Book review: Hide and Seek, by Ian Rankin

Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Kindle was offering some time ago a discount on Ian Rankin’s first three John Rebus crime novels, bundled up in one edition. One of the strengths of this edition are Rankin’s introductions to each novel, where he talks about his life as an unknown, young writer and how these early books came about. By the time he got to this novel – his second Rebus – he'd already tried his hand on a few other ones (standalone thrillers) that hadn’t been picked up by publishers. Nevertheless, I think this novel is his “difficult second book”.

He tries here to pick up the thread of where he left off with the main characters introduced in the first novel, “Knots and Crosses”. Again, it centres around his Scottish detective, John Rebus, now promoted to Detective Inspector and investigating the suspicious heroin overdose of a junkie in his native Edinburgh.

There’s really no tension in the first two-thirds of the book, with hardly anything of consequence happening. When the action finally arrives, it feels rushed. Rankin himself hints in his introduction that Rebus isn’t quite there as a defined character, though he is a pretty good creation. And although it was published in 1990, it feels very much like an 80s thriller. We get a taste of the grittier side of Edinburgh – rent boys, dog fights, junkies – but not enough to leave a mark.



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