Standing in Another Man's Grave (Inspector John Rebus Series #18)

by Ian Rankin Narrated by James Macpherson

Overview

John Rebus returns to investigate the disappearances of three women from the same road over ten years.

For the last decade, Nina Hazlitt has been ready to hear the worst about her daughter's disappearance. But with no sightings, no body, and no suspect, the police investigation ground to a halt long ago, and Nina's pleas to the cold case department have led her nowhere.

Until she meets the newest member of the team: former Detective John Rebus.

Rebus has never shied away from lost causes - one of the many ways he managed to antagonize his bosses when he was on the force. Now he's back as a retired civilian, reviewing abandoned files. Necessary work, but it's not exactly scratching the itch he feels to be in the heart of the action.

Two more women have gone missing from the same road where Sally Hazlitt was last seen. Unlike his skeptical colleagues, Rebus can sense a connection - but pursuing it leads him into the crosshairs of adversaries both old and new.

Rebus may have missed the thrill of the hunt, but he's up against a powerful enemy who's got even less to lose.

On the twentieth anniversary of Ian Rankin's first American publication comes a novel bursting with the vitality and suspense that made its author one of crime fiction's most dazzling stars. Standing in Another Man's Grave is the triumphant return of John Rebus, and a riveting story of sin, redemption, and revenge.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal - Audio

In Rankin's (Exit Music) latest Rebus mystery, the unorthodox detective is retired from the Edinburgh police department, but has not retired in spirit. Volunteering in the cold-case division, he finds something that may be related to a recent murder. Working with his old colleague Siobhan Clarke, he inveigles his way into the new investigation. Meanwhile, his application to return to the police force is being vetted by slimy Inspector Malcolm Fox, hero of the author's other series (The Complaints). Rebus offends almost everyone before bringing the case to an uncomfortable conclusion. James MacPherson's colorful Scottish accents for the many characters—young and old, rural and urban, educated and streetwise—bring the listener into the story immediately. He adjusts his pitch occasionally—a deep growl for an old crime lord—but he doesn't make the frequent mistake of male readers of lifting his voice into an awkward falsetto for the female characters. VERDICT Altogether an excellent audio version of a complex and enjoyable mystery. Recommended for all audio collections. ["Fans of this landmark series, now in its 25th year, will cry "Hosannah!" at Rebus's triumphal return," read the starred review of the New York Times best- selling Little, Brown hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 1/18/13.—Ed.]—Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA

JANUARY 2013 - AudioFile

There may be no way of passing the time that is more pleasurable than listening to James MacPherson’s lovely Scots brogue relate the activities of John Rebus, retired Edinburgh cop now working cold cases as a civilian. Several women have disappeared along Scotland’s A9 road over a twelve-year period, and Rebus’s cold cases may relate to his former partner Siobhan Clarke’s current case. So the two of them drive back and forth from Edinburgh through the Highlands, and MacPherson rolls easily through all those multisyllabic Scottish place names, reminding the listener of the poetic background of the country. He also rolls a few “r’s” for a couple of growling Edinburgh mobsters and employs a slightly gruff but bantering tone to remind the listener that Rebus is still a mischievous and alcoholic throwback of a cop. A.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

02/04/2013
Rankin's iconic Edinburgh copper, John Rebus, who retired in 2007's Exit Music, is now a civilian reviewing old police files in this satisfying crime thriller, which also includes Rankin's new series lead, Malcolm Fox (The Impossible Dead). Rebus butts heads with Fox, an investigator in Complaints, who loathes "old style" cops like Rebus who may have bent the rules to get results. When Nina Hazlitt shows up at Rebus's office, she tells him about her missing daughter, Sally, who disappeared on the A9 roadway in 1999. Though Rebus is initially skeptical, Hazlitt's persistence slowly pays off. Rebus starts taking seriously her theories that the subsequent disappearances of other young women along the A9 are connected, and a task force is formed, including Det. Insp. Siobhan Clarke, Rebus's protégée. The police comb through old case files, and Rebus logs many a mile in his battered Saab, driving the length of the A9 through Scotland, on the hunt for the killer. Rankin's ear for dialogue and sense of place is as keen as ever, complementing his twisted plot. Rebus fans will be pleased to find him as cantankerous as ever, smoking and drinking as if time in the policing world has stood still. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Some people retire gracefully. John Rebus is not some people. It turns out that after leaving the Lothian and Borders Police (in 2007’s Exit Music), bad penny Rebus has returned to the fold as a civilian employee of a cold case unit. Presumably never having seen New Tricks on the telly and so being unaware of how to act properly in those circumstances, Rebus can only resort to his bag of old tricks: getting up the nose of his superiors, meeting regularly with crime kingpin “Big Ger” Cafferty, drinking more than he should, mentoring Siobhan Clarke, much to her professional detriment—and solving crimes. Armed with only a laminated guest pass and an industrial-strength dose of tartan chutzpah, Rebus, when he gets wind of a possible serial killer operating along the A9, the roadway snaking through the desolate landscape between Perth and Inverness, takes his long-running show on the road.

Verdict Fans of this landmark series, now in its 25th year, will cry “Hosannah!” at Rebus’s triumphal return. That the mandatory retirement age for the police force has been raised and Rebus is thinking of re-upping (if he can pass the physical) bode well for the future. As Arthur Conan Doyle might attest, it’s bloody hard to keep a good detective down. [See Prepub Alert, 7/15/12.]—Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

JANUARY 2013 - AudioFile

There may be no way of passing the time that is more pleasurable than listening to James MacPherson’s lovely Scots brogue relate the activities of John Rebus, retired Edinburgh cop now working cold cases as a civilian. Several women have disappeared along Scotland’s A9 road over a twelve-year period, and Rebus’s cold cases may relate to his former partner Siobhan Clarke’s current case. So the two of them drive back and forth from Edinburgh through the Highlands, and MacPherson rolls easily through all those multisyllabic Scottish place names, reminding the listener of the poetic background of the country. He also rolls a few “r’s” for a couple of growling Edinburgh mobsters and employs a slightly gruff but bantering tone to remind the listener that Rebus is still a mischievous and alcoholic throwback of a cop. A.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Five years after his last recorded case (Exit Music, 2008), John Rebus returns, and welcome. Now a civilian trolling through cold cases for the about-to-be-dismantled Serious Crime Review Unit of the Lothian and Borders Police, retired DI John Rebus can still drink Scotland's lochs dry, leave conversations in the middle to go out for a smoke, and raise insubordination to high art. When a call comes through from Nina Hazlitt insisting that there are similarities between two recent disappearances and the unsolved case of her daughter Sally, missing since New Year's Eve 1999, Rebus hesitantly agrees that the A9 route through the Highlands, where the girls were last seen, may warrant a closer look. His decision lands him under the baleful eyes of his former ally Siobhan Clarke and her boss and brings him once more to the attention of Malcolm Fox, his nemesis in Internal Affairs, who'd be only too happy to prove Rebus guilty of something, perhaps planned during his fortnightly pub meetings with pastured criminal kingpin Big Ger Cafferty. The A9 isn't the only clue to surface. There's also a photograph the girls sent to friends over the phone on the day they went missing. Trudging back and forth between Edinburgh and several North Scotland villages, Rebus and Siobhan disconcert various police forces, sidestep voracious media types, concentrate on a wrong suspect or two, and are ordered to step down. Rebus, of course, keeps at it, finally scaring a confession out of a perp by engineering one more abduction with the help of a ruthless teenager on track to be the next Cafferty. Rankin deserves every award he's been given: an Edgar, a Gold Dagger, a Diamond Dagger. Surely there's another one waiting for Rebus' thrilling return to the fold.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173728340
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	01/15/2013
Series:	Inspector John Rebus Series , #18
Edition description:	Unabridged

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