A Heart Full of Headstones

Ian Rankin

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

John Rebus stands accused: the once legendary detective is on trial, facing the rest of his life behind bars.

How does a hero turn villain? Or have times changed, and the rules with them?

Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke tackles Edinburgh's most explosive case in years, as a corrupt cop harbouring huge secrets goes missing. But is her loyalty to the police or the public? And who can she trust when nobody is truly innocent - including her former mentor Rebus - and a killer walks among them?

As the time comes to choose sides, it becomes clear: after a lifetime of lies, the truth will break your heart...

'Rebus is one of British crime writing's greatest characters: alongside Holmes, Poirot and Morse.'

'Great fiction, full stop.'

Review by Ben Macnair (010623) Rating (7/10)

Review by Ben Macnair
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 7/10
By now, we know what we are going to get from an Ian Rankin Rebus novel. Well described, realistic crime which doesn’t stray too far into the gore or darkness. Well described characters, the antagonistic, but morally upstanding John Rebus, drinking and smoking more than he should. His loyally dependable sidekick Siobhan Clarke, and a darkness and brooding that belong as much to the streets and environs of Edinburgh as it does to Rebus’s soul.

A Heart Full of Headstones finds Rebus working as a civilian, his COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) has caught up with him, he is a shadow of the man he once was, and there is to be a reckoning. Big Gerald Cafferty, the ying to Rebus’s yang is in the same state as Rebus. His health is not what it was, his influence on the crime syndicates of Edinburgh is in the wane. Both of them are the old lions, licking old wounds, reliving past glories, hating a world that moves on without them.

Spoiler Alert

There has been a murder, a former policeman, Francis Haggard, who threatened to reveal secrets of the past at Tynecastle Station, which would not look good for Rebus. As Rebus, paid by Cafferty to investigate another case, gets drawn back into the web, everything he once though he knew is looking to be changed.

The ending of the book is a bleak one, as Rebus finds himself in the dock, for the murder of Cafferty, for which he is not responsible.

The book is of the uniformly high standard that we have come to expect from Ian Rankin, and the development of Rebus, Clarke, and other Rankin characters, including Cafferty, and Malcolm Fox show an orbit of influence, of crimes rubbing of people who swear to protect the public, and how no-one’s hands are ever really clean.
Ben Macnair (1st June 2023)