Crime Fiction at its Best with Ian Rankin’s ‘Set In Darkness’ – An Inspector Rebus Novel

Du Fond Des Tenebres - Ian Rankin

It is with great pleasure Mairiuna that I will undertake with you this challenge of reading the complete series of 17 novels from Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series.

While I await reception of my Amazon order for the first novel in the detective series, Knots and Crosses
let me jot down some facts about the first Ian Rankin’s book we read together when travelling by car on our way from France to Scotland.

Each time the weather did not allow contemplation of the beautiful landscapes surrounding us on these winding roads, you would read aloud to Jean-Claude and myself, the French version of Set in Darkness,  titled Du Fond des Ténèbres , the 11th in the series. Nonetheless, by the end of the trip you had managed to read the full 496 pages. 🙂 What a great suspense crafted in this plot!

Before Set In Darkness was published in 2000, it’s author had already won many literary awards:

1991   Chandler-Fulbright Award

1994   Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Short Story Dagger   (A Deep Hole)

1996   Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Short Story Dagger   (Herbert in Motion)

1997   Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction   (Black and Blue)

1999   Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction   – shortlist  ( Dead Souls)

and was also elected a Hawthronden Fellow.

Ian-Rankin-Set-in-Darkness-Inspector-Rebus

Ian-Rankin-Set-in-Darkness-Inspector-Rebus-4c

Ian-Rankin-Set-in-Darkness-Inspector-Rebus-tranche

The book is divided in three parts:

Chapters 1 to 15 : The Sense of an Ending

And this long narrow land is full of possibilities…

Deacon Blue, in “Wages Day”

Chapters 16 to 28 : FitFul and Dark

No citation introduces this section.

Chapters 29 to 42: Beyond The Mist

“Yet frost under sunlight can sparkle like hope even while muscles cramps, and the freezing damp can whisper “let the bottle rest for once”. There are warm mysteries beyond this mist.  Angus Calder in “Love Poem”.

Plot summary from a jacket of the book:

On the eve of the first Scottish parliament in three hundred years, Edinburgh is a city rife with political passions and expectations. Queensbury House, the home of Scotland’s new rulers, falls in the middle of John Rebus’ turf, keeping him busy with ceremonial tasks.

Queensberry House - Scottish Parlement

That quickly changes, however, when a long-dead body is discovered in a Queensbury House fireplace, a homeless man throws himself off a bridge – leaving behind a suitcase full of cash – and an up-and-coming politician is found murdered.

The links between the three deaths lead Rebus to a confrontation with one of Edinburgh’s most notorious criminals, a man he thought he’d put in jail for life.

Someone’s going to make a lot of money out of Scotland’s independence – and, as Rebus knows all too well, where there’s big money at stake, darkness gathers.

Media Reviews

Wall Street Journal
Mr. Rankin is a master of the moody, modern British police prodecural, working on the same high plateau as Ruth Rendell, Reginald HIll and P.D. James. 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.

Manchester Guardian, UK
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.

The Daily Mail (UK)
Length has not added padding to Rankin’s lean outlines; it has added texture. Set In Darkness is rich and complex.

The Times London, UK
[A] consistent level of excellence unmatched in the field of British crime fiction…my advice is to read [it] now.

Sunday Telegraph, UK
[Rankin] once again reaches the parts that many other British crime writers don’t even aim for.