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Even dogs in the wild : a novel / Ian Rankin.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2016.Description: 347 pages ; 25 cmISBN:
  • 9780316342513 (hbk.) :
  • 0316342513 (hbk.)
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 823/.914 23
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library Adult Fiction Adult Fiction FIC RANKIN Available 36748002270751
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Rebus comes out of retirement...to save his nemesis.

Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is feeling the heat. She's investigating the death of a senior government prosecutor, David Minton, who has friends in high places. When one of their own is killed, the powers that be want answers fast. But Clarke is puzzled: if Minton died in a robbery as everyone thinks, why is nothing missing from his home? The answer may lie not in what was taken, but in what was left behind at the scene -- an ominous note.

Malcolm Fox is feeling useless. Shunned by his colleagues because of his past in the Complaints bureau, he's been reassigned to a grunt detail, helping a surveillance team -- one that trusts him even less than his own boss does -- track a notorious Glasgow crime family. Helping Clarke with the Minton case is the only thing that makes Fox feel like a real cop.

Newly minted civilian John Rebus is feeling restless. Being a cop is in his blood and he's failing miserably at retirement. So when Clarke and Fox ask for his help, Rebus doesn't need long to consider his options. But before he can get his bearings, a call comes from Rebus's old nemesis -- "Big Ger" Cafferty. Someone just fired a bullet through his front window -- and sent him a note identical to Minton's. The normally unflappable old gangster is on edge, but for the life of him Cafferty can't figure out who he's wronged. And the only man he trusts with his life is Rebus.

As the cases collide, it's up to Clarke, Fox, and Rebus to connect the dots and save their unlikely ally Cafferty, whose past harbors a shocking secret that implicates Minton's friends in an unspeakable crime. Even Dogs in the Wild reunites crime fiction legend Ian Rankin's greatest characters in an explosive story exploring the darkest corners of our desires.

Originally published: London : Orion Publishing, 2015.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In Rankin's uneven 21st John Rebus novel (after 2013's Saints of the Shadow Bible), the Edinburgh police hire the retired cop in a "consultative capacity" to work with former partner Siobhan Clarke on the murder of Lord Minton, a lawyer found beaten to death. It looks like a home invasion until the police find a note: "I'm going to kill you for what you did." A similar note is received by Edinburgh crime boss "Big Ger" Cafferty, shortly before someone takes a shot at Cafferty. Some Glaswegian gangsters moving into Edinburgh at the start causes some confusion, and Malcolm Fox, the lead of another Rankin series, appears on the scene. Fox, who's now a detective and no longer with Complaints (Scotland's Internal Affairs), may be meant as a kind of Rebus alter ego, but he's just too milquetoast to hold any interest. When Rankin finally gets to his real narrative, involving a former home for juvenile delinquents, the pace picks up considerably. Fans will hope for a return to form next time. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Like Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, John Rebus is having trouble with retirement. With no murders to investigate, he's left with only two interests: smoking and drinking. Fortunately, his former colleagues have a way of asking for his help, as they do here when it appears that a murderer has targeted Big Ger Cafferty, the quasi-retired gangland leader who has been Rebus' nemesis (or perhaps frenemy) for decades. As Siobhan Clark, Rebus' former partner, investigates the murder of a highly placed lawyer, and Malcolm Fox is seconded to an undercover team from Glasgow tracking a notorious crime family, Rebus attempts to get a handle on the seeming attempt on Cafferty's life. Naturally, the three cases are interconnected, and Clark, Fox, and Rebus wind up working together. As always, Rankin delivers some fascinating procedural details, but the heart of the book and its main appeal to crime-fiction readers lies in the evolving personal relationships between the three cops and one bad guy. The switching of roles between Rebus and Clark continues to intrigue, but even better is the transformation of Fox from a behind-the-scenes guy (once described as looking like a soulless, spunkless middle manager from the most boring company on the planet) into a real cop working the mean streets. And the deepening of Cafferty's character into a bad guy with an inner life augurs well for future episodes. Rebus' retirement may be tough for the character, but so far it's been fine for the reader.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2015 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Veteran cop John Rebus emerges from retirement to look into a pair of parallel cases of revenge. When David Menzies Minton, former Lord Advocate of Scotland, is bludgeoned to death in his Edinburgh home, DI Siobhan Clarke shares one crime-scene detail she shouldn't with her friend DI Malcolm Fox: a note saying, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID." After someone shoots at crime lord Big Ger Cafferty, she also rousts John Rebus, a month into his retirement, from his usual station at the Oxford Bar. As a detective, Rebus had developed an odd working relationship with Cafferty. So now he agrees to be a consultant, especially after Cafferty gets the same death-threat note as Minton. There's no obvious link between Minton's murder and the attempted hit on Cafferty, however, and even less connection with a past break-in and the murder of a lottery winner. Meanwhile, Fox reluctantly becomes his boss' spy for a surveillance team that hopes to take down a Glaswegian gangster and his heir apparent, who've come to Edinburgh on the trail of a man who betrayed them. It's not easy for a man widely regarded as an internal snitch to win the team's confidence. Fox even has to take a beating from the man he suspects is the team's undercover member. But he takes a cue from Rebus, who was notorious for going his own way when he was a cop and is even more inclined to do so as a civilian. It pays off when Rebus uses his connections and know-how to help Clarke and Fox find the key they've been looking for, a terrible secret that spills into the turf war among criminal factions and exposes the past lives of those supposedly on the right side of the law. Rankin (The Beat Goes On, 2015, etc.) takes his time setting up all these plots. But it's well worth the wait to see how the latest entry in this celebrated series fits all the pieces together. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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