Knots and Crosses -- Ian Rankin

Yeah.  I'd been meaning to get around to starting this series for ages.  Not only has it been recommended to me again and again by Readers I Trust, but Ian Rankin is slated to do a run on Hellblazer sometime after Denise Mina*, and, well, gritty crime fiction set in Scotland is just something that appeals to me.

Okay.  I admit it.  What really and truly bumped me out of Ian Rankin Procrastination Land was watching the first season of Rebus.

John Hannah**?  Hot.  So dreamy that I spent at least thirty minutes discussing him (and Rebus) with one of my patrons -- and then, when she came to the library THE NEXT DAY, we did it AGAIN.  It was a tad ridiculous.

So obviously, I had to get off my lazy fangirl ass*** and track down the first book in the series.

The premise in a nutshell:  Someone is strangling teen girls in Edinburgh but there is no apparent connection between the stranglees.  Detective Sergeant Rebus is getting anonymous notes in the mail that say there are clues everywhere, he's neck-deep in office politics and a journalist suspects that he and his hypnotist brother are Up To No Good. 

Hooray.  I found the mystery engaging, but really, for me, it was all about Rebus.  Because, well:

Near his flat, he passed a little grocery shop outside of which were stacked crates of milk and morning rolls.  The owner had complained in private to Rebus about petty and occasional thefts, but would not submit a complaint proper.  The shop was a dead as the street, the solitude of the moment disturbed only by the distant rumble of a taxi on cobblestones and the persistence of the dawn chorus.  Rebus looked around him, examining the many curtained windows.  Then, swiftly, he tore six rolls from a layer and stuffed them into his pockets, walking away a little too briskly.  A moment later he hesitated, then walked back on tiptoe to the shop, the criminal returning to the scene of the crime, the dog to its vomit.  Rebus had never actually seen dogs doing that, but he had it on the authority of Saint Peter.

Looking round again, he lifted a pint of milk out of its crate and made his getaway, whistling silently to himself.

See?  Hot.

Hoping to get the next one soon.

*Who I finally picked up BECAUSE of her run on Hellblazer.

**People do seem to be divided about his casting.  Some love him as Rebus, others hate him.  But, as I watched first and read second (and have only read the first book), I loved him.

***Metaphorically.  I actually ordered it online.