I'm reading Ian Rankin's BLACK AND BLUE (1997). Last year I
read the next in the series, THE HANGING GARDEN (1998), and
there was something about the style I didn't like. I never
tried to figure out exactly what, but whatever it was, I
don't find it in BLACK AND BLUE. Rankin's got quite a
style--I see why they call him the Scottish Ellroy--and I
like all the musical references and the Scottish details.
Inspector Rebus is a mess, drinking too much, hardly eating,
travelling all over Scotland, getting beaten up and suspected
of murder, trying to solve four cases at once while avoiding
his bosses.
A question: how come Rebus doesn't have a partner? Do the
police in Scotland work differently, or is it just Rebus or
just this book? I'm used to police travelling in pairs. Rebus
is spending most of this book doing things he shouldn't, but
even when he was doing a routine murder investigation he
didn't have a junior with him,
I saw half of the TV adaptation of this book, and all of the
adaptation of THE HANGING GARDEN. They make adequate TV if
you haven't read the books, but they're not much if you have.
John Hannah's no where near right for the part of Rebus, and
they didn't seem to have any budget for music rights. In the
book, Rebus would sit and blast the Stones. In the TV
version, he'd put on headphones and we'd watch him sit
quietly and look out the window. There's none of the internal
monologue, either, with Rebus's brain jumping and making
connections and matching his surroundings with old songs. On
the other hand, it's nice to see the locations and hear the
accents.
Rankin's got a web site up at
It says he won the Chandler-Fulbright scholarship in 1992 and
he used the money to travel around the US. Does anyone know
more about this scholarship? Searching Google turns up some
other winners but I didn't see a complete list or any details
on who decides the winner.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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