Review by Alison Flood, 'The Observer', Nov 16, 2013
Ian Rankin has found a way to bring his long-running detective John Rebus out of retirement, but the former detective inspector has been forced to take a demotion to return to the force, and it's galling him. "Same rank as 1987?" a witness asks the newly minted detective sergeant, maliciously. "The question sliced into Rebus like a scalpel.
Saints of the Shadow Bible, his 20th outing, sees Rebus reporting to his former protege, Siobhan Clarke, as the pair investigate a suspicious car crash. He's also sparring with Malcolm Fox from the police complaints department over an old murder. Thirty years ago, Billy Saunders was tried for beating a man to death. The case collapsed because of the actions of Rebus's former colleagues – Saunders was a snitch, and Fox believes that despite his guilt, Summerhall CID decided he was more use on the street than in prison.
Now, following changes to the double jeopardy law, Scotland's solicitor general wants the case reopened, and the former Summerhall police officers – a close-knit gang who called themselves the Saints, and who drew a young Rebus into their number – are up for investigation.
Without excusing – or, quite, implicating – Rebus, Rankin shows just how dirty the police force was at Summerhall, how results were all that mattered, not methods. "You ever see that programme Life on Mars? It felt like a documentary," says Rebus, who in any case would need "a space the size of Ikea" to store all his own skeletons, it is pointed out sourly. His former boss, Stefan Gilmour, took the fall for the contaminated evidence and the dodgy interviews that resulted in Saunders walking free; Gilmour is now a millionaire and a big player for the "no" campaign, against Scottish independence. He and the Saints don't take kindly to being questioned, and expect Rebus to smooth the issue over for them. Taken into Fox's confidence, Rebus isn't sure which side to play for, especially when – just like 30 years ago – key evidence starts to disappear.
Rebus, says Clarke, ruefully, to Fox, is "like one of those chess wizards, the ones who play a dozen boards at the same time". So, it feels sometimes, is Rankin, as he weaves his dual plots into an ever more tangled maze, and then smoothly, oh so satisfactorily, irons them out again. Saints of the Shadow Bible is a clever, subtle read, but most of all, it's a genuine pleasure to see Rebus back in the CID. ("I'm from the 80s… I'm not the newfangled touchy feely model," he tells a suspect, irresistibly. "Now get out of my fucking car!") It's obvious Rankin feels the same way, relishing putting his old companion up against Fox and seeing the relationship develop, having a whale of a time finding out how he'll cope with demotion, investigation, authority and – of course – crime.
"Form-filling and protocols and budget meetings were not Rebus's thing – never had been and never would be. His knowledge of the internet was rudimentary and his people skills were woeful… Because he was a breed of cop that wasn't supposed to exist any more, a rare and endangered species." We know whose side Rankin is on, and we're right there behind him. A promotion for DS Rebus, please.
