Was that all love did for you? Made you give up and give in? Left you open to pain and hurt? If it was, I swore that nothing would ever make me do the same as her. And while Sephy does enjoy kissing Callum, when he moves his hand to her "waist and higher" she tries to push his hand away, but he does not move it. When she vocally tries voice her discomfortant HE LITERALLY TELLS HER TO "SHUSH". She then tries to away, but he continues to kiss her.

Detective Sergeant John Rebus - Lead character, hard drinking, Scottish detective with a troubled past.Edinburgh rain was like a judgement. It soaked into the bones, into the structures of the buildings, into the memories of the tourists. It lingered for days, splashing up from puddles by the roadside, breaking up marriages, chilling, killing, omnipresent. This is my first time reading a book by Ian Rankin. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it definitely delivered. It’s not so much a police procedural as it is a character study. The characters and how they deal with the issues - not the issues working them - are shaped in the framework. Sephy is smart and courageous – the daughter of a powerful politician. Her relationship with her family, however, is very strained.

Alex Mcauley: Main antagonist of Double Cross, a crime boss in a war with the Dowds. He tries to make Tobey join him, but is killed by Dan, who replaces him. He keeps this a secret from Callie Rose, and after they consummate their relationship, Callie Rose leaves but promises to return. The next day, when Tobey and Callie Rose meet up with their friends, Callie Rose is shot by a hail of bullets from McAuley, the boss of a gang of Noughts, the rivals to the Dowds. Her surgery is successful, but she remains in a coma. Sephy is furious at Tobey for not telling the police who shot Callie Rose, but is unaware that Tobey plans on getting revenge on McAuley himself. Rebus is a drunk divorcee formerly of the SAS and now a DS in the Edinburgh police force. There's somebody abducting and killing children and there's no pattern that anyone can see. So far, so cliche. Where Rankin differs from all those other generic modern police procedurals that are oh so popular with the masses is that he doesn't seem to care about the investigation or the procedure. (I'm told that in later books he becomes much more of a regular cop however.) The series is speculative fiction describing an alternative history. The series takes place in an alternative 21st-century Britain. A World Book Day release in 2019, and a prequel to Crossfire. Following from the events of Double Cross, a fugitive Dan is mortally wounded by McAuley's former enforcers, and is forced to hide out with a nurse, Eva, whose daughter Avalon committed suicide three years earlier after being drawn into drug addiction and prostitution by McAuley. Though she hides Dan from the criminals hunting him, Eva debates whether to continue sheltering him or turn him in to the police. The novella concludes without revealing the outcome of her decision, but Crossfire suggests that Eva continued to hide Dan but ultimately convinced him to turn himself in, and remained a friend and mother figure to him during his imprisonment and his later career as a gangster.Overall, I enjoyed this first book in the series and feel like it's a good introduction to Rebus and his personality. The series gets even better in later books, with Rebus becoming more fully realized as a character and the mysteries themselves becoming more sophisticated and complex.

One look at the Liberation Militia and their beliefs and principles gives you some sort of insight as to what goes on in the minds of the people belonging to terrorist groups. Not that I think of LM as a terrorist group but considering what they do and the way they do it - obviously they could be conceived as a terrorist organisation in one way. They are not at all bad or evil people - they just believe and understand that what they do is the right thing. They really do believe that in their heart of hearts. After all the cause really is the right one, the noble one! After all there is only so much one can take before they stand up and fight against it. But the way they choose to implement it - I believe that is not the best method. Unfortunately, this story is as large as practically any Rankin has written; but the presentation here is rushed, often skimming speedily along on the surface, and there are many bits he could linger over at considerably greater length (not the least of which is the resolution, as the aftermath of events that have been extraordinarily traumatic for Rebus' family is barely touched upon). Once more I look into the mirror. For me, it was a marriage of twenty years, two children. Busted. I have grandchildren I've never met. I'm one up on Rebus. My second marriage is on the downhill run. It's never clear what exactly led to Rebus and his wife divorcing. I think it had to do with the work. The hours. The time away. I remember being told "You care about other people's children more than your own." The fact was, I knew mine were safe. I saw to that. But the work was relentless. Unfortunately, Rankin also tries way too hard in parts: behind it all is an over the top James Patterson-type serial killer, the way he selects his victims alone far too 'clever' to maintain any semblance of realism.You're a nought and I'm a Cross and there's nowhere for us to be, nowhere for us to go where we'd be left in peace." Kamal tells Sephy that if she keeps her child, Callum will be hanged, but if she has the abortion, he will serve years in prison instead. Kamal makes a similar offer to Callum, wanting Callum to publicly admit to raping Sephy. Both decide to keep the baby, and Callum is hanged at the gallows. Just remember, Callum when you’re floating up and up in your bubble, that bubbles have a habit of bursting. The higher you climb, the further you have to fall.” She meets Jaxon, a hot-tempered man with a band, the Midges. He offers Sephy a singing part, but the Noughts are prejudiced against her because she is a Cross. In her emotional turmoil, she begins to neglect Callie Rose.

I could move my hands and... And. Anything I liked. Caress or strangle. Kill or cure. Her or me. Me or her." In his resulting depression, Tobey briefly joins Nought Forever, the Liberation Militia's spiritual successor, but soon quits. Tobey pursues a career in politics and is aided and bankrolled by Dan, now a powerful gangster. He uses his growing fortune to financially support Misty and Libby, but Misty refuses to let him see their daughter and conceals his identity from Libby. She gradually spends Libby's entire trust fund, becoming an alcoholic and drug addict, and abuses Libby, who struggles with anxiety and self-harm. While she is sleeping, Callum literally thinks about how he could kill her at any moment, and how he wants to. Sephy and Callum are the best of friends. They grew up together and despite the animosity between their families now, they continue to see each other in secret. But as they grow older and the world encroaches on their friendship, they can deny no longer the big glaring barrier between them: Sephy is a Cross, Callum is a nought. Society, the world, their families, will never accept them. Rebus has a lot baggage, from his stage hypnotist brother to his ex-wife and everything in between. He's a sad bastard in a long line of sad bastard detectives but has enough uniqueness that I'll be happy to visit him again in the future.

Detective John Rebus was trying to catch the killer of young girls – he would abduct them and not long after, the body of the girl would be found, brutally murdered, but never sexually assaulted. Rebus was also receiving strange and bizarre notes that he had no clue about. He wondered if it was his ex-wife messing around but wasn’t to realise it had everything to do with him and a past he no longer remembered.