Exit Music
by Ian Rankin

Release Date: 21st Feb 2008
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 978 07528 8285 7
RRP: Ł10.99

Is this DI Rebus' final farewell?

DI Rebus is back for his final stint on the force and facing up to the expected difficult case – this one concerning a Russian poet who had been beaten to death. With all the Russian oligarchs in town doing deals with the council and FAB (not the Thunderbirds, but a Scottish bank) and local gangster, Cafferty, skulking around, it’s hard to know who to point the finger at... but of course, Rebus has his eye firmly placed on Cafferty’s neck – but is he right?

With just a body count of two, and one of those seemingly an accidental by-product rather than intentional murder, Exit Music lacks the vigorous pace of some, more bloody, crime novels. And indeed, the first half of the book is rather tedious and not a little dull in places – although, this could just be due to my impatience with rigorous reviewing of police procedures and in-house bickering and ego-slapping. My confession – I nearly wrote this off... but therein would have been my mistake.

Taken as a whole, this is actually a rather pleasing and quite bizarrely, emotional, farewell to what I consider as one of the best written detectives in the crime genre. In fact, in hindsight, I understand with almost perfect clarity why this novel began so slowly – because that’s how police work happens. There can be hunches and sudden “Elementary! Dear Watson” moments; but these can’t always be proved right or we would lose all respect for the hard work that is involved in cracking a crime. And with Exit Music there are some beautifully crafted red herrings and sharp twists that only fall into place given time.

I would strongly suggest that you read the Epilogue as well. If you don’t – you will be missing a moving insight into the mindset of DI Rebus, and a failure to grasp just what makes him tick. Maybe to some, that has been clear from the start, but for me, it was almost poetic.

Rankin leaves us with the warm glow of satisfaction gained only from perseverance, the same perseverance that made DI Rebus such a wonderful and much loved character. I will miss DI Rebus... but something tells me we may yet see him again...

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