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A CRIME TOO CLOSE TO HOME . . .

A superb, highly suspenseful crime thriller from the No.1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES

‘You’ll love every second of it’ MIRROR

‘Excellent’ SUNDAY TIMES

At a private school, two teenagers are killed by an ex-Army loner who then turned the gun on himself. Finding the truth will take Detective Inspector John Rebus into the heart of a shattered community.

Ex-Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone. It seems the man had friends in high places and enemies to spare.

And Rebus has secrets of his own. He’s fresh out of hospital, with newly bandaged hands, and won’t say what happened. But after the death of a criminal he visited, who had been stalking DS Siobhan Clarke, Rebus is the prime suspect…

Reviews

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - Antonia Fraser
Exceptionally well-plotted book, which is guaranteed to hook you and keep you hooked
LITERARY REVIEW - Philip Oakes
Skilfully composed and powerfully written, with a vein of compassion that Rankin taps to startling and justified effect
SUNDAY TIMES - John Dugdale
Exemplifies the enhanced craftmanship of the author's recent work; the sheer number of handicaps Rebus overcomes and of the puzzles he solves evinces a relishable virtuosity
THE INDEPENDENT - Andrew Taylor
He writes with a natural rhythmn which exerts an almost hypnotic effect
THE OBSERVER - Peter Gutteridge
A rich absorbing narrative in which the focus is not on who did it - that we know - but why. Artful, moving and entertaining
DAILY MIRROR 4-STARS
You'll love every second of it
SUNDAY TIMES
Excellent
Cath Staincliffe, TANGLED WEB
Rankin expertly keeps us on a knife-edge...He is on top form here - unremitting pleasure
SUNDAY TRIBUNE (Ireland) - Lise Hand
This latest story crackles with tension, energy and suspense. And it's a credit to Rankin's writing that despite our familiarity with the detective inspector, it is quite believable that Rebus is capable of committing a violent crime to protect a friend
THE SPECTATOR - Allan Massie
He is an addictive writer, which accounts for his immense popularity, but he is also a serious and disturbing one...What he does after Rebus is an interesting question. To track back and offer us some of Rebus's earlier cases would be to reduce the novels to mere entertainment, hugely popular no doubt but a betrayal of his remarkable talent
MAIL ON SUNDAY - Simon Humphreys
Seamlessly plotted, effortlessly compelling read. Rankin is in total command of his idiom. Rebus himself may be showing signs of burn-out and disaffection with conventional police procedure, but there is no indication that the series is running out of steam
Rab Anderson, SUNDAY EXPRESS
Splendidly-woven yarn...if there still are people unaware of Rankin and Rebus, this would make a great introduction
IRISH INDEPENDENT - Myles McWeeney
Ian Rankin's John Rebus...is a flawed but very human creation, and his Edinburgh and its inhabitants beautifully drawn and utterly real