A Question of Blood

The number one bestselling series that inspired BBC One’s REBUS

Two seventeen-year-olds are killed by an ex-Army loner who has gone off the rails. The mystery takes Rebus into the heart of a shattered community. Ex-Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone. Army investigators are on the scene, and won't be shaken off. The killer had friends and enemies to spare and left behind a legacy of secrets and lies.

Rebus has more than his share of personal problems, too. He's fresh out of hospital, but won't say how it happened. Could there be a connection with a house-fire and the unfortunate death of a petty criminal who had been harassing Rebus's colleague Siobhan Clarke?

Read by James Macpherson

(p) 2015 Orion Publishing Group©2003 John Rebus Ltd

detective fiction doesn't get much better

- either does light fiction. Rebus is at this point in the series a complicated, fascinating character. Dark, but not depressing, his humanity shines though his gruffness. The supporting cast features many regulars from the series and Siobhan comes into her own in this novel. Rebus peeks into his army days - not glimpsed, I think, since Knots and Crosses.

This listen is best appreciated after at least several of the earlier Rebus novels. The only downside is that there aren't many left to go in the series... I had avoided Rankin because I'd been told that his novels are dark -- but they are not depressing and are rather life affirming overall. Rankin combines the best in modern police procedurals with the best elements of Golden Age detection and elements of a good, traditional Brit/Scot cozy with setting and character detail. Good dialogue too.

Like other later novels in this series, Rankin tackles a social issue along the way. That doesn't get in the way for me, but adds to the listen.