‘I’m saying Rebus got results the old way, without seeming to earn them. He did tat because he got close to some nasty people in a way you couldn’t. This is what you’re good at, Malcolm.’ He tapped the desk. ‘Rebus specialises in something a bit different – doesn’t necessarily make him the enemy.’

Rebus is back; though retired from the police, he is helping out at a cold-case unit as a civilian contractor, and remains as determinedly individualistic as ever. In this story his determination to identify and track down a serial killer by whatever means necessary is a uncomfortable contrast with the structures and systems of the modern force, which Rankin suggests has lost sight of the ethical forest for the procedural trees; the story is at least as much about Rebus’ relationship with his former workplace as about the crime. An excellent addition to the series.