[By Nic Lindh on Sunday, 19 February 2006]
Fleshmarket Alley is the 15th novel Ian Rankin has written about Inspector John Rebus and the dark and gloomy Edinburgh in which he lives and works.
The novel is economically written, with a great ear for dialogue and an exquisite feel for the psychology of people on the edge, whether they are burned-out cops, desperate asylum-seekers, or criminals having their plots stymied.
Add to that the novelty of the novel taking place in a well-drawn and bleak Edinburgh, and it’s a grand success.
Many more Inspector Rebus novels are winging their way to The Core Dump from Amazon as we speak. Great stuff.
A note to Little, Brown and Company, the American publisher of the Inspector Rebus novels: Most sane people want to begin reading a series from the beginning, so it might be a good idea if you could list the other novels in the series in, oh, I don’t know, chronological order?
Please don’t make it hard for your customers to purchase your merchandise.