Sure, he’s used to never quite complying with directives, but John Rebus is first and foremost an efficient cop, as we know; even though he retired half an eternity ago, he still persists in unraveling complicated cases. Ill, physically diminished, the “old” Rebus continues to put his nose where he shouldn’t. And here he is once again at the center of an investigation involving rogue cops and his old nemesis, gangster Big Ger Cafferty.
This time, however, things are slightly different as the novel begins with Rebus daydreaming in court, seated in the dock, remembering everything that has happened over the past few days…
hot potato
It all begins, however, with a “simple” scene of domestic violence that tickles the curiosity of the whole of Edinburgh because it involves a policeman. Under investigation, Constable Francis Haggard invokes as a defense the climate of violence and brutality that plagues his profession. In fact, he threatens to denounce common practices in a certain police station as well as the individuals who encourage them. In the same breath, he demands that the charges against him be dropped. A gold mine for the media, social or not. And a real hot potato for the hierarchy.
It is Inspector Siohban Clarke, Rebus’ pupil, who is in charge of the investigation, “assisted” by the unbeatable Malcolm Fox, who is also interested in it since the reputation of the police is at stake and that he seeks precisely to corner the cops that Haggard threatens to expose. Rebus, him, intervenes in the file by the band. Firstly because he knows very well the practices of the Tynecastle police station, but also because his name appeared in Haggard’s threats.
All of this comes just as a forced-retired Cafferty has just asked him to find “a dead who would have reappeared”. Which Rebus refuses, of course. However, his curiosity being piqued, he gets down to it, as the gangster had guessed. And then things suddenly speed up when we find the body of Francis Haggard…
The two investigations do not seem to be linked, but, as Big Ger Cafferty is used to controlling everything, Rebus is suspicious and manages to make links on which he needles Siohban. We won’t really tell you more, even if Rebus ends up on the side of the good guys or the bad guys…
A cemetery in the heart is already the 24e novel that Ian Rankin devotes to his favorite investigator, not to mention a few collections of short stories — Rebus has taken up roughly half of Rankin’s production since 1987. The story, very well rendered by the translation, is obviously much more complex and bushy since it is based on real characters who try to make a life for themselves by disentangling the true from the false. A difficult bet. Even for John Rebus.