The Falls (Rankin novel)

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The Falls
IanRankinTheFalls.jpg
First edition
Author Ian Rankin
CountryScotland
LanguageEnglish
Series Inspector Rebus
Genre Detective fiction
Publisher Orion Books
Publication date
2001
Media typePrint
Pages475 pages
ISBN 0-7528-4405-9
OCLC 59522317
Preceded by Set in Darkness  
Followed by Resurrection Men  

The Falls is a 2001 crime novel by Ian Rankin. It is the twelfth of the Inspector Rebus novels. [1]

Contents

Plot summary

A student vanishes in Edinburgh and her wealthy family of bankers ensures Lothian and Borders Police is under pressure to find her. The novel presents in detail a difficult case, where the newly appointed (and first female) Chief Super, Gill Templer, is trying to please her superiors and manipulate her CID officers. In the course of the novel, DC Siobhan Clarke must decide whether to take a plum position offered her by DCS Templer or stick with investigation in the style of John Rebus. [2]

Two sets of clues, one nineteenth-century and one twenty-first-century, appear. A carved wooden doll in a coffin found near the missing woman's East Lothian home leads Rebus to the National Museum of Scotland's collection of dolls in coffins found on Arthur's Seat in 1836, after the famous Burke and Hare murders in Edinburgh. [3] Rebus also wanders into the Surgeons' Hall, where he meets several forensic pathologists of his acquaintance and sees the Burke and Hare exhibit there. [4] A museum curator, Jean Burchill, alerts him to what might be a more recent serial killer marking his exploits with such coffins. While Rebus pursues these historical angles in libraries, police archives, and museums, DC Siobhan Clarke interacts with an electronic trail via computer and mobile phone. Clarke discovers that the woman who disappeared had been playing an Internet role-playing game, [5] and tackles the virtual Quizmaster; she risks the same fate as the missing girl.

TV Adaptation

The Falls was the first episode in the second Rebus television series, starring Ken Stott, airing in 2006. This version is substantially changed from the novel and somewhat resembles the plot of the film Chinatown.

Related Research Articles

Detective Inspector John Rebus is the protagonist in the Inspector Rebus series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Sir Ian Rankin, ten of which have so far been televised as Rebus. The novels are mostly set in and around Edinburgh. Rebus has been portrayed by John Hannah and Ken Stott for Television, with Ron Donachie playing the character for the BBC Radio dramatisations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Rankin</span> Scottish writer

Sir Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.

<i>Inspector Rebus</i> Series of detective novels by Ian Rankin

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<i>Set in Darkness</i>

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<i>The Naming of the Dead</i>

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The Complaints is a novel by Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin. It was published in the United Kingdom on 3 September 2009.

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A Heart Full of Headstones is the 24th installment in the Inspector Rebus series written by Ian Rankin. The title comes from the song "Single Father" by Jackie Leven, four lines of which are quoted on the last page of the novel. The novel is set during the period when COVID-19 is a threat but lockdown has ended, probably in 2022.

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References

  1. The Falls by Ian Rankin official website
  2. Peter Guttridge, "Uptown Top Rankin," The Guardian 17 March 2001. Gill Plain analyzes the situation in terms of political forces: "[Clarke's] mentors--Templer or Rebus--represent a choice between the New Labour vision of a modern service economy and the historic, but still potent, legacy of urban working-class Scotland." Gill Plain, "Concepts of Corruption: Crime Fiction and the Scottish 'State'," in The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature, ed. Berthold Schoene (Edinburgh University Press, 2000), 137.
  3. "The Mystery of the Miniature Coffins".
  4. Carolyn McCracken Flesher, in The Doctor Dissected: A Cultural Autopsy of the Burke and Hare Murder (Oxford University Press, 2012), suggests that in this novel (along with the preceding Set in Darkness and the following Resurrection Men ), "Rankin works his way through the issues underlying the national metaphor ... enacted through Burke and Hare.... John Rebus demonstrates new uses for Burke and Hare in the place that is today's Scotland" (p. 221).
  5. This actually takes the form of a treasure hunt conducted using email; the only reward for solving a clue is the next clue. Possibly for this reason, Guttridge comments that "The virtual reality conjured up in the game pales by comparison" with Rebus's handling of material clues.Peter Guttridge, "Uptown Top Rankin," The Guardian 17 March 2001