the criminal sense as similar in any way?
How does Ian Rankin explore notions of Edinburgh as a character in its own right? In what way does he contrast the glossy public and seedy private faces of the city with the public and private faces of those Rebus meets?
How does Ian Rankin use musical sources – the Elvis references in The Black Book, for instance, or the Rolling Stones allusions in Let It Bleed – as a means of character development through the series? What does Rebus’s own taste in music and books say about him as a person?
What do you think about Rebus as a character? If you have read several or more novels from the series, discuss how his character is developed.
If Rebus has a problem with notions of ‘pecking order’ and the idea of authority generally, what does it say about him that he chose careers in hierarchical institutions such as the Army and then the police?
How does Rebus relate to women: as lovers, flirtations, family members and colleagues?
Do the flashes of gallows humour as often shown by the pathologists but sometimes also in Rebus’s own comments increase or dissipate narrative tension? Does Rebus use black comedy for the same reasons the pathologists do?
Do Rebus’s personal vulnerabilities make him understanding of the frailties of others?
How does the characterisation of Rebus compare to other long-standing popular detectives from British authors such as Holmes, Poirot, Morse or Dalgleish? And are there more similarities or differences between them?
MORTAL CAUSES
It’s Festival time and the streets are heaving with revellers. A prankster is making hoax bomb threats – or maybe there’s something more serious afoot, such as the arrival of a new paramilitary terrorist group. Meanwhile, over in Mary King’s Close, in a secret underground street, a mysterious Latin inscription accompanies a tattooed body, victim of a ‘six-pack’ attack gone bad. And soon Father Conor Leary asks Rebus for help, as outreach worker Peter Cave may be feeling out of his depth on the Pilmuir Gar-B estate, a place where poor Protestants and Catholics live cheek by jowl and there’s an uneasy truce before the division of territory.
To his surprise, Rebus is seconded to the Scottish Crime Squad at Fettes – Edinburgh’s police HQ – who are looking into sectarian gun-running; but soon it becomes clear that Special Branch may have their own ulterior motives, motives they’ve not thought to share with the SCS.
When the murder victim turns out to be the illegitimate son of local gang bigwig Big Ger Cafferty, currently in prison on a murder charge, Big Ger demands a private meeting with Rebus. And still Rebus doesn’t know why DCI Kilpatrick is taking him into his confidence, or quite what the annual parade of an extreme Protestant group, the Orange Loyal Brigade, will yield. Rebus can see there’s a strong connection, but he wonders if he will find the weakest link in the chain before Cafferty can kill whoever butchered his son …
Tackling some difficult issues, sometimes from an unexpected standpoint, in Mortal Causes Ian Rankin gives Rebus some of his stiffest challenges yet, to which Rebus can only respond in sometimes surprising ways.
Discussion points for Mortal Causes
‘Edinburgh’s history was full of licence and riotous behaviour. But the Festival, especially the Festival Fringe, was different. Tourism was its lifeblood, and where there were tourists there was trouble.’ Discuss the different kinds of ‘trouble’ that Rebus encounters in Mortal Causes.
What is Rebus describing when he thinks about the ‘massive grey nonentity’? And why does it make him pray?
Rebus knows that in theory police work should be a team effort. But, ‘It wasn’t Rebus’s way. He wanted to follow up every lead personally, cross-referencing them all, taking them through from first principle to final reckoning. He’d been described, not unkindly, as a terrier, locking on with his jaws and not letting go. Some dogs you had to break the jaw to get them off.’ Discuss.
Rebus seems to like Mairie Henderson – why is this odd?
One of the themes in Mortal Causes is sectarianism and religious division in Scotland. How does Ian Rankin use narrative techniques (such as religious imagery) to add texture to this debate? Does DS Siobhan Clarke’s support of Hibs accord with her religious beliefs?
What is Clyde Moncur doing i
n Edinburgh?
Bearing in mind that ‘mortal’ is a Scottish euphemism for drunkenness, discuss the various implications of the word. And, bearing in mind Rebus’s own love of drink, consider how he feels about caffeine.
Why does Rebus kiss Caro Rattray? What are the implications of his actions?
The relationship between Rebus and Big Ger Cafferty is evolving, as are Rebus’s relationships with DS Siobhan Clarke and Father Leary; look at how Ian Rankin reveals these developments.
Ian Rankin employs a convoluted running joke to do with an octopus, although without the punchline; does it counterbalance the grimmer aspects of the crime story?
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 1994 by Orion Books.
First published in ebook form in 2009 by Orion Books.
This updated ebook published in 2011 by Orion Books.
Copyright © John Rebus Limited 1994
Introduction © John Rebus Limited 2005
The right of Ian Rankin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the copyright, designs and patents act 1988.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 0766 8
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