Book Review: The Naming Of The Dead by Ian Rankin - Page 3

Thursday, July 7, 2005 - the devastation of London by terrorist bombs would be enough to shake anyone's foundations. For two troubled Scottish police officers it could easily push them over the edge into desperation or despair. There is never an easy answer to the question "Do I make a difference?" And When faced with such mass destruction and wanton hatred it becomes harder to see.

Ian Rankin is not an ordinary mystery writer, so The Naming Of The Dead is not your usual mystery. Certainly it has the same elements as other detective novels - after all, there is a case to be solved, clues to be collected, suspects to be interviewed, and victims to be comforted. But underneath it all runs the lives of the police officers who work and live in a world few of us can hope to comprehend.

It's a fine line an author walks when he allows his characters to expose themselves, warts and all, to his readers. Push one way too hard and he risks self-indulgence, the other way cliché. But Ian Rankin is a tightrope walker of the highest quality, and he never once falters. At the end of the novel the mystery of the crime may be solved, but our protagonists are still left with questions and looking for answers.

Justice is not always a simple case of who is guilty and who is innocent. There are shadings of grey in between the black and white of a conviction or arrest; that's the world John Rebus calls home. It's not comfortable, and sometimes not pretty, but it's real. You can't get any better then that.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the recently published 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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