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STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE (AUDIO)
by Ian Rankin, narrated by James MacPherson
Whole Story Audio Books, November 2012
Unabridged pages
25.00 GBP
ISBN: 1409118487


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Rebus is back – and it's a whole new world for the old-timer. At one point loyal sidekick Siobhan tells him that he's vinyl and they're digital. And it's an appropriate comparison, as Rebus's immaculate taste in music is much in evidence here – the title is a mishearing by our hero of a line from a song by the late and great Jackie Leven.

So we find Rebus back on police territory as a civilian working in the cold case unit where he never misses an opportunity to wind up his careerist boss. A seemingly casual conversation sees him elbowing his way onto the case of a missing schoolgirl when he sees links with previous cases, including the disappearance of a young woman on Millennium Eve.

A mysterious photo sparks a mystery tour of Scotland as Rebus and his trusty Saab take to the road, winding up almost everyone in authority. So nothing new, then … .

As usual, Rebus's relationship with Siobhan – now a DI and having an affair with her shiny media-savvy DCI – is prickly, complex and almost inseparable, despite her being warned off by the police complaints crew in the shape of Malcolm Fox.

Rebus is definitely the last of the dinosaurs – and Fox, from Rankin's other series, is very keen to make it an extinction event. I only read the first Fox book and wandered off, faintly underwhelmed. My suspicion that he was a sanctimonious sod appear to be confirmed here. I did wonder, though, why he was expounding so much energy on a man working on cold cases, whose chances of being let back onto the force now age limits have been relaxed are slim to non-existent.

Sometimes writers return to series which should have been tucked up quietly in bed. This isn't the case with STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE. Rankin's storytelling is tight, his dialogue zingy and the characters so real that you'd sneak out of a back door to avoid a lot of them.

In my mind, Rebus has always been actor Bill Paterson, so I've done the 'lalalalalalala' act when TV versions cast John Hannah (eh?!) and Ken Stott (OK, but …). Taggert stalwart James MacPherson reads STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE with a gruff, faintly laconic delivery that works fine most of the time, but is probably best not let loose on English accents too often!

§ Sharon Wheeler is a UK-based journalist, writer and lecturer.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, March 2013

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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