Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin ISBN: 0-312-95878-1 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 May, 1996 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: I Hate Ian Rankin...
Comment: ...because now I have a new obsession: Inspector Rebus mysteries. I can't remember the last time I was so immediately involved in a series; so thoroughly taken with a character and his creator; so fixated on catching up on the past decade's worth of stories. There's great writing here, terrific characterizations, sly humor...and the whodunit aspect does not disappoint. And that goes for all the Rebus books. Well done, Mr. Rankin.
Rating: 5
Summary: remarkable
Comment: this may be one of the earliest Rebus novels, but it is without shadow of a doubt one of the best. Ian Rankin here presentes an excellent serial killer novel, published around the time when the sub-genre itself was really on it's infancy. (After all, there weren't all that many serial killer novels around in 1991) It's a very assured, seasoned, mature novel, somewhat before it's time.
Rebus is a great character, and here his development continues. However, we are presented with a great twist to the normal formula here...Rebus has been sent to London to work on a case, and the fish-out-of-water effect really works very well. Instead of the in-depth and realistic descriptions of Edinburgh, we now see London through Rebus, a visitors eyes, and Rankin proves that his evocations of place are not merely limited to Edinburgh. He describes London excellently, and observing Rebus wandering round the city like a lost soul (until he realises that, in terms of problems, London is basically the same as his home turf, when he seems to get more comfortable with the place) is really interesting.
The plot is great, and it twists and turns subtly but excellently, with Rankin misleading the reader like an illusionst all the way to the end as to the real identity of the killer. He shocks and surprises again and again, until a brilliantly exciting climax, a car chase through the busy streets of London.
Along the way, Rebus meets some brilliant characters, several of whom i would love to see again in the future. George Flight, his opposite number in London, is a wonderfully drawn creation. He is a likeable man, and a great copper. He is darawn well, and i liked the way Rankin shied away from the cliche of making him an unlikeable, difficult to work with, arrogant and not very good police-officer. Instead, we are prsented with a policeman equal to Rebus in ability, whose talents compliment each other well. Another great character is Liza Frazer, the young psychologist who volunteers to help Rebus draw up a profile of the killer.
All in all, this is a brilliant book. It suceeds on every single leve, and while the end does seem a little rushed, and i would rather the book were a bit longer, this book ranks among Rankin's best work. Which, considering the calibre of almost all his books, means that this book is very, very good indeed.
Rating: 2
Summary: Nothing special.
Comment: I'd never heard of Ian Rankin, but the book reviewer on Fresh Air, Maureen Corrigan, happened to mention that she limited her reading of Rankin to one book a month so she could longer savor his stuff. I don't if know this is one of his weaker efforts, but it would be difficult to motivate myself enough to try another. Simply, while the prose and dialogue are generally adequate, the main character is both hackneyed and sketchily drawn. He seems like a fictional detective, rather than a real and original presence. Beyond this, the plotting is extremely lazy and incredible, with coincidental connections and meetings happening in London as if it were a village of a few hundred. Alas, the villain is revealed at the end in the manner of a rabbit from a hat with no logical or clever foreshadowing, and a "solution" by the sadsack hero which is uninteresting and highly unlikely. Followed this shortly later with Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River" and it took his clean, sharp, evocative prose to fully dissolve my disappointment. Lehane will be revisited, but I think I'll lose Rankin's address.
 |
Title: Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin ISBN: 0312963971 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin ISBN: 0312956738 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
 |
Title: Strip Jack by Ian Rankin ISBN: 0312965141 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin ISBN: 0312960948 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin ISBN: 0312966652 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
