Will not leave you hanging (A Good Hanging - Ian Rankin)

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	A Good Hanging - Ian Rankin
Date:	15/10/06 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Short sharp and incisive writing

Disadvantages: Personally I found him a little annoying

A Good Hanging is one of twelve short stories to be found in this Ian Rankin written book featuring his most famous creation Detective Inspector Frank Rebus who is currently gracing our TV screens. This was my first experience of Rebus either in the written form or the small screen and having ran out of reading material on holiday I thought this would be a suitable lend from friends as the format of short stories meant that if I did not get to the end of the book when the time came around to return to good old Blighty I would not be left wondering what happened at the end.

The fact that these stories are incredibly easy to read and quite engrossing meant that I fairly whipped through the book in a day and a half and it certainly helped remind me of why I do occasionally enjoy reading a series of short stories as a welcome variation from the normal full length works of fiction.

Set in Edinburgh and thus drawing on the cities seedier side of crime and deceit the portrayal of Rebus is of an experienced no nonsense inspector who uses his deep knowledge of the criminal mind and a wide reaching web of contacts to solve a whole host of crimes. My only real criticism of these stories was a very personal point of view in that I did not really warm to the character of Rebus in fact at times I found him coming across as rather smug with an air of superiority. This may be down to the format of the short stories and it is hard to judge whether this annoyance would continue in a longer book where other characters are developed into the storyline because in this series of short stories there is no real opportunity to develop any other characters as the stories are not really linked. The only real continuity of characters is provided between a couple of stories that touch on an air of dissatisfaction amongst one of the junior detectives at the lack of development they receive from Rebus due to his habit of keeping things close to his chest.

However this one criticism is outweighed by a number of positives that does make this a book I would recommend to others whether you are new to the character or a long term fan. Firstly I really did like the amount of variety in the cases that Rebus has to investigate, there are a number of murders to solve however there are also cases concerning arson, blackmail and a tale of revenge. What I like about this is the way that even the most mundane of situations can be developed into an interesting and sometimes quirky story that holds the readers interest and helps to keep you guessing even though the subject matter is sometimes told over a dozen or so pages. Indeed one of the stories, called Sunday, is recounted by giving an insight into Rebus rather sad home life following a rather nasty incident the night before.

The second positive about this series of short stories is in the vivid way that Rankin portrays the Edinburgh scene drawing on the many features of the city both geographical and social as well as using the festival to provide the backdrop to a couple of stories. In fact the title story A Good Hanging uses the rather strange acts found at the fringe to form the basis of a rather interesting story.

W third positive is that the writing style is easy to follow and moves at a nice even pace. Even though the book is based in Edinburgh and Rebus is a somewhat stereotypical policeman you will not need a translator to understand the dialect unlike some of the Irvine Welsh books that I have read.

For me the two strongest stories are The Gentleman’s Club which is a rather grim investigation into a young girl suicide and Tit for Tat which centres on an attempted arson attack. In addition to these two the rather quirky Being Frank was a good read as was Auld Lang Syne which finds Rebus meeting someone from down memory lane whilst on a drugs stakeout and there is the rather tongue in cheek Monstrous Trumpet which features an Inspector Clouseau and provides a little light relief as it is the last story in the book.

Whether or not this book will inspire me to go on to read more in the Rebus series I’m not sure, at the end of the book you do get a taster of Knots and Crosses a full length novel and certainly it was quite an interesting opening. Currently I have a number of books to read however I would consider one of these if stuck for choice.

A Good Hanging is definitely worth checking out in my opinion as it is an excellent example of quality short story writing which is a different art to the longer writing format of full length novels and is ideal if you are travelling by either train or plane as you can dip in and out of it at your leisure.

Apparently this was the fourth book to be published by Rankin to feature Rebus and I believe that there are now about 16 books featuring the detective, no doubt if I'm wrong one of his many fans will correct me in the comments section.

Published by Orion the rrp is £6.99 however it is available on Amazon for £5.59 new or from as little as a penny in the new and used section. It would also be worth checking out the library as Rankin is a popular author in most libraries that I have visited. For those who are interested the ISBN is 0-75280-943-1.

Thanks for reading and rating my review.

Summary: Top quality series of short stories.