Knots and Crosses," Rankin's first Rebus novel, and maybe his first novel altogether, is not that way. Detective Sergeant John Rebus - Lead character, hard drinking, Scottish detective with a troubled past.

As the first book in a mystery series, it has a lot of heavy lifting to do, which it does quite well.Rebus is supposed to be suffering from PTSD because of trauma he experienced during his Special Services training. In this novel we are introduced to the then DS Rebus, a flawed, very human character, who readers can instantly relate to, which is probably the main reason for the popularity of this series. Detective Sergeant John Rebus works in Edinburgh, Scotland with a love/hate obsession for his job with the police. I was incredibly impressed with Ian Rankin's writings, particularly given that he was only 25 years old when he wrote Knots and Crosses.

That most of the time, whoever ends up dead did something they should have known better than to do, and all cases are solved within sixty minutes on the telly. Fifteen years, and all he had to show were an amount of self-pity and a busted marriage with an innocent daughter hanging between them. bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES - 'unmatched in the field of British crime fiction' THE TIMES. Como es la primera que leo del autor solo os puedo decir que la trama es sencilla, con un ritmo pausado pero constante y sin grandes giros.Two 11-year-old girls were kidnapped and subsequently murdered by a criminal known as the Edinburgh Strangler.

But as the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Much of the story follows the familiar path the reader expects, though this early in the series everything is a touch ragged. It's all a bit much -- and presented much too fast, as in a one-hour television show -- but there's some talent at work here. In this, the first Rebus book, however, Rankin goes straight for DI Rebus' ex-wife and daughter as payback for a perceived betrayal.Most people do live a Disney life, untouched by violence, safe in the knowledge that such things always happen to other people. This hasn’t been a problem, there is a background thread that runs through the series – an army career, a failed marriage and a daughter – but it’s really just background noise to whatever is happening in the current book. From there it was a natural progression to the more recently-published Ian Rankin books, where an older John Rebus is working with DI Siobhan Clarke and his main adversary is Edinburgh crime figure, Big Ger Cafferty. She's working alongside Rebus on this case and becoming more involved in his personal life as the relationship builds.

Gallery images of our book boxes show an example of what may be included – treat and gift content may differ. In the introduction to this novel, Rankin states that Rebus lives directly opposite the window in Marchmont that he looked out of while writing the book. It may even be that the killer could know Rebus as they send him cryptic messages on the days that the girls are abducted and the envelopes include a knot of string or a matchstick cross. Tracking down reports involving a particular model of car following the report of a citizen having seen such a vehicle in connection with the abduction of one of the victims. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away south by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer.As the investigation drags on and the number of victims increases, “Rebus reminded himself to stop praying. Things haven't been good for John Rebus since his SAS days - he had joined to prove his worth to his unloving, indifferent father who did love his other son, Michael, much more than John.