Ian Rankin, The Naming of the Dead

It’s 2005 and Edinburgh is gearing up for world leaders to convene the G8 summit – and for the protests that will accompany the event. As tens of thousands arrive to have their say (including Siobhan Clark’s parents who never quite understood her rebellious career path), scraps of clothing appear hanging on the trees at Clooty Well, a place where people leave offerings for the dead. The clothing belongs to a thuggish associate of Big Ger Cafferty, accused of rape and killed by someone unknown. As Rebus and Siobhan investigate they find more murders tied to a website that tracks evil doers – and they try to investigate the suspicious death of a minister at the summit in the teeth of a shadowy security service’s hindrance. As with other books in this series, the plot is tangled and many-layered. Here the massive protests converge with the investigations and the characters’ own stories until they are cut short by the 7/7 attacks in London. The ending is appropriately ambiguous for these ambiguous times. Rankin does a wonderful job of bringing together real world issues with his long-running series characters. I’m looking forward to the next in the series – but will be sorry to see John Rebus retire.

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