That's a lot of plot (nor is it all of it), but the strength of the novel lies in the way that Rankin weds it to his exploration of character: we get more insight into Clarke as she struggles with her relationship with her academic parents. She's also getting entangled with Rebus's nemesis, thuggish crime boss Big Ger Cafferty, who is showing an unhealthy interest in her while getting in the way of Rebus's investigations.

Meanwhile, the nearest person Rebus has to a close friend - Siobhan Clarke - is also at odds with her superiors as she attempts to find the riot cop who clobbered her liberal mother during one of the many demonstrations. Before long, he has everybody's backs up as he explores the possibility that an MP's drop off Edinburgh Castle's ramparts was murder, not suicide, and that a serial killer is preying on convicted rapists harvested from a vigilante website. Who wants him getting close to world leaders? But when a body is discovered in a spooky glade in Auchterarder (the location of the summit), Rebus, as the only person left in the office, is assigned the case and finds himself visiting the G8 after all.Īlmost immediately, he clashes with the English police commander in charge of G8 security. While every cop and his dog is pulling overtime to cope with the daily marches and demonstrations surrounding the summit, Rebus has been sidelined. The Naming of The Dead (Rankin took the title from a ceremony to honour those who had died in Iraq which took place in Edinburgh in 2005) has a nice initial premise. Rebus is the same truculent character he has always been and impending old age - his 60th birthday and consequent retirement - is preying on his mind.

The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin