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Exit Music Paperback – Import, January 1, 2008

by Ian Rankin (Author)

4.5 4,375 ratings

Book 17 of 24: Inspector Rebus Novels

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It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town - and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically.But the further they dig, the more Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack - especially after a particularly nasty second killing. Meanwhile, a brutal and premeditated assault on a local gangster sees Rebus in the frame. Has the Inspector taken a step too far in tying up those loose ends? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, inglorious career, will Rebus even make it that far? About The Author: Ian Rankin lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and their two sons.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orion; First Edition (January 1, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0752882856
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0752882857
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 1.1 x 9.17 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.5 4,375 ratings

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Ian Rankin

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Ian James Rankin, OBE, DL, FRSE (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Photo byTimDuncan (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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John F. Rooney

We'll Miss the Misfit

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2008

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This is the nineteenth and probably the last in Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series because Rebus has been put out to pasture, retired. His bosses say good riddance, and the only one who seems to care what happens to him is Siobhan Clarke, Shiv, his female sidekick, who learned how to cut corners and rile supervisors from him. His arch-nemesis, the gangster Big Ger Cafferty is deeply involved in this book and by the end lies at death's door.
A Russian poet-dissident as well as an audio specialist are murdered, and there are plenty of suspects to go around. It's a complex novel with numerous strands, but it is well-plotted, and readers will find it engrossing.
We're going to miss Rebus who is Scotland's answer to Michael Connelly's rebellious L.A. cop Harry Bosch. Rankin always does a good job drawing subsidiary characters, bringing out nuances, quirks, and tics.
The denouement is satisfying and the clever solutions will satisfy most readers. As Rebus is investigating, he finds the business overworld is worse than the underworld. The story is told with wit and humor and with a deep understanding of what makes people tick. Shiv, thinking of a building destroyed because the wiring had gone bad, muses, "Wiring gone bad: a fair description of Rebus himself at times."
We feel sorry seeing Rebus being tossed on the junk heap. "For three decades now, this job of his had sustained him, and all it had cost him was his marriage and a slew of friendships and shattered relationships."
The opening pages get us into the story quickly, economically. It's a clear-cut narrative style with no extraneous stuff. The parrying between various characters is done deftly.
Perhaps Rankin will resurrect Rebus by giving us some of his earlier cases, or perhaps Shiv will become the series main character with Rebus assisting from some bar stool.

3 people found this helpful

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Den

Exit stage left but not forever

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2014

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I have re-read this excellent novel recently. As it happens, it was not to be the last Rebus novel [thankfully]. I had thought that Rankin had flagged a little and, like Conan Doyle [another Edinburgh author], wanted to be rid of his creation, but subsequent novels proved me wrong.

I was in Edinburgh earlier this year and spoke to an ex-cop who confirmed the authenticity of Rankin's work and his faultless research.

One of Rankin's truly great traits is the complexity of his plots and characterization. I have to draw a mind-map for each of his novels just to keep up! The mind-maps set out the cast of characters and their relationship to each other and are an effort to work out 'whodunnit'. After all that, it turns out that the butler did it [not!]. I recommend any reader to keep a notebook handy [or draw up one of Tony Buzzan's mind-maps].

Rankin is the best of his genre in the UK or the US.

2 people found this helpful

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MS SANDRA GEDDES

First review

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2023

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@beathhigh
Just finished book 17 of the #inspectorrebus series. I started reading the series in 2022 and I have to say I was hooked, from the start. It was interesting to read of a lifestyle which had been forgotten, i.e. having lunchtime drinks and then going back to work 😌, drink-driving laws and just the whole ethos of that time. It seemed to me that the character was evolving along with the writing. Also the topics which are a pivotal backbone of the stories are as relevant today as they were decades ago. Such as corruption in Politics, racism against asylum seekers etc. Unfortunately times do not really change. Anyway after the first few books I felt a visit to Edinburgh was required. A decision I have not regretted. And I have to say, I so want to return. The books bring Edinburgh to life, and the visit brings @beathhigh views of Edinburgh to life.

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Don Morin

Best Rebus Novel? I may be.

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2022

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This is a fantastic novel. Well written with an intricate and surprising plot. Rankin is at the top of his form.

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mltpdx

John Rebus never lets you down!

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2015

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I have read all the Rebus series and found each one thoroughly intriguing, plausible and just good fun. I have several authors that when a new is released I purchase...He is the is the best one, never a let down. Take note Nelson DeMille!

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2013

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Wish I could be more helpful to potential readers, but I find it difficult to put into words why I so enjoy this series. And perhaps that is the greatest compliment one can pay a writer - that he, in this instance, writes so well that he "effortlessly" makes the characters so clear and compelling. The plot is interesting but nothing that will blow your mind - cops and robbers, money, corrupt politicians, greed, jealously, privilege, poverty. But it's the characters that really carry this novel, characters that are sketched with wonderful economy of language but are immediately understood and known.

Perhaps a list of my favorite authors will give my 5-stars some context: Jo Nesbo, Thomas Perry, Lawrence Block, Olin Steinhauer, George Pelecanos, John Sandford, Philip Kerr, Michael Connelly, Stephen Cannell, Lee Child, Robert Crais, David Hosp, Stephen Hunter, Stuart Kaminsky, Dennis Lehane, Henning Mankell, Richard Price.

If there is an author that you admire from my list, Rankin will not disappoint.

4 people found this helpful

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Richard Berg

Exit Stage Left

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2013

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I have now read all of the Rankin/Rebus novels (including the recent "Resurrection of Rebus"), and this one produced a wide range of mixed reaction. Overlong, way too talky, and a cast of law officials and other officials acting in most aggressively arbitrary, ill- advised, often illegal and essentially "wrong", and annoying fashion to pursue their aims because they think they're the good guys. While there are a lot of nefarious deeds going on, as one character says, and I paraphrase, "There is a lot less here than meets the eye."I would also note the several times the author has the police intimate that you need a lawyer only if you did something. Folks - and I speak from professional authority - you need a lawyer most when you did NOT do anything. "Exit Music" is akin to an overstuffed, overcooked stew in which the ingredients try to combine melifluously {I know that's misselled] but end up fighting each other off rather tastelessly.And then there's the ending . . . RHB

6 people found this helpful

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Clemens Schoonderwoert

A Tremendous Active DI Exit!

Reviewed in the Netherlands on April 25, 2024

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This fabulous Scottish crime novel is the 17th volume of the magnificent "DI Rebus" series, the last as an acting DI within the CID due to his retirement age and thus pension, but not the last in the series altogether.

At the beginning of the book you'll find two phrases, one from Norman MacCaig's 'Hotel Room, 12th Floor', and one from Andrew O'Hagan, 'Be Near Me', followed by an Introduction explaining that this will be DI John Rebus final cases and exploits towards his retirement as an active DI within the CID.

Storytelling is marvellous, all characters come vividly to life in this tale of political deals, diabolical bankers, blackmail and murder, and its a tale where the Russians are very much involved too making it one of the main ingredients of three final big cases for Di Rebus.

These final days as an active DI within the CID at Gayfield Square, will bring him some final interesting cases and together with his protégé DS Siobhan Clarke they start with the death of the Russian dissident poet Alexander Todorov.

While investigating Todorov's death, a second killing will take place on Charles Riordan, a man producing magic with a mic and that special sound will be Riordan's downfall, all because someone will become desperate about a certain tape of his and kill him by fire.

Also Big Ger Cafferty will a get a serious bashing on the head from someone with a grudge, making first DI Rebus a kind of scapegoat, for his relationship with Cafferty, but as it turns out someone will pay the price for that particular action in the end.

What is to follow is a terrific build-up crime novel, in which DI Rebus, with his protégé DS Siobhan Clarke in tow, will bow out in a most glorious fashion as an active DI, by solving, after some twists and turns, these three cases and revealing the true culprits of each individual case in a most superb way possible.

Highly recommended, for this is an excellent addition to this great series, and a wonderful bow out as active DI for Rebus, but not the last in the series as you will see, and what this episode is concerned I would like to call it: "A Tremendous Active DI Exit"!

Lyn

Good book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2024

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Enjoyed story.

Scott Murray

Excellent read

Reviewed in Canada on May 21, 2020

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As always, Rankin is a master of his craft.

Rebus and other characters are so life-like to the readers. I spent the summer of 2019 in Edinburgh and went to many of John’s haunts. Pun intended. Rankin seems to capture the underbelly of that great old city.

Ritva Schuster

Exit Music

Reviewed in Germany on March 2, 2020

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Zustand sehr gut und das Buch kam bereits vor ca. 10 Tagen, also viel früher als von Ihnen angekündigt. Super!

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