Ian
Rankin
Standing in Another Man’s Grave. Ian Rankin.
2012. Hachette. Pp458. $36.99
Parts of this article are based on a
telephone interview with Ian Rankin in September. And a slightly different form of the article first appeared in the The Press Weekend Review, Christchurch, on November 3, 2012.
Ken Strongman
Ian Rankin has written many books, mainly
of crime fiction. Some have been
stand-alone, others have featured Detective Malcolm Fox, but most have been
centred around Inspector John Rebus, Rankin’s best known protagonist. Rankin’s books have been translated into 36
languages, he has received four Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers’
Association and in 2004 received America’s Edgar Award. At another level entirely, he has also
received honorary degrees from five Universities and has been awarded the OBE.
Rebus:
‘…a puzzle in which words are represented by a combination of pictures
and individual letters…’ Historically
‘…an ornamental device associated with a person to whose name it seemingly
alludes.’ (N.O.D.E.) It was a very clever name to choose for a
character that is definitely an intriguing puzzle although Rankin’s books are
no ornamental devices.
John Rebus is a fine old-fashioned cop, but
is also a decidedly awkward bugger. He
solves crimes but annoys nearly everyone he touches. Like so many memorable
fictional detectives there is more than a hint of self-destructiveness about
him and he cannot stop himself from a sort of cynical directness. With Rebus there is no innuendo and no hidden
messages; WYSIWYG, with brutal frankness.
Integrity abounds and comparisons are inevitable with Mankell’s Wallendar
(more angst-filled)in Sweden, Nesbo’s Harry Hole (more self-destructive) in
Norway and McBride’s D S Logan (grittier and tougher)in Aberdeen. Interestingly, however, when Ian Rankin
created Rebus, more than a quarter of a century ago, he had read very little
crime fiction. But he had long been
intrigued by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde.
Rebus is nothing like Rankin’s other
Edinburgh cop, Malcolm Fox, who polices the police, particularly police like
Rebus. No-one likes an internal affairs
man, but a few do at least respect Rebus.
And thinking of Edinburgh, the city is the other main character in
Rankin’s books. Read them and one comes
to know Edinburgh without ever visiting it.
Rankin’s latest book, ‘Standing in Another
Man’s Grave’ very cleverly brings Rebus back from his retirement, five years
ago in “Exit Music”. This seemed like the end of the line for Rebus, 25 years
after he began in “Knots and Crosses”.
But here he is again, even more like himself than ever, working as a
civilian for the police, dealing with cold cases. One of these cases begins to lead forwards
rather than backwards, pointing to a series of disappearances. Suddenly, Rebus has managed to inveigle his
way back as a consultant to his old unit.
He is working for Siobhan Clarke, who used to work for him and whom, to
some extent, he created in his own likeness.
She is therefore simultaneously very pleased and yet horrified to see
him back, much as he would have been in similar circumstances.
Meanwhile, Rebus’s old nemesis, Edinburgh
ex-crime boss Big Ger Cafferty keeps dropping round to see him to persuade him
out for a pint. This is exactly the sort
of thing that makes Malcolm Fox (who also appears in this book) even more
suspicious of Rebus than he already is.
Neither does it please Rebus much; he still treats Cafferty with a sort
of contempt laced with a clear understanding of what drives him.
Rankin says that the idea for this book
occurred to him well before he realized that he could bring Rebus back into
it. He wanted to write what he describes
as a ‘road book’, one that concentrated on the A9, which runs up the length of
Scotland. He also wanted to explore the
lives and motivations of parents who had lost a child in mysterious and
unexplained circumstances. He manages
both in “Standing in Another Man’s Grave”.
Rankin’s way of bringing Rebus out of
retirement was practicality itself. He
had him retire at a time when at 60 he had
to retire because of the requirements of the Scottish police. Then a few years later, as a cost (pension) saving
exercise, they put the retirement age back to 65 or more. So Rebus could not only be working as a
civilian helper to the police, but could even apply for his old job. This was just as well, because as Rankin puts
it “It’s work that keeps Rebus going”
It is great to have John Rebus back and
very clever of Rankin to have found a way to do it. As much as anything, it seems to have been
prompted by the death of Jackie Leven, a singer-songwriter friend of Rebus. They had even toured and recorded a show
together. The title ‘Standing in Another
Man’s Grave’ was inspired by one of Leven’s songs. Rebus is clearly one of the great creations
of crime fiction. He is anarchic,
maverick, independent, cynical, self-destructive, direct and because of all
this, might seem flawed. In short, he is
the puzzle that his name suggests and which draws one inexorably to the next
book.
As well as sheer, extremely well-written
entertainment, Ian Rankin’s crime fiction is driven by his fascination with the
nature of good and evil. The progression of his novels represents his
exploration of the balance between the two and of the horrors that seem always
to be there beneath the surface. He even
sees his city, Edinburgh, as representing this tension. The tourist sees an elegant, nicely appointed
city. Under the surface, unspeakable
things occur, as they do everywhere. For
which, we need Rebus to keep going.
