Book Review: The Naming Of The Dead by Ian Rankin - Page 2

Not even police are allowed to be that close to Gleneagles right about now without someone coming sniffing around. The dog this time is a Special Branch operative up from London to coordinate security for the Conference and he immediately causes Rebus' hackles to rise. After a little barking and growling they each return to their own territory.

Rebus still might have been all right if he hadn't developed an unhealthy interest in why a Member of Parliament on hand for the G8 Conference decided to dive off the parapet of Edinburgh Castle during a meeting with a variety of those aforementioned movers and shakers. As it happens, the same Special Branch officer who had warned him away from Gleneagles has turned up again.

As Rebus and Clarke wade their way through the usual quagmire of the Edinburgh underworld, turning up some old friends and new enemies, the city is seething around them with protests and demonstrations. When Siobhan's mother — her parents came for the march — is clubbed and injured seriously during one of the demonstrations, Siobhan becomes obsessed with finding the culprit.

As the week marches on, both Rebus and Clarke find themselves confronting pieces of their characters they hadn't the nerve to look at previously. For Rebus it had started with the burial of his younger brother and continues with reminders of his impending retirement. When his career is over there is nothing and nobody awaiting him to welcome him back from the wars.

For Siobhan, who has never really questioned her career choices, the possibility that her mother has been brutally clubbed by a fellow officer leaves her desperate to exact punishment and justice. But is she desperate enough to seal a deal with the devil in the shape of Rebus' old enemy Cafferty, an underground kingpin?

The world sometimes has a way of throwing all of our doubts and fears back in our face. For a police officer who sees lawbreakers out on the street in two weeks, with apathy all around and no difference being made, the question of why they do what they do can eat away at resolve, or lead to a consideration of alternatives to standard procedure.  It's not the temptation of money or material goods that will be a good officer's downfall, but the need to see justice carried out.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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