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Let It Bleed

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The seventh novel featuring Inspector John Rebus, available for the first time as an e-book and featuring an exclusive introduction by author Ian Rankin.

Detective Inspector John Rebus understands that murder is usually very simple. Passion and greed are the most common motives, but when the bodies begin to pile up—two suicides, one murder, and the mysterious death of an inmate in one of Scotland's largest prisons—Rebus realizes that there's nothing simple about his latest case.
What Rebus knows is that it all began with a petty embezzlement scheme. What he discovers is that beneath the killings a conspiracy is hidden, one that runs all the way to the top of the political ladder. And the cost of unraveling this complex web could be horrifyingly high. Everything he holds dear—his job, his life, even his young daughter—is at stake.
Powerful men are telling Rebus to "let it take its course," but none of them will reveal just what it is. Rebus stubbornly decides to go forward with his investigation no matter what the cost may be. Men have died for whatever lies at the heart of this plot, and Rebus is determined that those who have set these events in motion will not escape the punishment they deserve.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 2, 1996
      At the start of Rankin's powerful and absorbing latest tale, Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus (Mortal Causes, etc.) looks on helplessly as two young kidnapping suspects avoid capture by diving to their deaths from the icy Forth Road Bridge. Unable to drink away that image, Rebus must investigate another suicide. Ex-con "Wee Shug" McAnally shotgunned himself as local government councilor Tom Gillespie watched in horror. Rebus believes that McAnally chose his witness carefully, but when political higher-ups pressure the police brass, Rebus is forced off the inquiry. Pursuing his hunches with covert help from sympathetic colleagues, Rebus tries to decipher a document that might connect the suicides to development plans for "Silicon Glen," home of Edinburgh's computer industry. His suspicions increase when influential Scots hint at rewards if he'll let the case slide. Rebus sorts out these machinations while battling loneliness, toothache (it figures in the solution), alienation from his daughter and the tense reappearance of a former lover, Gill Templer, as his new boss. Rankin portrays an intriguingly complex Scotland, where a good copper, battling frigid winds and cruel manipulators, needs plenty of warming whiskey and selfless friends.

    • Library Journal

      December 1, 1996
      First, Edinburgh's Detective Inspector John Rebus (see The Black Book, Penzler: Macmillian, 1994) witnesses the suicide of two teenagers who falsely claimed to have abducted a runaway girl. Next, a recently released rapist kills himself in a councilman's presence. When Rebus starts pushing, certain that something sinister links the three deaths, political enemies push back, forcing him temporarily out of the game. As usual, Rankin's complex protagonist is assailed by problems with daughter, drink, and department. Recommended.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from December 1, 1996
      Ex-swineherd and viniculturist Rankin writes another winning story featuring Detective Inspector John Rebus, the Don Quixote of the Scottish police. Rebus once again finds himself tilting at windmills as bodies pile up, and the stakes--Rebus' career, political future, and possibly the economic health of Scotland--get higher. The first victims are two kids, potential kidnap suspects whose spectacular and gory leap off a bridge after a high-speed police chase gives even the hardened Rebus nightmares. Then a rapist, recently released from prison, kills himself in front of a district councillor. The two cases seem unrelated until Rebus discovers a tenuous and surprising link--a link that someone wants desperately to hide. Rankin is a genius at finding the perfect blend of curmudgeonly guile, stubborn gruffness, and unsuspecting vulnerability for Rebus, who, despite his many faults, is a refreshing if lonely champion of truth and justice. Rankin also delivers sparkling wit, superb plotting, and a host of surprising twists to keep readers completely, charmingly off balance. ((Reviewed December 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)

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