Later Rebus tries to help Darren, thinking better of his action, but is unable to stop him being murdered. Detective Inspector John Rebus ties together the suicide of one of his colleagues, an investigation into a paedophile ring, the release of a convicted killer and the disappearance of a former girlfriend’s son in a literary slice of tartan noir.

I enjoy Rebus very much; a character perfect in his imperfections, questioning whether being a police officer remains viable, and whether he can deal with the types of crimes with which he must be involved. Darren Rouse, the pedophile, claims that he is taking a photography class and the zoo is his assignment. There's very little light in this novel, there's introspection, there's despair, there's hatred, fear, prejudice, and opportunists taking advantage of all of that. The book has a real sense of place and I can feel myself walking the streets of Edinburgh with Rebus.Realising this, Stevens joins forces with Rebus in trying to find out what Oakes’ real object is in Edinburgh. he learns how the killer's sense of morality may have been warped beyond repair by external factors over which he had no control.

His first Rebus novel was published in 1987; the Rebus books are now translated into 22 languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Finally, Rebus also gets drawn into a missing persons case: the nineteen year-old son of Janice and Brian, an old flame and a friend from the old neighbourhood, has simply disappeared. In the 12th novel in the increasingly engaging Inspector Rebus series (Knots and Crosses; Dead Souls; etc. And while investigating Damon Mee's last appearance at a party held by Ama and Nichol Petrie, the children of a high-profile judge, he finds out that the son is a cross-dresser and had brought Damon to the party while in his female role.The initial difficulties mentioned, especially the "hard" language (not just hard as in difficult but as in rough, not literarily well wrought or aesthetic) keeps my rating a four though. He is also reliving his past after an old girlfriend asks him to investigate her missing son Damon’s disappearance. I was taught by my parents to be civil and to err on the side of kindness, and those are two lessons that have served me well.

In this entry,as in most of the Rebus books, there is a lot going on and none of it provides easy answers for Rebus and his mates. Somehow, Rankin is able to take all that mess and assemble it into a novel that actually makes sense -- with all of these stories being tied together, not just with over-lapping themes, but in reality in some sort of 6 degrees of separation fashion -- even excluding DI Rebus. Each strand has a mystery at its core - who is the blond girl that the Misper is last seen with, is the psycho responsible for a 20 year cold case and who is the third man in the paedo case? Rebus' actions in the opening pages cast enough of a shadow on him that his very brief involvement on another case is used by the defense to cast a shadow on the police's investigation. Meanwhile there is a trial going on of a former school in which two of the principals were involved in child abuse.

Stalking the streets of Edinburgh on the trail of a poisoner, Rebus hits upon a freed paedophile and his subsequent outing of the man leaves him with very mixed feelings. These were skillfully introduced without leaving you non plussed but I suspect that knowing the full history would help. As a high school teacher, there were many times a student's behavior would become crystal clear after meeting his parents.

I enjoyed the insights into Rebus's young life and discovering how and why he ended up in the army and from there the police force. The plot encompasses paedophilia, suicide and murder, and it is a dark read (not that any of the Rebus novels are uplifting). The ending of the book left me wanting to get on to the next chapter in the story, and so I think I may linger in Edinburgh just a bit longer. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and I would highly recommend this series to those who love Scottish mystery. If you think about the book in terms of Rebus (and through him, the reader) understanding what happened and why -- it's satisfying, not really cheerful, but satisfying in that regard.It's really very impressive watching how Rankin weaves every strand of story and character in this novel -- it always is, but this web seems more intricate than usual.