10 Great Rebus Novels (John Rebus) (401 page)

Unexpected connections abound between the characters – between the criminals themselves, and also between Rebus and old friends, or Rebus and ‘ghosts’ from the past – how does Ian Rankin keep them all to the forefront of the reader’s mind?

Is it fair to say that with the retirement of the Farmer, Rebus will lose a valiant comic opponent?

Consider the manner in which Ian Rankin builds the menace surrounding Cary Oakes. Is the role of journalist Jim Stevens integral to this? What is one supposed to make of Oakes’s behaviour in the Catholic church he visits? Why does he make his baiting of Rebus so ‘personal’?

Oakes says, ‘
That Rebus. He’s not exactly what you’d call a slow burner, now is he?
’ Is this a valid comment?

How is Rebus’s relationship with Dr Patience Aitken progressing?

‘
That was the trouble with monsters. They could be every bit as ordinary as anyone else
.’ This comment is made about Harold Ince, but does it encapsulate a theme that Ian Rankin keeps returning to in his series of Rebus books?
There is a theme of ‘stepping away from the world’: consider the various ways that Ian Rankin explores this.

When Rebus asks himself, ‘
What in God’s name have I done?
’, what
has
he done? Would he see his actions as justified? And what about the consequences?

Where is Rebus now positioned on questions of religious belief?

Rebus returns to his childhood stomping-ground of Fife. Is it because he’s out of his Edinburgh environs that he can flirt with Janice Mee?

What does Rebus believe history is made of? How does Ian Rankin explore this concept?

What does Rebus claim that obsession can do to one? Is he speaking from personal experience?

How does Rebus’s inability to separate work from his private life manifest itself in his treatment of Darren Rough?

What is it about this case that, in part at least, restores some of Rebus’s lost faith in policing?