Rebus is back. Need we say more?
This can only mean more wisecracks, attempts to foil bosses and bureaucracy, and—of course—a case that perhaps another cop wouldn’t have cracked.
Rebus, having retired, is back as a civilian employee for the Serious Crime Review Unit, chasing dead ends for cold cases, when a woman whose teenage daughter disappeared in 1999 approaches him. The old case has striking similarities to another recent missing person’s case, as well as several other disappearances of women throughout the years, all along the same highway A9. Working with his former underling, the newly promoted Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke, Rebus travels the A9 searching out clues.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone is on board with Rebus’ return to the force. And, with the retirement age now raised, Rebus plans to make it permanent, having reapplied for his job. It’s only been a few years since we’ve seen Rebus—Rankin handed him his retirement papers in 2007—and the former cop hasn’t changed much, still drinking and smoking as much as before, still employing unorthodox methods to catch criminals. But the police force around him has changed. Even Clarke comments to Rebus: “You’re vinyl, we’re digital.”
Rebus has always had his enemies within the police force. This time they include Malcolm Fox, an internal-affairs-type who was the protagonist of Rankin’s last two books. Likable in the last two books, he has become an implacable foe in this book. He warns Rebus: “Think you can break cases without bending a few rules along the way? We’ve no room for even one maverick these days.” Fox has an outsize dislike of Rebus, and has begun an investigation he hopes will permanently get Rebus off the force.
This 18th novel in the series is a reintroduction to Rebus, older, set in his ways, and battling a changing world. Rebus is also a little sadder: years of failed relationships have left him alone. His only regular drinking buddy is his old nemesis, former crime boss Ger Cafferty. Rebus hardly sees his adult daughter, Samantha, and when he unexpectedly stops at her house, during a road trip for the investigation, she’s not there. But as he admits to himself, he probably hadn’t wanted her to be there: “He had made the effort, without any of the possible repercussions.”
Retirement was no happy ending for Rebus; the only place he seems comfortable is the police station. And the wisecracking copper is also a very wise one. It’s a joy to see him connect the dots and go after the bad guy—and, yes, to see him break the rules as only Rebus would dare to do. Let’s hope Rebus is back for good.
