One of the best Rebus books so far, three intertwined mysteries taking our hero and his protégée to the murky underworld of asylum centres, strip clubs, and illegal immigration; I felt that Ian Rankin was trying unusually hard to include social commentary on all these issues into the story, and even more unusually I thought he succeeded. Perhaps the most unrealistic aspect is that we discover Rebus to be a staunch anti-racist, which seems a little (though not hugely) out of character from previous books. Very strongly recommended.
And that concludes my book-blogging from my recent travels. Relatively normal service to be resumed soon.
Hadn’t thought of that! You may be interested to know that Kyril I (Morris West) is far ahead of the field on GoodReads, but only narrowly beats Hadrian VII (Rolfe/Corvo) on LibraryThing. Since we have already had an Eastern European, and as there is no English cardinal in the mix this year (for the first time since the early 19th century, I suspect), I don’t think either book will turn out a good guide.