| Knots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus Novels) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ian Rankin
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 135023
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 228
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0312956738
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780312956738
ASIN: 0312956738
Publication Date: December 15, 1995
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 Inspector Rebus is compelling main character August 4, 2008
Knots and Crosses is the first in the series featuring John Rebus as a tormented police detective. In this novel, set in Edinburgh, Rebus is on the track of a serial killer, and we learn bits and pieces of Rebus' tortured past, as he has terrifying flashbacks.
Rebus believes in God, rather a rare feature in a mystery series main character. I was amazed at how fast I read this book, over a three day weekend.
It is so well written, with the intriguing Rebus, his brother who is a stage magician and hypnotist, Gill Templar (attracted to Rebus), journalist Stevens and the nasty criminal, that you may find yourself reading it quickly.
I enjoy slower paced mysteries, too, but love this fast-paced novel, and plan to read more, especially since my husband is reading them so we bought quite a few of the next in the series
This review is written by the author of Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts A Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts: Stories to Warm Your Heart and Tips to Simplify Your Holidays
A dark and brooding story May 14, 2008
Like Edinburgh itself. John Rebus is very much a child of Edinburgh and the mystic highlands. This is the first book in the John Rebus series, and it's a good one. We get a good introduction to John Rebus, and the dark side of his character. I have seen some of these done on television, and I was really looking forward to beginning this series. It did not disappoint. It is easy to see why Rankin won the Gold Dagger and the Edgar prizes with this book. There is a lot of power in his writing, and he builds a good plot too. I am looking forward to reading more of John Rebus, and I will be prepared for more dark and brooding prose.
Character study March 13, 2008
The first half of KNOTS AND CROSSES is a character study of protagonist, Detective Sergeant John Rebus. Rebus is not your typical fictional detective. He is a moody sort, with a lot of emotional baggage. Something happened while he was in the special forces in the army. He is also divorced with a young daughter, and he doesn't like his job or his superiors much.
Somewhere in there, Rebus is assigned to a murder case. Someone is killing young girls, most of them pre-pubescent. The murderer is apparently killing them for sport, since he doesn't molest them. Rebus is assigned the tedious task of finding blue Ford Escorts, which at least two of the witnesses claim they saw at various crime scenes. A second plot line involves a reporter named Jim Stevens who thinks John Rebus is involved in the drug trade. He pursues Rebus relentlessly, more concerned with the possible drug angle than he is with the murders. Much of the first part also examines Rebus's love life, what there is of it. He's falling in love with Gill Templer the media liaison for the Edinburgh police, but his repressed memories keep getting in the way.
The pace starts to pick up speed when Rebus's brother, Michael, a professional hypnotist, puts John Rebus under. From there it's a race to the finish. KNOTS AND CROSSES is most definitely a psychological thriller, much more so than American counterparts which strive for that classification. Ian Rebus could care less about frantic pacing. I would wager that some inveterate mystery fans have a bit of a problem with the first part since nothing much is going on, but that's what makes the second half so much better.
It's not too hard to pick out the killer, since Rankin telegraphs him pretty early on, but it almost doesn't matter. I knew all along that KNOTS (NAUGHTS) AND CROSSES was a mystery series, but I was still worried about Rebus during the climactic scene, and I can't say that about most main characters in series fiction.
Mr. Hyde's Edinburgh, not McCall Smith's... November 19, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is the first of Rankin's Edinburgh crime novels featuring detective John Rebus. Alexander McCall Smith gave Rankin a "cameo" part in his serial novel 44 Scotland Street, mentioning in his introduction that Rankin thought his portrait much "nicer" than his real personality. I don't know about that...but it is certainly true that while McCall Smith gives us a colorful, heartwarming view of Edinburgh society (albeit with wry cynical touches), Rankin shows us the Edinburgh of Mr. Hyde, famously bad weather and all. Rebus ruminates, "it was not a nice world this...it was an Old Testament land that he found himself in, a land of barbarity and retribution." And yet the picture-postcard surface of this world is one where librarians are shocked that children are being murdered - "But here, in Edinburgh! It's unthinkable."
Our hero John Rebus has been formed by his successful years in the Army Parachute Regiment, and this book is haunted by the buried memories of his brutal training for the Special Air Services. He's a native of Fife but has little nostalgia for his former home or his brother there; he's been a policeman for fifteen years and "all he had to show were an amount of self-pity and a busted marriage with an innocent daughter hanging between them." His brother Michael has taken up his father's occupation as a stage hypnotist and made it pay.
Out of Rebus's past emerges a pathological killer whose unmasking teases out Rebus's psychological history. Killer and cop are connected in the same vein as Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta books or Patterson's Alex Cross mysteries, but to my mind Rankin's work is more credible, less gratuitously sensational.
Rebus is a very human cop, not above lifting a few fresh rolls and milk from the sidewalk in front of a little grocery shop. "Nothing tasted better than a venial sin." He's a reader whose favorite book is Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, because at least Raskolnikov has a conscience. When Rebus's daughter is abducted, his ex-wife taken to hospital, "standing in the waiting-room, he realized that in his life he had accepted secondary experience -- the experience of reading someone else's thoughts - over real life...he was face-to-face with it now all right, he was back in the Paras...his brain aching, every muscle tensed."
He also has run away from his memories by drinking, but in the course of this case he beats that addiction. "Rebus did not go dizzy this time, nor did he panic and run for it. He stood up to the sound and allowed it to make its point, let it wash over him until it had had its say. He would never run away from that memory again."
The resolution of this mystery is logical yet unexpected. There are wonderful characters along the way: Rebus's new girlfriend Gill Templer, Rebus's ex-wife and daughter, as well as a venial journalist named Jim Stevens. Rankin's portrait of this ambitious journalist's speculative, manipulative approach to the truth is a small masterpiece. In fact, this book is a small masterpiece. Read it and you will want to read the others, in sequence - consult Ian Rankin's website for a list!
Knots to Be Tied, Crosses to Bear November 18, 2007
This was Ian Rankin's first Inspector Rebus crime novel. If only he had kept his later books as short and tight as this one. Rebus does a lot of weeping in this one, but he has a lot to weep about. He has a lot of old army baggage to deal with. Rankin says of Rebus, "It was an Old Testament land that he found himself in, a land of barbarity and retribution." The books usually have the authentic Edinburgh sense of place, and the Inspector smokes and drinks too much and has trouble with his love life and his superiors. For a story about a serial killer, Rankin takes a lot of side alleys to get where he's going. His sub-plots meander a bit, and the reporter almost becomes the lead character.
Rebus's brother Michael, the stage hypnotist, is in it, and he helps Rebus and Inspector Gill Templer solve the case. Rebus is getting crank letters that bug him. He's a believer without a church, and, at times a cop without a clue. It's a good thing there are other characters in the book to help him solve the case.
The book has sharp characterization, suspense, clever plotting, effective writing, and narrative drive. When all the loose ends are knotted together, the reader feels quite satisfied and rewarded. I read it on a flight from Venice to JFK, and it made the trip bearable. Take it along with you on your next flight.
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The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead
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