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XXIV: Ian Rankin, Strip Jack (1992) (London: Orion, 1993)
Fourth of the Inspector Rebus novels, and I do have the sense that Rankin has worked out what he is doing as there are a couple of jaw-drop twists mid and late plot. That being said, this is the old group of school/university friends that share a secret from twenty years ago which has come back to haunt them.
Gregor Jack MP is caught in a police raid in a brothel that someone seems to have tipped off the London papers about. Rebus is convinced that someone is setting Jack up - although it's not immediately clear whether this is police politics or someone closer to Jack. Jack's wife disappears, apparently trying to deal with the scandal on her own, then shows up murdered; one of two seemingly related murders. Rebus's superiors have a suspect who has confessed to both, but he isn't convinced and slowly ties up all of Edinburgh's forensics community in crime scenes. Meanwhile there is the little unconnected matter of some stolen books, which of course is connected.
Pleasingly slippy.
XXV: Nino Culotta, They're a Weird Mob (1957) (Dingley, VIC: Seal Books, 1995, b/w Cyril Pearl, So, You Want to be an Australian? (1959))
Mid-fifties Australian humour. Culotta, a journalist from Northern Italy is sent to write stories about Australia and settles in Kings Bloody Cross, Sydney. He quickly gets a job with a group of builders and learns about work, leisure and family life (plus drinking) from them as he is slowly acclimatised and naturalised. The book cleverly switches between the pomposity of Culotta and the narrowness of the Australians, so the joke is on both houses. The funniest parts are when we as readers get to be superior to the confed journalist.
Culotta (= Pantaloon?) was the pseudonym of John O'Grady (1907-1981), and he went on to write the sequels Cop This Lot (1960), Gone Fishin' (1965) and Gone Gougin' (1975) as well as other humorous books on Australian culture. This wasn't laugh out loud funny, so I don't intend to track down the rest. More to the point, it's preparation for watching a Powell and Pressburger movie.
Fourth of the Inspector Rebus novels, and I do have the sense that Rankin has worked out what he is doing as there are a couple of jaw-drop twists mid and late plot. That being said, this is the old group of school/university friends that share a secret from twenty years ago which has come back to haunt them.
Gregor Jack MP is caught in a police raid in a brothel that someone seems to have tipped off the London papers about. Rebus is convinced that someone is setting Jack up - although it's not immediately clear whether this is police politics or someone closer to Jack. Jack's wife disappears, apparently trying to deal with the scandal on her own, then shows up murdered; one of two seemingly related murders. Rebus's superiors have a suspect who has confessed to both, but he isn't convinced and slowly ties up all of Edinburgh's forensics community in crime scenes. Meanwhile there is the little unconnected matter of some stolen books, which of course is connected.
Pleasingly slippy.
XXV: Nino Culotta, They're a Weird Mob (1957) (Dingley, VIC: Seal Books, 1995, b/w Cyril Pearl, So, You Want to be an Australian? (1959))
Mid-fifties Australian humour. Culotta, a journalist from Northern Italy is sent to write stories about Australia and settles in Kings Bloody Cross, Sydney. He quickly gets a job with a group of builders and learns about work, leisure and family life (plus drinking) from them as he is slowly acclimatised and naturalised. The book cleverly switches between the pomposity of Culotta and the narrowness of the Australians, so the joke is on both houses. The funniest parts are when we as readers get to be superior to the confed journalist.
Culotta (= Pantaloon?) was the pseudonym of John O'Grady (1907-1981), and he went on to write the sequels Cop This Lot (1960), Gone Fishin' (1965) and Gone Gougin' (1975) as well as other humorous books on Australian culture. This wasn't laugh out loud funny, so I don't intend to track down the rest. More to the point, it's preparation for watching a Powell and Pressburger movie.
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