Set in Darkness (56 page)

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?

The discovery of a desiccated corpse, quickly nicknamed Skelly, during the refurbishment of the new Scottish parliament building doesn’t bode well, especially as it was here, centuries earlier, that there occurred a grisly incident of cannibalism, and now Queensberry House comes complete with the ghost of a weeping woman. Rebus’s reluctant membership of the PPLC (the Policing of Parliament Liaison Committee) ensures he’s right on hand when the body is found, rubbing shoulders with representatives of MI5 and the Scottish Office. And soon his social net is cast still wider, into the influential Grieve clan, when Roddy Grieve, prospective MSP, turns up just as dead as Skelly, and soon Rebus discovers there’s yet another lost Grieve.

DC Siobhan Clarke is otherwise engaged investigating an unpleasant case of serial rape with escalating violence, each attack connected to singles clubs, the rapist working with an accomplice. Added to the mix are the suicide of a tramp who turns out to be worth E400,000; a mystery to do with Bryce Callan, the man who ran Edinburgh before Big Ger Cafferty; some shady land deals and a council mole; and Big Ger himself, determined not to let a small thing like a Barlinnie prison sentence stand in the way of his domination of Edinburgh.

As Siobhan and Rebus try to make sense of a seemingly random series of incidents, is Skelly going
to prove to be the key to unravelling what has been going on?

Ian Rankin looks at various family dynasties against the panorama of a new Edinburgh – although, as Big Ger points out, ‘The city might be changing but it still works the same old way’ – suggesting that all must experience the pleasure before the pain, the ‘Calvinist thing’ – while, alongside, Siobhan comes of age in making her own connections.

Ian Rankin claims he came to write this book through serendipity, stumbling across something he wasn’t looking for. Could it be said that Rebus and Siobhan each experience different forms of serendipity themselves?

DI Derek Linford is thought of as the lapdog of Colin Carswell, Assistant Chief Constable (Crime): are Rebus’s instincts correct about him?

How has Rebus’s drinking started to affect his work?

The reader learns a lot about Rebus’s attitude to the machinations of politics. Could the reader go on to make assumptions about Ian Rankin’s own political opinions?

Ian Rankin gives away very early who the rapists are. How does this affect the narrative tension? Does this give an opportunity to show the process by which Siobhan carries out an investigation?