Black and Blue

⚖The case for it

Four plots knot together on coincidence more than a careful reader wants, and Rebus keeps to his familiar downward routine. Let it go. What Rankin cares about is a Scotland rebuilt by North Sea oil, the rigs and the drink and the hard weather rendered with a chill precision Chandler once brought to Los Angeles. He also ties the book to an actual unsolved sixties killing, which lends a weight few crime novels are willing to carry. The joins are visible, but the sentences around them are too good to let go.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Rankin runs four cases at once (Bible John, a copycat, an oil-rig death, old Glasgow corruption) and trusts coincidence to braid them. Rebus drinks, defies orders, gets suspended, repeats; by book eight the self-destruction is a schedule. It is the best Rebus, which is why it shows the formula so clearly.

— the honest librarian