Mortal Causes

Ian Rankin

My first Ian Rankin. Interesting. Very good story. A corps is found in an underground part of Edinburgh being executed after having received a “sixpack” a well known IRA way to make clear the person receiving the sixpack did something they didn't partically liked. I had never heard of this and to be honest it stayed with me all through the book. Rebus gets the case and gets himself into loads of trouble with juvenile nationalist gangsters, a big time gangster he put behind bars and who's son was on the receiving end of the sixpack, a fatal attraction kind fling with a prosecuter and on top of it all corruption in the corps he is assigned to. Rough story, rough characters, rough humour. I have to pick up another Rankin to form a good opinion for now I rate this one ***.