Ian Rankin: Darkness and Deception (RMT695)

Rankin is simply the best crime writer Britain has produced in the last thirty years. His Edinburgh breathes and broods on every page. It is a city of grandeur and moral shadow, where the past is never safely buried and the truth, when it surfaces, is rarely comfortable for anyone involved. These three novels showcase the full range of what Rankin does better than anyone. 

Exit Music brings John Rebus to the end of his career on the force — or so it seems — in a case that reaches into the darkest corners of the city's financial establishment. In a House of Lies, he finds himself back in the shadows years later, unpicking a cold case that powerful people had every reason to hope would stay cold. The Impossible Dead introduces Malcolm Fox, Rebus's near-opposite in temperament and method — a man who investigates other police officers, and who finds himself drawn into a cover-up reaching back to the turbulent politics of 1980s Scotland.