About to cop it?

Rebus is back, in a novel long, meaty and persuasive enough to make up for the years of absence. Actually, he is only part-way back — on a civilian attachment to the Edinburgh & Lothian Police, and working on cold cases. However, the retiring age has been raised, and he has applied for re-instatement. He may not succeed; the head of this small department is unlikely to recommend him, and Inspector Fox, the officer in charge of the complaints department, who has been the lead character in Rankin’s last two novels, regards him with suspicion, dislike and contempt.

To his mind, Rebus is a type of policeman who should be extinct. He doesn’t play by the book. He has suspiciously close relationships — even perhaps friendships — with criminals, notably the gangster Big Ger Cafferty, with whom, diminished and in at least semi-retirement, Rebus has a regular pub session. In short, in Fox’s eyes, Rebus is a menace and a liability.