Rather Be the Devil - Mystery Review

Rather be the Devil (An Inspector Rebus Mystery) by Ian Rankin

Rating: Very Good
Source: NetGalley

Description:  Some cases never leave you.

For John Rebus, forty years may have passed, but the death of beautiful, promiscuous Maria Turquand still preys on his mind. Murdered in her hotel room on the night a famous rock star and his entourage were staying there, Maria's killer has never been found.

Meanwhile, the dark heart of Edinburgh remains up for grabs. A young pretender, Darryl Christie, may have staked his claim, but a vicious attack leaves him weakened and vulnerable, and an inquiry into a major money laundering scheme threatens his position. Has old-time crime boss Big Ger Cafferty really given up the ghost, or is he biding his time until Edinburgh is once more ripe for the picking?

Genre: Mystery

Why I Picked This Book: I'd been wanting to try Ian Rankin for awhile and since this sounded like it centered on a cold case I hoped I could jump in here without any problem since I'm not going to go back 21 books anytime soon.

My Impression: I didn't realize how much I missed police procedurals until I started listening to this one.  This is set in Edinburgh so it's a little different than my usual reads that typically take place in London but that made it all the more interesting.  This is definitely not a cozy.  The atmosphere is very heavy and there is some violence though never to the point of it feeling gory.  The bad guys are seriously bad and sometimes it's hard to tell who is really a good guy.  There are some police politics as well though while they added realism to the mystery they never took over the story.

There's a lot of mystery here.  There's a cold case, a recent assault, a missing person or two, and a couple of murders.  As well there's several different organized crime factions and it's hard to tell just who really is involved. At first I struggled with keeping track of what was going on but fairly early on I got my footing and was fully pulled into the story.

While the mystery was very good and at times gripping what I enjoyed the most was the characters.  There's John Rebus, finally retired and in iffy health, who is trying to figure out just what being retired means to him.  As well are Malcom Fox and Siobhan Clark, both Detective Inspectors, whose friendship has been strained by Fox's promotion.  I loved watching them deal with their relationships with each other, bicker,and work together.

I'm so glad I finally tried this series!  I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery, the characters,and the world Rankin creates.  I think you could jump into the series here and pretty quickly figure out what is going on though if you're like me you'll be wanting to go back to the beginning of the series as soon as you finish this one!

Audio Note:  James Macpherson did a good job with the audio.  His Scottish accent rang true and I finally feel like I know how to correctly pronounce Siobhan.  However, because his accent was so strung I think that it was had me dragging my feet at the very beginning.  Once I got used to it though I was off and running and thoroughly caught up in the mystery.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Absolutely!  I'm looking forward to spending more time with the characters and reading new mysteries in this series.

Would I Recommend this Book?:  Absolutely!  If you enjoy procedurals like Deborah Crombie I think you'd enjoy this series.