Knots And Crosses - Ian Rankin

After borrowing an Ian Rankin book the other day and rather enjoying it, I decided that I would like to read another one. I chose this book from my husband's collection because it is the first one in the Detective Rebus series and meant I could almost start from the beginning despite having already read one of the later books. This book tells the story of Detective John Rebus on the tail of a serial killer in Edinburgh. I liked how the author used a lot of dialect writing in this book as it meant I could almost hear the thick Scottish accents as I read words like "aye" and "whit". The story was very original even though it was ...  Read the complete review

I have recently read this book after an offer from my book club to get the entire set of Ian Rankin books for £7.99 each. As this was the first Rebus novel I started with this and I hope to read them through in order. Rankin's writing style is light easy to read and he does draw you quickly into the story. His character description is mainly good but this has focused mainly on the main character and his description of some of the other supporting characters is perhaps slightly lacking. In this story he conjures up a dark and sinister world which any TV adaptation would find hard to do. Whilst the adaptations of his novels on TV are good, in my opinion, nothing ...  Read the complete review

I first read this book just after I finished school. My mum had picked it up at the library and recommended I give it a go. My favourite genre of literature is a good crime thriller, so after reading the blurb, which indicated a dark and gritty police thriller set in Scotland, I gave it a go. I have since read all of Ian Rankin's Rebus books to date, and am very glad that my mum handed me that book all those years ago. Knots & Crosses is Rankin's first book featuring his signature character, John Rebus. The book gives us a very brief rundown on Rebus' history as an soldier, disheartened with army life, who has joined the police force and has become a bit ...  Read the complete review

This is the first in Ian Rankin's books detailing the life and police work of DI John Rebus. This book finds Rebus haunted by his time spent in the army working as a detective in Edinburgh, he both smokes and drinks too much and feels that his relationship with his young daughter is becoming increasingly worse. Rankin wrote this book to be something of a modern retelling of Jekyl and Hyde and it definitely draws parallels with this classic work, Rankins writing is gritty and very descriptive whilst reading you really get a sense of being inside Rebus head and the themes which run through the rest of the series are well established in the first book. I wont give much of ...  Read the complete review