Fancy A Quickie? (A Good Hanging - Ian Rankin)

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	A Good Hanging - Ian Rankin
Date:	10/06/06 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting read. A good introduction to the author.

Disadvantages: Suffers a little from the short nature of the stories.

~ ~ I’ve long been an avid fan of Scot’s author Ian Rankin, in particular of his detective novels featuring the irreverent, irascible, irritable, hard drinking Edinburgh police inspector John Rebus. Once Rebus gets under your skin you very quickly get addicted, and can barely contain yourself as you wait for the next Rebus mystery to flow from the keyboard of the much feted Mr. Rankin. Fortunately, the wait is nearly over as a brand new Rebus novel called “The Naming Of The Dead” is due for release in October, 2006.

~ ~ In the meantime I’ve been reduced to re-reading some of my Rebus collection of novels, and with sixteen to choose from I’m truly spoilt for choice. A good novel (like a good movie) is something I can return to time after time, despite the fact that I already know the story and the theme.
So it was I found myself re-visiting one of Rankin’s earlier Rebus offerings, a book of twelve short stories called “A Good Hanging - And Other Stories” first published way back in 1992, and only the fourth book to feature Rebus who first hit the bookshelves in the novel “Knots And Crosses” in 1987.

~ ~ To write a good short story is a different discipline compared to writing a good novel. By their very nature they’re, well, short, which means the author doesn’t get the same opportunity to develop the characters, and there’s very little in the way of sub-plots, something which Rankin has made an art form in the Rebus books. What we have in “A Good Hanging” is a short sharp fix for dedicated Rebus addicts; twelve little cameos of the infamous Rebus that will leave you gasping for more. None of the stories are more than thirty pages long, and most are much shorter, which means you can dip your toe in and finish a story in jig time!

~ ~ Some of the stories are better than others, but all manage to entertain.
“A Good Hanging”, from which the book takes its title, is about an apparent macabre suicide, when an English student visiting Edinburgh to take part in a Festival Fringe play is found hanging from one of his own props (a gallows) on the Royal Mile. But is it suicide or something more sinister?
One of my own favourites is a rather light hearted wee tale called “Monstrous Trumpet”, where a piece of valuable erotic art goes missing and the suspects are all ladies of high social standing. Rebus is helped to solve the mystery by an elegant and handsome visiting French policeman called Inspector Cluzeau, an obvious play on the comedy about the bumbling policeman of the same name made famous by the late, great Peter Sellers.
A slightly darker offering is simply called “Sunday”, when we get a small cameo of Rebus relaxing in his apartment on his “only day of rest”. What makes it different is that he is reflecting on the recent accidental stabbing of a suspect during a scuffle, and there’s no story as such, just a look into the mind of the Inspector as he contemplates his life and what it all means.
Another favourite is called “Not Provan”, a play on words about the unique verdict of “not proven” that can be handed down in Scottish law courts, which has the same result as a not guilty verdict but basically means “we know you did it, but we can’t prove it”. Here Rebus is hot on the track of a young tearaway called Willie Provan, who he KNOWS is guilty of savagely beating a visitor to the city. But can he prove it?

~ ~ I’ve given you just a glimpse of four of my own particular favourites from the twelve short stories in this collection of Rebus yarns. All are good, but ultimately the book suffers a little from the very fact that the stories are *SHORT*, and thus Rankin doesn’t get the opportunity to develop his themes and characters in the same depth as he is renowned for in his full length novels. Some of the stories are obviously themes that Rankin had considered developing into books in their own right. Others give the impression that they were “sub-plots” that somehow didn’t make it into a novel, and which have been adapted a little to fit into this short story collection.

~ ~ What the book *DOES* do is give the reader a good introduction to the hero of Rankin’s novels, Inspector John Rebus. I would highly recommend it both to Rebus addicts (like myself) and to anyone who is unfamiliar with Rankin’s work and wants to simply dip their toe in the water to get a taste of his work.

~ ~ It’s so long since I bought this book that I simply can’t remember where I actually bought it or how much it cost. The list price for the paperback edition (published in 1998) is £6.99, but it’s available new at Amazon at £5.59, or used from only £0.01.

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Paperback 288 pages (June 1, 1998)
Publisher: Orion mass market paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 0752809431

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© KenJ June 2006

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Summary: A good collection of short stories featuring Inspector Rebus.