Introduction to DI John Rebus
The first novels to feature Rebus, a flawed but resolutely humane detective, were not an overnight sensation, and success took time to arrive. But the wait became a period that allowed Ian Rankin to come of age as a writer, and to develop Rebus into a thoroughly believable, flesh-and-blood character straddling both industrial and post-industrial Scotland; a gritty yet perceptive man coping with his own demons. As Rebus struggled to keep his relationship with daughter Sammy alive following his divorce, and to cope with the imprisonment of brother Michael, while all the time trying to strike a blow for morality against a fearsome array of sinners (some justified and some not), readers began to respond in their droves. Fans admired Ian Rankin’s re-creation of a picture-postcard Edinburgh with a vicious tooth-and-claw underbelly just a heartbeat away, his believable but at the same time complex plots and, best of all, Rebus as a conflicted man trying always to solve the unsolvable, and to do the right thing.
As the series progressed, Ian Rankin refused to shy away from contentious issues such as corruption in high places, paedophilia and illegal immigration, combining his unique seal of tight plotting with a bleak realism, leavened with brooding humour.
In Rebus the reader is presented with a rich and constantly evolving portrait of a complex and troubled man, irrevocably tinged with the sense of being an outsider and, potentially, unable to escape being a ‘justified sinner’ himself. Rebus’s life is intricately related to his Scottish environs too, enriched by Ian Rankin’s attentive depiction of locations, and careful regard to Rebus’s favourite music, watering holes and books, as well as his often fraught relationships with colleagues and family. And so, alongside Rebus, the reader is taken on an often painful, sometimes hellish journey to the depths of human nature, always rooted in the minutiae of a very recognisable Scottish life.
The Oxford Bar – Rebus and many of the characters who appear in the novels are regulars of the Ox – as is Ian Rankin himself. The pub is now synonymous with the Rebus novels to the extent that one of the regular medical examiners called in to assist with investigations is named after the pub’s owner, John Gates.
Edinburgh plays an important role throughout the Rebus novels; a character itself, as brooding and as volatile as Rebus. The Edinburgh depicted in the novels is far short of the beautiful city that tourists in their thousands flood to visit. Hidden behind the historic buildings and elegant façades is the world that Rebus inhabits.
For general discussion
regarding the Rebus series
How does Ian Rankin reveal himself as an author interested in using fiction to ‘tell the truths the real world can’t’?
There are similarities between the lives of the author and his protagonist – for instance, both Ian Rankin and Rebus were born in Fife, lost their mothers at an early age, have children with physical problems – so is it useful therefore to think of John Rebus and Ian Rankin as each other’s alter egos?
Could it be said that Rebus is trying to make sense in a general way of the world around him, or is he seeking answers to the ‘big questions’? And is it relevant therefore that he is a believer in God and comes from a Scottish Presbyterian background? Would Rebus see confession in both the religious and the criminal sense as similar in any way?
How does Ian Rankin explore notions of Edinburgh as a character in its own right? In what way does he contrast the glossy public and seedy private faces of the city with the public and private faces of those Rebus meets? How does Ian Rankin use musical sources – the Elvis references in The Black Book, for instance, or the Rolling Stones allusions in Let It Bleed – as a means of character development through the series? What does Rebus’s own taste in music and books say about him as a person?
What do you think about Rebus as a character? If you have read several or more novels from the series, discuss how his character is developed.
If Rebus has a problem with notions of ‘pecking order’ and the idea of authority generally, what does it say about him that he chose careers in hierarchical institutions such as the Army and then the police?
How does Rebus relate to women: as lovers, flirtations, family members and colleagues?
Do the flashes of gallows humour as often shown by the pathologists but sometimes also in Rebus’s own comments increase or dissipate narrative tension? Does Rebus use black comedy for the same reasons the pathologists do?
Do Rebus’s personal vulnerabilities make him understanding of the frailties of others?
How does the characterisation of Rebus compare to other long-standing popular detectives from British authors such as Holmes, Poirot, Morse or Dalgleish? And are there more similarities or differences between them?
THE HANGING GARDEN
Rebus has been on the wagon, but he falls off when daughter Sammy, now 24, is the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Rebus berates himself for getting distracted at a last dinner with Sammy by thoughts of Joseph Linzstek, who was an SS officer responsible for the deaths of more than seven hundred people in the French village of Villefranche d’Albarede in 1942, and who may have been living quietly in Edinburgh for the last forty years, calling himself Josef Lintz.
But Rebus is able to prevent a suicide attempt by Candice, a Sarajevo Muslim refugee who is now being forced to work as a prostitute. Meanwhile, DC Siobhan Clarke has recently been posted to the Scottish Crime Squad to keep twenty-four-hour tabs on Tommy Telford, who appears intent on moving in on Big Ger Cafferty’s pitch now he’s back behind bars in Barlinnie prison, and seems about to invest in the Poyntinghame Golf and Country Club. And where does the dodgy suicide of Mr Taystee fit in? As Rebus muses, ‘This case was like that: one minute you could see it, the next you couldn’t. Like smoke.’ And now it seems as if somebody deliberately drove at Sammy, whom Rebus had been using in a case of his, and as thoughts of powerlessness threaten to engulf him, there’s nothing that Rebus can do to save the life of another person very dear to him.
Rebus is very vulnerable during The Hanging Garden, an extraordinarily emotional book full of reflections on different types of guilt.
Discussion points for
The Hanging Garden
Regarding the time frame in The Hanging Garden, the most ambitious novel in the Rebus series so far, what is the effect of his reminiscences on the time when Sammy was a child? Does the reader link them emotionally to the memories of the only female survivor of the village massacre?
What are Rebus’s thoughts on the politics behind the German officers who were apprehended by the Allies being returned to Germany in the 1950s to live ordinary lives?
There are several sorts of ‘war’ in The Hanging Garden – discuss how they differ from one another, and what the similarities are.
‘Most of the gangsters Rebus had known, they’d had a worn look, undernourished but overfed. Telford had the look of some new strain of bacteria, not yet tested or understood.’ How does the reader respond to such a comment?
Why had Rebus been so absent in his marriage, and in Sammy’s upbringing?
Could it be claimed that Rebus is so drawn to Candice because she makes him feel useful (as well as the fact that looks-wise she reminds him of Sammy), while Sammy remains resolutely independent in her dealings with her father? Is Rebus exploiting Candice as much as other people are, only in a different way?
‘Each investigation is an act of remembrance, and remembrance is never wasted. Remembrance is the only way we learn.’ Would Rebus agree with this statement from David Levy, who is assisting the Holocaust Investigation Bureau?
Why doesn’t Rebus like Ned Farlowe?
Rebus has had a period of sobriety: does this help him to understand how easy it might be for a man to construct another life for himself?
Initially Rebus’s instincts tell him that Lintz and Linzstek are one and the same person, but not whether it matters. Does this change as the plot unfolds?
Similarly to Big Ger Cafferty, Lintz has the ability to connect on a d
eep emotional level with Rebus. Is this a good thing as far as Rebus is concerned?
‘Never get personally involved: it was the golden rule. And practically every case he worked, Rebus broke it. He sometimes felt that the reason he became so involved in his cases was that he had no life of his own. He could only live through other people.’ Does this characteristic make Rebus a good policeman?
Is Rebus selling his soul to the devil when he does a deal with Cafferty?
Rebus thinks of himself, in some senses, as a religious man, yet he doesn’t seek solace in that way when Sammy is hurt. Why might that be?
When Jack Morton is killed does Rebus lose his emotional ballast? And does he blame himself?
There are lots of musical references; does it matter if the reader isn’t familiar with them? What sort of extra dimension do they add to the narrative?
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Orion Books.
First published in ebook form in 2008 by Orion Books.
This updated ebook published in 2011 by Orion Books.
Copyright © John Rebus Limited 1998
Introduction copyright © John Rebus Limited 2005
The right of Ian Rankin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the copyright, designs and patents act 1988.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 0763 7
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Ian Rankin, The Hanging Garden
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