Black and Blue

⚖The case for it

Four investigations at once across Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Shetland, and readers credit Rankin with the “intricacy (but never inaccessibility) of intertwining plot strands” that eventually tie together “in a Kevin Bacon-esque kind of way.” Rebus drinks, cuts corners and sabotages himself while meaning every bit of his commitment to the victims, which is why readers believe him. The North Sea oil material is researched rather than decorative. Interludes from another point of view are the most gripping stretches. The cities are specific enough that readers recognise streets. “Very noir, almost like a Pelecanos book.”

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

“Over forty characters to try and remember” across four simultaneous cases, and readers lose the thread. The pacing alternates, running hot for a stretch then “fall completely dead and dull for another six” chapters across a book past 550 pages. The “arm of coincidence is so busy” that Rebus stumbles into what he needs rather than working it out. The drinking scenes repeat. The oil-industry thread reads dry until it finally connects, and a vocal minority finds “nothing particularly shocking or unique or wonderful about this mystery” underneath all of it.

— the honest librarian

10h

honest hours

14

sittings