Detective Inspector John Rebus does not go quietly in Exit Music, the last in a series of police procedurals by Ian Rankin set in and around Edinburgh and featuring the Scottish detectective.
It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Rebus’s leaving seems similar in spirit and impact to Holmes and Moriarty’s plunge off Reichenbach Falls, and even Ahab and the white whale’s final deadly dance. That it’s surprising given the elegiac lead-up through most of the novel’s 600 pages is a testament to Rankin’s skill as a novelist, his love of his character, and DI Rebus’s innate unpredictability. Some would say orneriness. Rebus cannot seem to stay safely inside his box, even after 18 novels, beginning with Knots and Crosses in 1987 and ending with Exit Music, published last year and recently released in paperback.
Tags: D.I. Rebus, Ian Rankin
