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K's Reviews > The Falls
The Falls (Inspector Rebus, #12)
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Rating The Falls is a bit challenging for me, because it is, at times, both engaging and elusive. Ian Rankin excels at placing you in the heart of Scotland, and draws his characters well. However, the story seems to suffer from a split personality. On the one hand, there are fast moving, action-packed scenes full of tension and well-written dialogue. But on the other hand, there are far too many pages of tedium.
The plot actually involves two sets of murders running in parallel. However, the reader isn’t permitted to discern that dichotomy until late in the book and it felt almost a little like being cheated, since valuable clues are withheld until the last. One critical element of the story involves a mysterious Internet-based individual known only as Quizmaster, who runs a sort of puzzle treasure-hunt game by providing clues for participants to solve in order to get to the next level. There is an addictive element to the game which seems to have led to the death of the daughter of a wealthy banker. When one of the detectives begins to play the game in order to discover Quizmaster’s identity, credulity suffers. Instead of using the tech resources of the police, she and a partner go traipsing all over Scotland, seeking answers to the clues and obviously being whipsawed about by their mysterious tormenter, whom they suspect is the murderer.
The protagonist, Inspector Rebus, is the typical flawed cop who drinks too much, has trouble being a team player, and can’t seem to hold onto a relationship. He’s an entertaining character, just not a unique one. While that can be forgiven, it made connecting with the book that much more difficult.
As I stated earlier, there are parts of the story that are flat out terrific. Had Rankin trimmed the story more efficiently, say by some 150 pages, this would have been a 4-5 star book. I haven’t read any of the other Inspector Rebus novels, so I’ve no way to compare, but would hope they are more tightly edited. I might read some of the others in this series, but it will likely be a while before I do.
The plot actually involves two sets of murders running in parallel. However, the reader isn’t permitted to discern that dichotomy until late in the book and it felt almost a little like being cheated, since valuable clues are withheld until the last. One critical element of the story involves a mysterious Internet-based individual known only as Quizmaster, who runs a sort of puzzle treasure-hunt game by providing clues for participants to solve in order to get to the next level. There is an addictive element to the game which seems to have led to the death of the daughter of a wealthy banker. When one of the detectives begins to play the game in order to discover Quizmaster’s identity, credulity suffers. Instead of using the tech resources of the police, she and a partner go traipsing all over Scotland, seeking answers to the clues and obviously being whipsawed about by their mysterious tormenter, whom they suspect is the murderer.
The protagonist, Inspector Rebus, is the typical flawed cop who drinks too much, has trouble being a team player, and can’t seem to hold onto a relationship. He’s an entertaining character, just not a unique one. While that can be forgiven, it made connecting with the book that much more difficult.
As I stated earlier, there are parts of the story that are flat out terrific. Had Rankin trimmed the story more efficiently, say by some 150 pages, this would have been a 4-5 star book. I haven’t read any of the other Inspector Rebus novels, so I’ve no way to compare, but would hope they are more tightly edited. I might read some of the others in this series, but it will likely be a while before I do.
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Reading Progress
November 6, 2018
– Shelved
January 5, 2019
–
Started Reading
January 7, 2019
–
Finished Reading
