Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Junkies in Edinburgh and a case that Rebus realises has a lot more to it than first thought
Hide and Seek (Rebus 2)
What you need to know before your trail
When Rebus comes across a dead junkie, it’s assumed that this is just the latest one in a line of many. But Rebus is not so sure. There’s something very different about this one and very disturbing as he’s been placed cross-like and spreadeagled, on the floor, between two burned-down candles. Chillingly, there is a five-pointed star daubed on the wall above.
Rebus is soon on the case. As he suspects this is murder and one which takes him into the bowels of the city.
Travel Guide
Scotland comes alive in this novel and has an interesting link to the city in which it is set. In the first novel Knots and Crosses, the book has a close link to the classic Scottish novel; Jekyll and Hyde. In his opening note, Rankin states that he was keen to get readers more closely connected to this Scottish link and so this second book was actually called Hyde and Seek for a working title. Many of the character names such as Poole, Carew are directly inspired by the classic novel. Rebus even reads the novel when he’s relaxing from the stresses of work.
Rebus Edinburgh is just as grim as ever – cold damp nights, shadowy figures on the cobbled streets, dim street lights, druggies and the possibility of a black magic cult. Edinburgh certainly has two sides to it – one rich and glitzy that the rich and the tourists see, and the poor dark grim side where the poor and those on the bottom rungs of society – needles hanging from their arms and poison in their blood.
This is the city where the shine is wiped from the glitz leaving the shadowy blackness of the reality behind the facade. Edinburgh’s wealthy are not necessarily ‘clean’…
Streetview Maps
Edinburgh: Arden Street where Rebus lives
Edinburgh: Calton Hill
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