It’s been ages since I read a detective novel, literally! I can’t remember the last time I read one! Anyway, so I was told that Ian Rankin’s books were all set in Edinburgh and I thought that should be fun to read! It so was. It is so much fun reading about the good guy chasing the bad guy along the road you walked down last evening 😛
It makes you see your own city in a different light, in a way that makes you understand that crime happens around us, every single day. The last time I felt that way was when I was living in Calcutta and reading Satyajit Ray. Anyway, so, usual plot, series of murders, messed up cop, love interest, nothing special. I do think that that’s because this was Ian’s first book and I am sure that he must have gotten better with time.
But what made it good was that it was all Edinburgh, Scottish dialects and all!
Quote: Edinburgh is a schizophrenic city. Beneath its ancient cobbles, courtyards and stairwells there is resident darkness.
This city, town really, has dingy dark alleys and slippery cobbled streets that lead to the belly. It has tunnels with clammy damp walls and bile yellow gas lights at the end. Whenever I have walked down, I have felt transported to a bloody past, a gory past. It is so much easier to see public hangings, hear those screams. Yes, I suppose, Edinburgh is a schizophrenic city.
