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Detective Sergeant John Rebus, the protagonist of Knots and Crosses, is a divorced, borderline-alcoholic, Edinburgh policeman, working on a serial killer case while also being bothered by anonymous notes containing knotted pieces of string and crossed matchsticks. His brother, meanwhile, may be tied up in the Edinburgh drug trade, which is being investigated by a local reporter. As the murders mount up, it begins to seem that the killer may be someone from Rebus' past, and that the killings may be aimed at him specifically.
It seems to me, reading this book in 2001, that there is much that is familiar here. The depressed, hard-drinking British detective is a well-known character from a number of sources, perhaps taken to an extreme in Irvine Welsh's Filth, but with Inspector Morse among others fitting the bill (no pun intended) as well. Similarly, there have been a number of literary and cinematic efforts recently portraying the seamier side of Scotland (think Irvine Welsh again). And of course, the whole serial-killer-with-a-personal-tie-to-the-detective thing has been done to death and beyond by Hollywood in recent years. It should be borne in mind that Knots and Crosses was first published in 1987, and was thus somewhat more original when written than it seems now, but the fact remains that quite a lot of the book seems old hat.
However, old hats can be very comfortable. For all its darkness (and there are some very dark moments), Knots and Crosses is a fairly easy read. The depictions of police procedure sound authentic, as does Rankin's portrayal of the various facets of Edinburgh. Detective Sergeant Rebus comes across as a fairly sympathetic character, which is not always a given in this genre. The author drops enough clues, including a very very subtle one, to give the reader a fighting chance of identifying the murderer without making it too obvious. And finally the action is fairly gripping, although it doesn't really reach a full head of steam until towards the end of the book, ironically after the killer's identity has been revealed. In short, Knots and Crosses makes for entertaining and diverting reading, and I was more than happy to be drawn in to the rest of Ian Rankin's John Rebus series (Speaking of which, there are now more than ten books in the Rebus series, but Knots and Crosses is the first, and the series should be read in order).
Reviewed by Patrick Conway on February 1st, 2001. Photo from Lothian & Borders Police.
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