Exit Music by Ian Rankin

DATE PUBLISHED: 2007 DATE READ: July 2009 NOTES: A Russian poet is murdered in a quiet Edinburgh street and nearby on the same night a drug dealer is stabbed. Rebus and Clarke begin to see links with the Russian businessmen visiting the town, local politicians and (of course) Cafferty. It is Rebus’ last week in the job and needless to say he continues to break all the rules and upset his superiors. Exit Music is written with great verve. Characters are very well written and the city atmosphere feels authentic - even if some of the plotting is a bit far-fetched. Far too many neat links and coincidences for me…. As in the previous books Rankin cleverly includes real news events in the narrative. Bankers are depicted as evil dark forces – he must have been greatly amused when RBOS went bust! Rebus is a great character and will be missed – perhaps Siobhan will step up to take his place? As this was the last of the series I was hoping for a really great final book but this was on the whole a bit disappointing. Not the final flourish I was hoping for.