A Question of Blood: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Book 14) - Crime Thriller for Mystery Lovers | Perfect for Book Clubs & Late-Night Reading

Which is a good way to "read" Rankin -- you have the accents done more or less properly, and the leisurely pace of the tapes forces you to savor the details without rushing through it to find out what happens next (also keeps you from peeking at the ending!)The plot involves an apparently irrational shooting in a private school in a town that is now a suburb of Edinburgh -- a former commando has apparently killed two youths, wounded another, and killed himself, for no discernible reason. The question for the police is not who but why. Hard-drinking and highly independent DI Rebus gets involved, although he is handicapped by having two scalded hands and an investigation against him underway (did he kill the scoundrel who burned to death in a fire about the same time as Rebus's burns? Rebus was the last person seen with him.) Rebus takes Siobhan Clarke along to take notes. As usual, Rebus is trying to get to the truth despite his troubled relationships with colleagues, superiors, news reporters, and army investigators. The book involves a lot of conversations with a lot of people, and Rebus is drinking so much it's amazing that none of his superiors have noticed that he's an alcoholic. (I can't believe that level of drinking is considered normal, even in Scotland!)I love Rebus, and I love this series. Some of the books in the series are better than others, and I found this one of the better ones. I can't say I was totally surprised by the ending, but in Rankin's books, that's really not the point or the main pleasure -- these have the literary quality of novels and I read them as such.