Coming 07.11.13
SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE by Ian Rankin REBUS: Saint or sinner? All will be revealed...
#shadowbible
SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE
by Ian Rankin
Rebus is back on the force, albeit with a demotion and a chip on his shoulder. A 30-year-old case is being reopened and Rebus’s team from back then is suspected of foul play.
With Malcolm Fox as the investigating officer are the past and present about to collide in a shocking and murderous
fashion? And does Rebus have anything to hide?
His colleagues back then called themselves ‘The Saints’, and swore a bond on something called ‘the Shadow Bible’. But
times have changed and the crimes of the past may not stay hidden much longer.
Who are the saints and who the sinners? And can the one ever become the other?
Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin is the internationally bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus and Detective Malcolm Fox novels, as well as
a string of standalone thrillers. His books have been translated into 36 languages and are bestsellers on several
continents. Ian is the recipient of four CWA Dagger Awards and in 2004 he won America’s celebrated Edgar Award. He has
also received the OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he
lives with his partner and two sons.
Edinburgh
Look beneath Edinburgh’s charming veneer and you will find its dark side – tales of ghosts and murder, warfare and death
– as relevant today as during the sixteenth century when it first became Scotland’s capital. Edinburgh is a ‘city the
size of a town that thinks like a village’ – everyone knows your business; it’s the ideal backdrop for a detective
novel. Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels have always examined Edinburgh’s dual identity, its ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ nature. Rebus has
his own dark side: he’s been made cynical by the job he does. Every day he moves through this extraordinary city, but
deals only with its victims and miscreants: to him, ‘It wasn’t a view at all. It was a crime scene waiting to happen.’
John Rebus
Inspector John Rebus is an old-fashioned cop in a modern world; flawed but always humane. We have followed him step by
step since 1987 when he was 40, through to his retirement in 2007. But now, some 26 years after we first encountered him
investigating Edinburgh’s criminal underbelly, the law has changed and Rebus is back on the force. He’s a little more
disillusioned and he’s got more demons to fight; are we about to find out whose side our brooding antihero is really on?
Malcolm Fox
Malcolm Fox heads up Edinburgh’s Police Complaints and Conduct Office – known as ‘The Complaints’. He’s the cop that
investigates other cops. Like Rebus he’s not a team player: it’s his job to watch his colleagues and get to the truth –
so it helps that he’s an outsider, a voyeur. But unlike Rebus, Fox can’t break the rules. Sober (now) and serious, he’s
controlled and considered until forced into action by circumstances. But is he really whiter than white…?
‘Fox is a nuanced character, bookish but streetwise, long teetotal after verging on alcoholism, haunted by guilt about
the violence he once inflicted on his ex-wife; he is less vibrantly drawn than Rebus but perhaps even more interesting .
. .’ Daily Telegraph
Siobhan Clarke
We first met Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, Rebus’s police partner, in The Black Book and have seen her rise through
the ranks as the series has progressed. Young, English, a graduate and IT savvy, Siobhan is a great foil for the
curmudgeonly Rebus, who’s from a different generation and prefers to investigate crime the old-fashioned way. She has
spread her wings since Rebus retired, but now he’s back on the force will he derail her career? Perhaps it’s time for
her to take steps to reverse their roles...
Jackie Leven
Like Standing in Another Man’s Grave, the title of Ian Rankin’s new novel – Saints of the Shadow Bible – is taken from a Jackie Leven song. Folk singer
Leven, who died in 2012, was a good friend of Ian Rankin: ‘Jackie was a great guitarist and a fine songwriter with a
vein of robust romantic imagery and a voice that could melt granite. He was also a terrific storyteller whose life had
provided no end of material. He’s still much missed by all of us who knew him.’
ENDS