Book Reviews of Dead Souls (Inspector Rebus, Bk 10)

Tenth Inspector Rebus British police procedural. For some reason, I had a hard time getting into and getting through this book. Rebus investigates the disappearance of the 19-year-old son of some old school friends from Fife, and the whole issue of MisPers (missing persons) is explored. While that is happening, he also contemplates the suicide death of a fellow officer who seemed to have it all going for him, and Rebus believes he was murdered for some reason. Then the subject of paedophiles and childhood abuse comes up, with that theme running through several cases, old and new. The book seemed a bit bloated though, the storylines getting sidetracked from time to time, and this detracted from the story rather than enhancing it as sometimes is the case. Usually when I pick up a Rebus book, it's hard for me to put it down and I'm done in a day or two. This one, I would read a couple dozen pages and become distracted, set it aside to go read something else for awhile and it took me nearly a week to get through it. Hoping the next in series is better!

Good read about several crimes that Rebus is investigating. They all have a connection to one another. As a reader, I knew this but couldn't figure out the connections. But the end reveals all.

"A colleague's suicide. Pedophiles. A missing child. A serial killer. Driven by instinct and experience, John Rebus searches for connections, against offical skepticism. Soldiering through dank, desperate slums and the tony flats of the Scottish elite, Inspector Rebus uncovers a chain of crime, deceit, and hidden sins-knowing it's himself he's really trying to save..."

A colleague's suicide. A misssing child. A serial killer. Detective John Rebus at his charismatic best as he explores the tough, dank,desperate Scottish slums to uncover secret sins and heinous crimes.

I think the development of the DI Rebus character set in a scottish police procederal is great. I want to get "Rebus's scotland in either the book or audio format. Rankin uses the Scottish setting and speech to great advantage ; I still only can guess the meaning of some of the dialogue like "fry-up and ca'canny, etc. Great fun tho'!!

I thoroughly intriguing Rebus yarn.

As always, Ian Rankin provides a great and detailed story.