RARA-AVIS: Rankin

From: Carrie Pruett ( pruettc@hotmail.com)
Date: 29 Dec 2001


I don't really get the Rankin/Ellroy comparison - Rankin does tend to have fairly convoluted plots but his prose is pretty straightforward and the stories are basic police procedural stuff, with a loner aspect thrown in that makes them feel more like PI novels at times. There are certainly some
"corruption of social institutions"/ police brutality type themes that you usually find in HB, but I don't get the "moral sickness permeating all levels of society" feel that I took from Ellroy. I'm not overwhelmed with the quality of Rankin's writing - not that it's bad, but fairly workmanlike most of the time - but the stories are pretty good and the characters are fun. I've read maybe half a dozen of these and my favorite is "The Hanging Garden"; I haven't read "The Black book" though, and I have a hunch this series ought to be read in order (which I haven't done) in order to get the whole flavor of the stories. I generally have trouble keeping track of who Rebus is working or sleeping with in any given book, but it's such a long series that I haven't disciplined myself to sit down and read them in order yet. The one I read most recently, "Dead Souls" I thought had the potential to be a Great Book, but the story went off on so many tangents (I counted five separate plots, any of which could be considered the "main" plot of the book, at least one of which - excon stalking Rebus - could have been eliminated to the great improvement of the book) that the final impact was sort of lost on me.

Carrie

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