Crime:Does Exit Music signal the end of DI John Rebus? Those in the know say it is so, but the author and his publishers, like David Chase of The Sopranos fame, remain enigmatic.
It will be a pity if he fades into oblivion, rather than just into retirement. He's a likable, if grumpy, old so-and-so. He has lived a bachelor-type life for a good while, his ex-wife having absconded to Italy and his daughter to England to live with a college lecturer.
The only true constants in his existence now are cigarettes and the booze, and his knowledge of the city of Edinburgh and its criminal classes.
This present volume sees him in his last week before retirement.
He and DS Siobhan Clarke are tying up some loose ends of cases when a murder occurs. Person or persons unknown beat a well-known Russian poet to death, and the event happens on Rebus's patch. Although those in command don't want him to investigate, he goes blindly ahead, as is his wont. He interviews all the people with whom the dead man had come in contact, and in the process steps on a lot of toes.
There are the politicians who are entertaining a group of Russian businessmen and there is local gangster Big Ger Cafferty, who is also involved with them.
The more that Rebus and Clarke dig, the more they become convinced that the poet's death is more than just a random mugging. He was a dissident, criticising the government of his country at every opportunity, so Rebus goes peeking into the local Russian Consulate, a move that does not endear him to his superiors.
Another murder then takes place, when a man who had recorded the poet's last recital is found dead in his burned-out house.
The situation becomes more and more complex when Rebus discovers that a group of well-known bankers are implicated. In the end he is suspended from duty, but he perseveres and, with the help of the ever-faithful DS Clarke, he bulls through in the end.
Exit Music may be a little too long, with the padding showing through, but the fans, of which there are millions, will not be bothered.
Their only desire will be to know if Rebus is ever to return. There are a couple of clues in the text as to how that could be managed. One of the characters asks Rebus if he will join the Serious Crime Review Unit, where a number of retired detectives look at unsolved crimes. Then, a little later on, DS Clarke muses that in retirement he will probably bug her, wanting to know everything about her caseload.
Unlike Morse, who was killed off, Rebus merely fades into retirement, so I believe he will return in some form or other. He is too successful a character to stay off the bestseller lists for long.
Vincent Banville is a writer
Exit Music By Ian Rankin Orion, xxxpp. £18.99