Maybe it was the audiobook version. Maybe USF’s that I listened during isolation during COVID19,but I found it really hard to get into this book. I loved the Edinburgh setting and the plot was interesting but it just didn’t capture my imagination. Too dark? Not a great reading? Too many competing threads? I found it hard to keep everyone straight. I will try another title or two in the series- I do t give up that easily

A great followup to The Lost Symbol, this book is Dan Brown's opposite in almost every way.

Characters: There are people that talk like real people. They don't lecture. They have complex motivations. Most are sympathetic and not sympathetic, all in one person. Amazing.

Plot: At least four seemingly disparate stories are woven together. Progress is made in some while others stall. There are false starts along the way.

The only thing I didn't like about this book is that one of the subplots has a particularly unsatisfying ending.

I should also point out that this book does deal in part with pedophilia. Given my well-known predisposition to dock a start from any book that uses "pedophile" as a shortcut for "ultimate evil without redemption", this book gets an extra star for dealing evenly with the topic. The book is full of moral complexity about redemption and forgiveness. Well done.

Does Exactly What It Says On The Tin.

Rebus, paedophiles, mass hibsteria, a killer returned to Edinburgh from an American jail ... as good as usual.

Ian Rankin: good writer; good story teller.

Oscillated between 3 and 4 stars. It was definitely entertaining enough to distract me from my miserable summer cold. A part of me did speculate about all the messes Rebus gets himself into with his rogue manners. Would that really fly in a real police station? I don't know. It is his rogue manners that make him so fascinating, though. I do like how Rankin shows multiple sides of society - a sort of political commentary along the way. In the end, I settled for 3 stars. Definitely worth a read. Remember, there is nothing wrong with 3 stars.

Inspector Rebus #11, waiting to read in order