A HEART FULL OF HEADSTONES

4 stars out of 5

Having read another in this series featuring Inspector John Rebus, I was looking forward to this one. And alas, I felt lost almost from the beginning and struggled to get through it. There were just too many characters and scenes that shifted far too often for me to keep it all straight. That said, my bet is that long-time readers of this popular series will enjoy it thoroughly.

Retired and not in the best of health, Rebus finds himself on the wrong side of the law - on trial for committing an undisclosed crime. From that beginning, the rest of the book goes back in time - to his old stomping grounds at Tynecastle, where "dirty" cops were the order of the day - to piece together what happened. Although he doesn't deny that he may have participated in more than a few shady operations himself, he can't quite make himself believe his actions were all that serious - mostly, they consisted of simply looking the other way. When one of the cops from back then ends up murdered, readers get to see Rebus's former protoge, now Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke, do her thing amid colleagues, some of whom still think women really don't belong in the police department.

The ending is a cliffhanger that suggests there will be a follow-up - and I'll be waiting for that one. For those new to this series, I must say this isn't the place to start - back up a bit and get more of a feel for some of the characters from an earlier time. Rebus is an interesting character who's time may be up, and I'm curious as to how it all will end for him. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy of this one.

A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown and Co., October 2022); 353 pp.