''The Naming of the Dead'' is a
crime novel
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
by
Ian Rankin
Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.
Early life
Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a schoo ...
. It is the sixteenth of the
Inspector Rebus
The ''Inspector Rebus'' books are a series of detective novels by the Scottish author Sir Ian Rankin. The novels, centred on Detective Inspector John Rebus, are mostly based in and around Edinburgh. They are considered an important contribu ...
novels. It is set in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
in July 2005, in the week of the
G8 summit
The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia left in 2014.
The forum originated ...
in
Gleneagles.
Plot summary
An underlying thread throughout the book is that of familial relationships; the book opens with
Detective Inspector John Rebus
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. ...
attending the funeral of his brother Michael, who has died suddenly from a
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
. The parents of
Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke
This is a list of characters from the ''Inspector Rebus'' series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Ian Rankin. They are all fictional characters that have appeared in more than one novel in the series. A number of the characters appe ...
arrive in Edinburgh as part of the protests, demonstrations, and scuffles that surrounded the
G8 summit
The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia left in 2014.
The forum originated ...
at
Gleneagles, keeping the police busy. Clarke defied her parents by becoming a police officer; she now wants to feel like a daughter.
Rebus is nearing retirement ("nobody would blame you for coasting"), and becomes sidelined until the apparent
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
of MP Ben Webster occurs at a high-level meeting in
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. ...
. It emerges that Webster was campaigning against the
arms trade Arms trade may refer to:
*the global markets for any product of the arms industry
*Small arms trade
*Illegal arms trade (arms trafficking)
See also
*Arms Trade Treaty
*Arms control
*Nuclear proliferation
*Chemical weapon proliferation
*Arms race
* ...
, and Richard Pennen of Pennen Industries, a dealer in weapons technology, comes under suspicion.
At the same time, a
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
seems to be killing former offenders, helped by a website set up by the family of a victim. Clues have been deliberately left at
Clootie Well
A clootie well is a holy well (or sacred spring), almost always with a tree growing beside it, where small strips of cloth or ribbons are left as part of a healing ritual, usually by tying them to branches of the tree (called a clootie tree or r ...
(duplicated from the
Black Isle
The Black Isle ( gd, an t-Eilean Dubh, ) is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and Nor ...
to
Auchterarder
Auchterarder (; gd, Uachdar Àrdair, meaning Upper Highland) is a small town located north of the Ochil Hills in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, and home to the Gleneagles Hotel. The High Street of Auchterarder gave the town its popular name of "Th ...
for the purposes of the plot), a place where items of clothing are traditionally left for luck.
Siobhan Clarke is placed in charge of the investigation, although she is outranked by Rebus, and finds herself having to compromise with Edinburgh gangster
Morris Cafferty (for whom one of the victims was working as a bouncer) in hunting down the identity of the riot policeman who apparently assaulted her mother at a demonstration. Cafferty is also getting older, though his insecurity is balanced somewhat by his having had a biography ghost-written by local journalist Mairie Henderson. She is enlisted by Rebus and Clarke to help solve the crimes.
The new Chief Constable of
Lothian and Borders Police
Lothian and Borders Police was the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian between 1975 and 2013. The force's headquarters were in Fettes ...
, James Corbyn, is keen to put any potential controversy from the investigation of these sordid crimes on hold until the focus of the world's media has moved on. He puts Rebus and Clarke under suspension when they disobey him and they need to rely on Ellen Wylie for help.
David Steelforth, the
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
-based
Special Branch (SO12) Commander who is overseeing the policing of the G8 summit, seems to be holding back Rebus' work at every turn. Rebus and Clarke blow the cover of one of his agents. Former
preacher
A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a ...
Councillor Gareth Tench seems to Rebus to be involved due to his apparent closeness to one of the suspects,
Niddrie thug Keith Carberry.
Rebus and Clarke pursue their investigation daily, and sometimes hourly, against the background of the
31st G8 summit
The 31st G8 summit was held on 6–8 July 2005 at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland and hosted by Prime Minister Tony Blair. The locations of previous G8 summits to have been hosted by the UK include: London (1977, 1984, 1991); and ...
, seen from both the police side and that of the protestors; among the events referred to are the epic and peaceful Make Poverty History march, the
7/7 London bombings, the
2012 Olympic bid and
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
falling off his bicycle whilst waving at police officers: " 'Did we just do that?' Siobhan asked quietly." Clarke also attends two concerts, the Live8
Final Push and the 2005
T in the Park
T in the Park festival was a major Scottish music festival that was held annually from 1994 to 2016. It was named after its main sponsor, Tennents. The event was held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire, until 1996. It then moved to the disused ...
.
The title refers to: the ceremony Clarke's ageing left-wing parents attend, where the names of a sampling of the dead from the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
are read out; the list of victims created by Rebus and Clarke as they try to unravel the crime; and also to John Rebus' evocation of grief in naming the many of his own friends and family who have died in the course of his life.
By the end of the book, Clarke realises that she has grown closer than ever to understanding Rebus:
:"It's not enough, is it?" she repeated. "Just...symbolic...because there's nothing else you can do."
:"What are you talking about?" he asked, with a smile.
:"The naming of the dead," she told him, resting her head against his shoulder. (p.410.)
She increasingly fears that she is becoming more like him:
"obsessed and sidelined, thrawn and distrusted. Rebus had lost family and friends. When he went out drinking, he did so on his own, standing quietly at the bar, facing the row of optics."
Literary significance and criticism
The book, which shows how crime permeates society, has been called "Ian Rankin's finest novel... more than a crime novel". Rebus was compared with
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
's fictional detective
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
and the book described as "dark, murky and less immediate than his other novels, but still zinging with wit and his inimitable gift for plot. His richest and most complex work to date".
There are also references in the book to the TV series ''
Columbo
''Columbo'' () is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC f ...
'', of which Rankin is a fan.
References
External links
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*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Naming Of The Dead, The
2006 British novels
Inspector Rebus novels
Novels set in Edinburgh
Fiction set in 2005
Orion Books books