This is the second of Ian Rankin's Rebus novels published some four years after the first. It doesn't look like murder until Detective Inspector John Rebus starts to chip away at the indifference and sleaze that's covering the case.

A five-pointed star has been daubed on the wall over his head. In an Edinburgh squat a drug addict is found dead, with the body laid out in the shape of a cross and candles at each side. Important only because of the series as a whole it's a book for the completist or the real fan as there are better books later in the series. I know there are about 20 other Rebus books out there so I’m taking my time, but it’s been a while since I found a series that truly interests me, and I’m curious to see where Rebus will take me next.Summary: The second Rebus novel finds the detective investigating the death of a drug addict. The central mystery is intriguing enough, though, and I liked the eat-the-rich vibe the book was giving off. It didn’t help that everyone Rebus works with seems to be the same person (there’s a Holmes and a Watson).

I found it hard to keep track of who did what and why (I’m still not sure who put the rat poison in the heroine, or whether it was even fully disclosed). What I didn’t like was that the plot is rather convoluted. This book improves on the first one somewhat the writing is a bit less erratic, the plot a bit less obvious. Rebus is an interesting guy, not always likable, often grouchy and impossible to deal with (the fact that he’s able to get beautiful women is still a bit iffy and too much male fantasy territory, but at least he can keep his hands to himself). I quite enjoyed the first one, even if the this-time-it’s-personal angle has been done over and over. Hide and Seek is the second installment of the Inspector Rebus series. Who staged the body like that? What happened to the man’s camera? And who laced the man’s heroine with rat poison? Inspector John Rebus has been called in to investigate the murder, but finds the whole thing perplexing. A pentagram has been drawn on the wall and candles have been staged around the victim. All evidence points towards an overdoses, except for one: the man’s body is elaborately staged, with the lower half of his body wrapped in plastic and his arms spread out as if he’s been crucified. Somewhere deep in the slums of Edinburgh the body of a man is found.

Hide and seek rankin