Brianna Reviews - Strip Jack by Ian Rankin

Published:  2008 (first published 1992)
Publisher: Orion
Format: Paperback

Synopsis: What begins as a case of typical British indiscretion, when a prominent member of Parliament is caught in a police raid on an Edinburgh brothel, turns into a nasty murder investigation when his party-happy wife is soon found beaten to death. It's up to Inspector Rebus to learn whether the MP is self-destructing, or the victim of a cruel set-up at the hands of a bitter rival. An intricately plotted mystery set in the high-stakes world of British society and politics.

Strip Jack is #4 in the Inspector Rebus series and I’m not entirely sure what I thought of it. I gave it 4 stars on goodreads because ultimately I enjoyed reading it. If I could give half stars I might have given it a 3.5 to account for my confusion about what I actually thought of it (maybe by the end of this review I’ll know).

Rebus is back in Edinburgh, which isn’t really a surprise as he does live there after all, but he is not living entirely alone. The first half of the book to me seemed to focus quite heavily on Rebus’s relationships with friends (Holmes) and colleagues and it's the first time the book did not start with a murder which leaves Rebus fishing for a case more than usual. I say this but I think he was only really lacking a case in Hide & Seek.  I was very pleased to see Holmes again, and quite a bit of him. It seems I might have my wish of him being a reoccurring character. Another character to reappear is George Flight from the previous book via a phone call with Rebus. It wasn’t much but it’s nice to see they aren’t forgotten.

The case itself is quite complex and feels a little bit like Cluedo. There is a large group of old friends all with secrets and Rebus suspects that one of them did it or knows something about it; he just has to find out which one. It could get confusing unless you have no problem keeping track of quite a few characters. I didn’t see it coming but then neither did Rebus

.

Overall I think this book had a different feel to the previous 3 - I just can’t quite put my finger on what it is. I enjoyed the book and I guess that not every book in the 18 book series will grab me like the first 3.