The Falls: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels) - Softcover

Rankin, Ian

4.04

14,330 ratings by Goodreads

9780312982409: The Falls: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312982402 ISBN 13: 9780312982409

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2003

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When the privileged daughter of a merchant banker disappears, a search through her e-mails uncovers her secret life-and a bizarre correspondence with an on-line game player who delights in macabre puzzles. The first game was for the girl. The next one is for Inspector John Rebus, a man haunted by the impenetrable riddles of his own troubled past. But the lead is soon complicated by an unexpected twist.

A hand-carved wooden doll in an eight-inch coffin is found on the grounds of the victim's home-a clue that links her vanishing to the deaths of four other women, and to a centuries-old offense that still scars the grisly history of Edinburgh.

From the shadowy world of an Internet stalker to the quicksand of lies in the missing girl's dissolute family, Rebus is led into the soul of evil. And to a shattering crime that only he, a man who treads the fine line between investigative brilliance and personal oblivion, could ever hope to understand.

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Review:

Edinburgh police detective John Rebus, Ian Rankin's popular series detective, is a brilliantly realized character, as moody, dark, and melancholy as Edinburgh itself. In The Falls, he's almost certain that missing university student Philippa Balfour is dead, but he's less sure how she died or what her misadventure has to do with the tiny doll in a hand-sized coffin that turns up near a waterfall on the Balfour family estate. It's not the first coffin found near the scene of a crime; could Philippa be the victim of a serial killer? The only other lead the police have is a cryptic e-mail from someone called Quiz Master, inviting Philippa--and then constable Siobhan Clarke, who responds using Philippa's screen name--to join him in a bizarre scavenger hunt that might lead Clarke to Philippa's body, her killer, or her own death.

This time out Rebus has a new boss, who's no happier with his unorthodox style or impolitic attitude toward the Edinburgh establishment than his last one was. But even under department suspension, Rebus manages to tie a number of seemingly disparate and unconnected clues together and deliver a killer in a scene that even the most discerning reader may not see coming until it jumps off the page. A bestseller in the U.K., The Falls is Rankin's best yet. --Jane Adams

From the Inside Flap:

Outstanding Praise For Ian Rankin And His Award-Winning Rebus Novels

"A modern Dickens...A remarkable achievement."-The Daily Mail

"A dark and gritty read that never disappoints."--San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner

Set In Darkness
"Rebus is surely one of the most rounded, warts-and-all characters in modern crime fiction...those who want to plunge deeply into a world of convincing characters and brilliantly rendered atmospherics can't do much better than this."-Washington Post Book World

"Ian Rankin is one of the shrewdest writers working the mystery turf."-Chicago Tribune

"The Falls...pushes all the crime fiction buttons while delivering the heady whiff of real life as it is lived. Pity readers of 'serious' fiction who would look down their noses at this gritty detective story. They don't know what they're missing."-Philadelphia Inquirer

"Brilliant...mesmerizing...think Patricia Cornwell/Kay Scarpetta with a bit of Walter Mosley tossed in."-Fort Worth Morning Star-Telegram

"Mr. Rankin has created a character in John Rebus who makes crime fiction a joy to read."
--Dallas Morning News

"Gritty...intensely paced...powerful."-Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Sharply plotted...among the most consistently well-plotted, fully realized series in the genre. Rankin is at the top of his form in The Falls."-Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

"The plot is worthy of the series: raging and racing and teetering on the edge of falling apart, before Rankin slams the reader with a final masterful twist."-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Set in Darkness is filled with memorable sequences, well-drawn characters, and enough Scots words...to make some readers think of John Buchan's Thirty Nine Steps."-Wall Street Journal

"Gritty...atmospheric...you can't go wrong with Rankin."-Orlando Sentinel

"[A] consistent level of excellence unmatched in the field of British crime fiction."-The Times of London

"Rankin's best novel to date."-New Statesman

"A series whose time has come...complex, humane, and gripping, this is a perfect introduction to the art of Ian Rankin, head capo of the Scots mystery MacMafia."-Manchester Guardian

"One of the very best practitioners of police procedurals around today." -Library Journal, starred review

"Like Philip Marlowe, Rebus is a knight in search of a hidden truth'."-Newark Star Ledger

"A novelist of great scope, depth, and power...brilliant."-Jonathan Kellerman

"Ian Rankin brings a compelling voice to the genre." -BookPage

"The murder mystery is intelligent and entertaining, and the characters...retain that feeling of genuineness while dealing with power-struggles and intrigue."-BookBrowser

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