The Early Years (Ian Rankin in general)

Member Name: TinkerTailor

Product:	Ian Rankin in general
Date:	10/05/01 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great stories, Enlightening background information

Disadvantages: None

Sometimes, it's not always necessary to start at the beginning. Honest. What rubbish is he talking now, you may well ask.

Well, I'm talking about the wonderful opportunity of looking back at the genesis of the characters you may have become so familiar with in their later works. It would probably work just as well re-reading a single book (knowing the ending and spotting the clues in thrillers is great fun), but in this case, I'm talking about reading the very first stories in a series having read most of the later ones.

For Ian Rankin fans, there's an excellent collection available called, simply, "Rebus: The Early Years". As you might expect, it's a collection of the first three Rebus novels - "Knots and Crosses", "Hide and Seek" and "Tooth and Nail".

As I say, these are the first three Rebus stories and there's quite a gap between the writing of the first two. However, it's clear to see that this is the full-formed Rebus that we know well in the later books (I think I've read most of the stories since "Black and Blue"). In fact, there's a lot of history that's only touched on in the later books - Rebus' family (especially his black sheep brother and his father), his army career, and his religion (which barely appears in the later books).

The other interesting aspect is the early introduction of incidental characters that appear repeatedly in the later books - Gill Templer, Jim Stevenson, Inspector "Farmer" Watson et al.

And, of course, the best thing is that these are ripping yarns. As you'd expect, every one is a page-turner and beautifully written. What's more amazing is that Rankin never really intended to write a detective novel in the beginning at all, in fact he says he had never even read one before writing! (This from the very enlightening introduction to the collection by Rankin himself).

O
verall, I'd say this is a must-read collection for anyone who's read a later Rebus story (and even if you've not!)

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