DI Rebus is caught up in a variety of struggles, between competing law enforcement entities, between gangs in Edinburgh, between Catholic and Protestant in both Ireland and Scotland. He is seconded to the Scottish Crimes division because he recognized that the murder of a young man showed signs of torture known to be used in The Troubles, as a result of his own stationing in Belfast many years before; but when the bodies begin piling up, including that of an undercover officer, he wonders if the various police forces might be harbouring a leak somewhere…. This is the sixth Rebus book, and in it we learn a bit more about his checkered history, which helps to explain some of his behaviour in the present; we also see more of his interactions with various women in his life, which are all of course complicated - sometimes by his own poorly understood actions. Although sometimes quite bleak (especially dealing with the poor and unemployed youth of 1990s Scotland), we also see a bit of the brighter side of Edinburgh such as the annual summer Festival; and Mr. Rankin’s writing is, as ever, both lucid and, at times, very funny indeed. I’m not convinced that one must have read each of these books in order (although that is what I myself am doing), as it seems to me that any of the books that I’ve read so far could serve as an entry point into this series; but of course, part of the pleasure of discovering a series that has been around for a long time is the fact that one will have so many more books to look forward to; recommended! ( )

A step back up from The Black Book but didn't quite blow me away like Strip Jack did. I read the second half of the book in a single day which is fast for me because the pacing was just perfectly judged. The plot ended up a bit too vague and a couple of paragraphs of exposition dump at the end made it feel like the author knew it, too. ( )

Tijdens het Edinburgh Festival komen er dreigementen met bommen etc. en worden er drie mensen op gruwelijke manier vermoord. Rebus wordt ingezet onder meer omdat hij in Ulster heeft gediend. Er lijkt een verband te zijn met de troubles daar.

Set in Edinburgh. References to Northern Island, sectarian violence as well as social disadvantage in Scotland and nationalism. ( )

I think that this is my favorite Rebus novel to date because the case was very thrilling and I also enjoyed how the characters were written. There were some parts about Rebus's private life, but they were not as chaotic or drawn out as in the previous novels, and I liked that much better.
The case - a body found in Mary King's Close during the Edinburgh festival - has a deep and dark background, and it leads to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It was a very gripping reading experience for me and I enjoyed the Edinburgh setting but was also very interested in the background story connected to Belfast and Sectarianism. I'm looking forward to the next book and don't think I will wait too long until I get to it. ( )