This is the second Rebus book by Ian Rankin which I’ve read and I’m sure I’ll be reading quite a few more of them. To be truthful, my heart did sink just a wee bit at the beginning because for a minute it seemed a bit purple prose-ish but he soon settled down into a more relaxed style.
I don’t want to say too much about the storyline because I know that quite a few people are reading Let it Bleed. Judith (Reader in the Wilderness) and her Ken have been enjoying it. Suffice to say that Rebus is the passenger in a police car on the Forth Road Bridge on a freezing winter night. He and his colleague are chasing a Ford Cortina which might have the Lord Provost’s daughter in its boot. The Ford is heading for Fife and they are determined to stop it from reaching there because they want the ‘collar’.
But that’s just the beginning and big business and politics play their parts in this book too.
I get completely engrossed in good books and at one point Rebus was doing a helluva amount of hard drinking and I actually found myself thinking – Thank God I’ve got a bottle of Irn Bru in the pantry – which is a well known Scottish fizzy drink, famous as a hangover cure!
I can’t think of anything particularly ‘Scottish’ which would have to be explained to anyone, but I have heard some English people prononunce the Irish name Siobhan (Rebus’s sidekick) as – See o ban- when of course it should be Shivon.
I hope that you’re reading this, Joan Kyler of Pennsylvania, whose name always comes with a soundtrack in my head – (65-0-0-0) because you might like to see if you can borrow this one from your library, especially as it features that ‘scary bridge’ which you drove over some years ago.
I think Ian Rankin is particularly good at conveying just how cold it feels in the east of Scotland during the winter. It’s the wind chill that gets you and as he says sandblasts you, so it’s always a lot colder than the thermometer says.
This is one of my favourite Irn Bru adverts. Have a look if you want a laugh.
Or course I read this! First things in the morning are: feed the cats, make tea, solve the crossword, and read my book blogs, on which you are at the top. I’ve just requested the Rankin book from my library.
Funny about the ‘Pennsylvania 65-0-0-0’ that I remind you of. I still remember the first telephone number I was required to remember in case I got lost: EMpire 7-4908. I love those old numbers that started with words. Too many numbers today and much harder to remember than words!
Joan,
You do say the nicest things! I love cryptic crosswords, in fact we only buy The Guardian because they don’t put the crossword on-line. I hope you enjoy Rankin.
Numbers – I still remember my mum’s co-op dividend number which I had to say to the shop assistant when I went for the shopping 40 odd years ago. Also the phone number of my childhood home and my husband’s old home number. In fact I try not to remember numbers now because I can’t get them out of my head even when they’re defunct. But you seem to need so many numbers and I’ve never liked them, I much prefer words.
I fully enjoyed Let It Bleed and I’m so fond of John Rebus that I’m looking forward to reading another about him. I LOVED the fact that he did his utmost to thwart the corporate “tigers” in the end. Loved it. Ken and I are none too fond of the corporate world and how they run the country and the world. John Rebus really put those dogs through the wringer!
Katrina, do you think it’s best or do you think it’s necessary to read the John Rebus books in the order they were published? What’s your take on this? And what do others think in Scotland about this?
Numbers: My home phone as a child was OLYMPIC 6-9201. I was so proud that our town had the OLYMPIC name. That was eons ago!
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
Judith,
I usually like to read things in order and I think I will go back to the beginning of the Rebus series even although Ian Rankin himself says that he feels his writing has improved a lot over the years – I want to get any details that I’ve missed.
Rebus has been serialised by ITV – I think they’ve made a good job of it but you can’t possibly get all the details that are in the books.
I think it is very Scottish Presbyterian in that he makes a stand for what is fair and right. If only real life were like that!
Katrina,
Oh!!! By the way, I simply LOVED the Irn Bru ad. How lovely! Thanks so much for posting it. I can’t wait to show it to Ken.
Judith
Your post brought back the memory of my (elderly) Scottish friend Anne. She enlightened me about Siobhan, and Pepys, and lots of other proper names, and she also told me that as a girl, they’d pray to St. Anne to find boyfriends (St. Anne, please hurry up and get me a man).
thanks for this post!
Niranjana,
You’ve just taught me something, your Scottish friend must have been a Catholic because they are the only ones who pray to saints and I didn’t know about St. Anne. I know that they pray to St. Anthony if they have lost something and he is supposed to help you find whatever it is. I’m a Presbyterian atheist though so I say – be careful what you wish for!
I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I’m hoping to get around to reading more Richmal Crompton soon.
Yes, Anne was Catholic–she had nine children, each the outcome of trying a new (dodgy) method of contraception. She was in her late seventies, and she talked about the Pope with the sort of indulgent irritation one reserves for toddlers.
she was really very charming!
Niranjana,
Very dodgy! In Scotland Catholics insist on having their own schools instead of sending their kids to ordinary state schools which means that you don’t meet up with any until you’ve left school really. Such a shame because there’s a sort of ‘them and us’ society. Thankfully there are now so many ‘mixed’ marriages between different religions that there are fewer people sending children to Catholic schools so there is less segregation.
I knew one poor woman who had 17 kids – 3 of them died, but imagine dinner time with that lot, and trying to remember all the names!