by Ian Rankin
Part of Inspector Rebus, book 24
First published 2022
John Rebus sits in a courtroom dock, facing charges that could lock him away forever. The legendary Edinburgh detective has bent the rules before, but this time he may have shattered them completely. Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke receives the city's most dangerous assignment in years: find a missing police officer with decades of dirty secrets. The search will implicate her own bosses and threaten her mentor Rebus. Meanwhile, Rebus owes a debt from his past that puts him squarely between Edinburgh's crime families and his former colleagues in the police. Clarke must decide whether Rebus truly has her back or if he's using her for his own survival. As the investigation deepens, both detectives face a final accounting that will determine not just their careers but their lives.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, mentor-mentee, morally-ambiguous-protagonist, redemption
Setting: Edinburgh, Scotland
352 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company