Sins and needles

The ninth Rebus adventure, published in 1998, is high-octane fare from the start - and the pace never lets up. Rebus is always at his best when he’s under siege and battling on multiple fronts. In The Hanging Garden, Rebus is probing a possible war criminal living in Edinburgh. The probable inspiration was the real-life story of Anton Gecas, a pensioner who lived in the city and was an alleged war criminal, accused of helping to kill thousands of Jews. He died in 2001 and at the time of The Hanging Garden his story was well-known. In this novel, the war criminal is Joseph Lintz, a retired academic. Then Rebus’s 19-year-old daughter Samantha is run over - and spends almost all of the rest of the novel unconscious. Was it a deliberate attack - attempted murder by car? This is just one of many mysteries. Meanwhile, gang warfare is raging. Rankin can get bogged down in such matters - the internecine machinations of warring crime clans. Thankfully, Big Ger Cafferty isn’t much in evidence here (I find him annoying), as he’s in jail. That said, he does have a key part to play in the plot. Even the Yakuza (Japanese gangsters) make an appearance. Human trafficking is also an important factor in proceedings. Rebus becomes close to Candice, a trafficked prostitute. She’s almost his proxy daughter in The Hanging Garden, given that Samantha is laid up in a hospital bed. Tommy Telford is the up-and-coming ganglord with ambitions to seize Cafferty’s crown. He’s a bit of a cardboard cut-out of a character. So why is it such a good Rebus? It is a bit overloaded in terms of plotting, true - though for Rankin that is par for the course. But as a listening experience, it works really well. The Rebus novels lend themselves to audio adaptation as they’re dialogue-heavy. The narration is good, bar a couple of slightly dodgy regional accents. The resolution is reasonably neat and tidy. There is (I think) a loose end - Rebus puts off having an HIV test (after a close encounter with the blood of a thug who had the disease). Why he delays having the crucial test isn’t clear - he bolts from the clinic. A fear of needles? Maybe, or more likely the need to keep the plot going, and to create suspense. But I don’t recall Rebus ever bothering to go back for the test. A minor cavil… and we know he survived as he appeared in many subsequent novels. The Hanging Garden works well because Rebus faces many different threats, some of them existential, and tough challenges. It’s also personal - he needs to find out who ran over his daughter, and whether it’s linked to gang warfare (or the suspected Nazi war criminal he’s investigating). The story held my attention and felt more polished than some previous Rebus novels - the series, by this time, was very much finding its feet. I’m listening in order (starting during lockdown in 2020). I’d recommend audio Rebus. The narrator is fantastic. I can’t wait to try the next book - Dead Souls.

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Great listen, every new book just gets better

Brilliant story, listened to the whole thing in two days. Look forward to the next one

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Awesome!

this book was awesome! a great continuation from the last book! very inventive and engaging

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Great value

an extremely good listen, complex and intriguing and well performed. Another Rankin and Rebus beckons but which one?

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You got to love Rebus

Great book the Rebus character is a lovable rouge but everyone knows one like him. The book has a great story line with deals with criminals, attempted murder, little old ladies as drug mules

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2 people found this helpful

Great story

Rebus and the Narrator on top form! Might even be worth a second listen! Really loved the narration

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Another exciting clever gritty listen

Hard to switch off - very well read (apart from some dodgy non Scottish accents)

Rankin is so clever, he makes you think about life and your morale code as well as another gripping who and why dunnit.

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Great story

Best plot so far (I'm listening in chronological order). Many twists and turns, but woven together skilfully. The only jarring note was the laughable "Geordie" accent attributed to Miriam Kenworthy. The narrator's other accents have always seemed passable to my ears, but as I come from Newcastle myself his approximation of our dialect was woeful (as it usually is when anyone attempts it!). One very minor fly in the ointment.

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enough plots for three books,

characters under developed. An easy read that does not leave one in awe and thoughtful

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