A Heart Full of Headstones: An Inspector Rebus Novel

by Ian Rankin

Overview

New York Times bestselling author Ian Rankin returns to his legendary detective—it’s not the first time Rebus has taken the law into his own hands, though it may be the last. 

John Rebus stands accused: on trial for a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
 
But what drove a good man to cross the line?
 
Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke may well find out. Clarke is tasked with the city’s most explosive case in years, an infamous cop, at the center of decades of misconduct, has gone missing. Finding him will expose not only her superiors, but her mentor John Rebus. And Rebus himself may not have her own interests at heart, as the repayment of a past debt places him in the crosshairs of both crime lords and his police brethren.
 
One way or another, a reckoning is coming – and John Rebus may be hearing the call for last orders…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316473651
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Series:	Inspector John Rebus Series
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	77,791
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ian Rankin is a #1 international bestselling author. Winner of an Edgar Award and the recipient of a Gold Dagger for fiction and the Chandler-Fulbright Award, he lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and their two sons.

Hometown:

Edinburgh, London and France

Date of Birth:

April 28, 1960

Place of Birth:

Cardenden, Scotland

Education:

Edinburgh University

Website:

http://www.ianrankin.net

Editorial Reviews

One of Crimereads most anticipated Fall 2022 titles
A PW Book of the Week
One of Financial Times Best Books of the Year

"Outstanding. . . the well-constructed plot is matched by brooding, atmospheric prose. This is one of Rankin’s best Rebus novels in years."—Publishers Weekly

“As the pas de deux between now-retired Edinburgh copper John Rebus and his longtime nemesis, gangster Big Ger Cafferty, inches closer to its final act, the stakes continue to grow… The aging of maverick detectives has become a poignant theme in today's crime fiction, with Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch joining Rebus in an effort to keep solving one more case as a way of "stirring dull roots with spring rain," as Eliot puts it in "The Waste Land." Rankin captures both the heroism and the pathos of that ultimately doomed quest in this cleverly constructed and deeply moving novel.”—Booklist

“Two years after his checkered hero’s last outing, Rankin makes you feel the wait was worth every day, whatever comes next.”—Kirkus Reviews

“S**t gets real in Rankin’s latest… Another strong installment of a beloved series.”—Crimereads

“A Heart Full of Headstones is another excellent crime novel from an author at the apex of his craft.”

—Michael J. McCann, New York Journal of Books

“The circumstances that will end up putting Rebus ‘in the dock’ as a suspect will remain a secret in this review. All I can say is that it makes for some truly complex and intriguing moments and some of Ian Rankin’s most intense writing in this series."—Ray Palen, BookReporter

“The added mystery in this outstandingcrime fiction adds to the tension, and forces Rebus to examine his life’s work and choices…In each of his novels, Rankin has explored a different aspect of Rebus. His detective is aging but he is still sharp and knows his way around an investigation as he proves in thesuperlative “A Heart Full of Headstones.”—Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2022

Edgar winner Rankin’s outstanding 24th John Rebus novel (after 2020’s A Song for the Dark Times) opens dramatically with the Edinburgh detective, officially retired but still working, in the dock charged with a crime that’s not revealed until the very end. Flashbacks show familiar characters from Rebus’s world pursuing various agendas. Organized crime kingpin Morris “Big Ger” Cafferty, an old adversary of the detective, asks Rebus to find a man he wronged, but Rebus still has eyes on taking down Cafferty. Det. Insp. Siobhan Clarke, a former colleague of Rebus’s, is investigating a policeman accused of domestic abuse who threatens to expose a culture of police corruption (“Skeletons are about to come tumbling out of closets”). Malcolm Fox, a loathsome, ambitious detective inspector, wants to contain that threat’s collateral damage. Every thread leads to murder. The well-constructed plot is matched by brooding, atmospheric prose (Rebus has “spent his whole life in... a city perpetually dark, feeling increasingly weighed down, his heart full of headstones”). This is one of Rankin’s best Rebus novels in years. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2022

Rankin doesn't disappoint with book 24 in his Edinburgh-set Rebus series (following A Song for the Dark Times). Retired cop John Rebus is on the wrong side of the courtroom this time—on trial for a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. Could "retired" gangster Big "Ger" Cafferty have played a part? Rebus is drawn again into a web of crime-filled Edinburgh. Cafferty orders Rebus to locate a former employee who absconded with a huge sum of Ger's money, but had long since disappeared, presumed dead. Word on the street has Jack Oram very much alive and last seen at a local lettings office. Not buying Ger's reasons for the search, but because long-standing debts must be paid, Rebus sets out. Meanwhile, Rebus's long-suffering pal and protégée D.I. Siobhan Clarke investigates the murder of a fellow police officer who was found dead in a flat managed by the same lettings office. As Rebus and Clarke follow their separate paths, their cases intertwine. Prior misdeeds of Rebus and his contemporaries surface as the investigation continues. VERDICT For the many fans of Rebus and those who enjoy gritty Scottish noir.—Susan Santa

Library Journal