Midnight and blue by Ian Rankin

John Rebus is now an inmate alongside some of the toughest criminals in Scotland. His survival as an ex-detective in prison is dependent on his ability to read the motives and power plays of fellow prisoners and even the prison officers. But Rebus has walked a fine line all his life, except this time it seems even more difficult when a fellow inmate is murdered in his cell. At the same time his former police colleagues are investigating the disappearance of a teen as well as the prison murder. Rebus must collect information and act as an informant without anyone realising. The twisted nature of police politics and power plays within the ranks adds some difficulty to an investigation that implicates organised crime bosses and their power struggles. 

Rankin has again created a brilliant story mired with the awfulness of society on the wrong side of ‘right’. The police do not come out as squeaky clean, but the difficulty of reading small clues requires incredible skill. Rebus fans will love this next instalment in his life saga. His survival is a minor miracle… but he exercises incredible ‘smarts’ in every situation. The accounts of exploitation in the story are not easy, so this book is definitely for adult readers. Even for those who have not entered Rebus’ world in earlier books in the long series, this is a great crime story in combination with a murder mystery and could be read without knowing the entire back story. Rankin, though, is a master of the art of crime drama and keeps you hanging on until the last page.

Themes: Prison, Organised crime, Police corruption, Pornography/paedophilia/sextortion, Murder.

Carolyn Hull