by Ian Rankin
Part of Inspector Rebus, book 6
First published 1997
Inspector John Rebus descends into the stone cellars beneath Edinburgh's Old Town, where medieval chambers hide in darkness below the cobbled streets. A young man's mutilated body hangs from a butcher's hook in one of these underground rooms. The victim bears a distinctive tattoo on his wrist. Someone has scratched a mysterious message into the dirt nearby. These clues tell Rebus this was no random killing but a calculated execution. The inspector must determine who carried out this brutal act and why they chose such a grim location for their deadly work. As Rebus investigates, he realizes the killer selected these ancient cellars for a reason. A man could scream endlessly in these stone chambers without anyone hearing his cries. The case forces Rebus to confront the violence that lurks beneath Edinburgh's civilized surface.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, dark-mystery
Setting: Edinburgh, Old Town
Period: 20th-century
278 pages · Mass Market Paperback · St. Martin's Paperbacks
Content warnings: graphic-violence, murder, violence