A
Literary Saloon
&
Site of Review.

Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Contents:

Main

the Best

the Rest

Review Index

Links

to e-mail us:


support the site


buy us books !
Amazon wishlist

the complete review - fiction

Dead Souls

by
Ian Rankin

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

- Return to top of the page -

Our Assessment:

B+ : good thriller, good mix of issues and stories brought together well

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "For all his moral missteps, Rebus at least finds an honorable way to keep his footing." - Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "There is in fact some sense of marking time in Dead Souls, a hint that Rankin, like Burke, may be outgrowing his chosen form. While, as is his habit, he deploys a complex plot made of apparently unrelated elements, and in doing so binds the highest in the land to the poorest in their feral pursuit of gold and gratification, at some points the book lacks the element of menace which has given several of its predecessors their addictive appeal. The multiple revelations of the close fall slightly flat, and the violent confrontation with the chief suspect is muffled by its positioning in the book." - Sean O'Brien, Times Literary Supplement

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

- Return to top of the page -

The complete review's Review:

       Dead Souls offers both souls and bodies that are dead. As usual, there's a lot threatening to deaden John Rebus' soul, but he soldiers on; one of the more impressive aspects of this novel is how precariously he's balanced, always so near going over the edge. "I think something's gone bad inside you", an acquaintance diagnoses early on, and for much of the book Rebus himself isn't so sure that she's wrong.
       A colleague isn't as lucky (or strong ?) as Rebus, literally going over an edge (a cliff, in fact): the book begins with Jim Margulies' death, an apparent suicide. And coincidence would have it that one of the criminals that really got to both Rebus and Margulies, the paedophile Darren Rough, is back in town. Rebus encounters him at the zoo (where Rebus is meant to be on the lookout for an animal-poisoner), and soon enough Rough becomes a bigger part of his life than he might have wanted. Letting the neighbours know who the new man is in one of Edinburgh's rougher council estates is enough to pretty much ruin Rough's life -- but that turns out not be quite as satisfying as Rebus had hoped.
       One reason Rough is back in town is because there is a big paedophile trial going on, and he might testify. Even Rebus is called into court, though he was only peripherally involved in the case. But child molestation seems to be in the air, almost everywhere he turns.
       One thing that can get his mind off that is a serial killer. Cary Oakes, just released from prison in the United States and deported back to the UK, is just the thing. A psychopath, all the indications are that he will kill again -- and the Edinburgh police are none too pleased when he decides the first place he'll settle down in is their patch. But he's a free man, and beyond a bit of surveillance there's not much they can do. Rebus is one of the men assigned to watch him -- a job that's all the more fun because the exclusive rights to Oakes' story have gone to none other than the old Rebus-foe, journalist Jim Stevens. He wants to hole up with Oakes and get the story out of him, but Oakes has plans of his own -- and the means to carry them out. He entertainingly plays Stevens (and quite a few other people) for the fool, and though the character is quite a bit over the top it does make for considerable menace and suspense.
       Finally, Rebus also gets drawn into a missing persons case: the nineteen year-old son of Janice and Brian, an old flame and a friend from the old neighbourhood, has simply disappeared. He tries to help out, getting drawn back into the old neighbourhood he escaped from.
       Rebus' personal life also isn't going all too brilliantly. He pops in on wheelchair-bound daughter Sammy occasionally, but she's fairly independent. Rebus sort of lives with Patience, but that doesn't seem to be going too well, as he seems to spend more days sleeping elsewhere. And Janice threatens to allow him a nostalgic wallow that probably wouldn't be good for him either. Ah, yes:

     Ama, Hannah, Katherine ... Sammy, Patience, Janice ... The never-ending dance of relationships and criss-crossings which took up so much space in his head. The party that never stopped, the invitations guilt edged.
     Life and death in Edinburgh. And space still left over for a few ghosts, their numbers increasing.

- Return to top of the page -

Links:

• Minotaur publicity page
• Orion publicity page

• The Book Barn
• Bookreporter.com
• Crescent Blues
• The Mystery Reader
• The New York Times Book Review (scroll down for review)
• Planet Peschel
• Spike
• Tangled Web
• Under the Covers

• IanRankin.net - official site for the Rebus novels and their author
• Ian Rankin at Contemporary Writers
• Author page at Guardian Unlimited
• Profile in The Independent
• Interview at Books 'n' Bytes
• Interview at The Guardian
• Interview at January Magazine
• Interview at Mystery One
• Interview at The Observer
• Interview at Tangled Web

• Black and Blue
• The Falls
• Fleshmarket Close (US title: Fleshmarket Alley)
• A Good Hanging
• The Hanging Garden
• Hide and Seek
• Knots and Crosses
• Let it Bleed
• Mortal Causes
• The Naming of the Dead
• A Question of Blood
• Resurrection Men
• Set in Darkness
• Tooth and Nail

• See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers
• See Index of Series and Sequels under review

- Return to top of the page -

About the Author:

       British author Ian Rankin was born in 1960.

- Return to top of the page -

© 2004-2009 the complete review

Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links