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A review by nonna7
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin
4.0
Dead Souls was written in 1999 and depicts a John Rebus who is increasingly feeling dead inside and wondering if he should continue as a police officer. In the beginning of the book he is part of a stakeout of the Edinburgh zoo trying to find the person who is poisoning the animals. When he sees a known pedophile taking photos, he gives chase and, while he is going after the pedophile, the poisoner almost is able to do the deed yet again.
Darren Rouse, the pedophile, claims that he is taking a photography class and the zoo is his assignment. This claim is verified by his social worker. Rebus discovers that he is living in an apartment that overlooks a playground. He tells a reporter he knows about him who refuses to write the story, telling him that there is something inside him that has died.
The book has a number of different stories that come together, as always, in an interesting way. A former girlfriend of Rebus' when he was in high school contacts him about her missing son. A fellow police officer commits suicide by jumping off a high wall in Edinburgh. Meanwhile there is a trial going on of a former school in which two of the principals were involved in child abuse.
In addition, a convicted murderer who spent 25 years in an American prison has been released and deported to Edinburgh, where he grows up. He is seeking to settle old scores but not until he spends some time with a local reporter talking about his life for a series of articles.
Then there is the case of a missing boy who goes missing right around the time that it is discovered that Darren Rouse, the convicted pedophile, is living in the same apartment complex.
As always, it is complicated with a great deal of retrospection on Rebus' side as well as he examines his own conscience, wondering what has happened to him. As in so many of Rankin's books, it starts out a bit slow, but then things start to build up. It's really a great story.
Darren Rouse, the pedophile, claims that he is taking a photography class and the zoo is his assignment. This claim is verified by his social worker. Rebus discovers that he is living in an apartment that overlooks a playground. He tells a reporter he knows about him who refuses to write the story, telling him that there is something inside him that has died.
The book has a number of different stories that come together, as always, in an interesting way. A former girlfriend of Rebus' when he was in high school contacts him about her missing son. A fellow police officer commits suicide by jumping off a high wall in Edinburgh. Meanwhile there is a trial going on of a former school in which two of the principals were involved in child abuse.
In addition, a convicted murderer who spent 25 years in an American prison has been released and deported to Edinburgh, where he grows up. He is seeking to settle old scores but not until he spends some time with a local reporter talking about his life for a series of articles.
Then there is the case of a missing boy who goes missing right around the time that it is discovered that Darren Rouse, the convicted pedophile, is living in the same apartment complex.
As always, it is complicated with a great deal of retrospection on Rebus' side as well as he examines his own conscience, wondering what has happened to him. As in so many of Rankin's books, it starts out a bit slow, but then things start to build up. It's really a great story.