THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER

"Only great novels capture the spirit of the age. This is one of them." - The Sunday Times 

John Rebus, with his creaking lungs and knees, and Brillo, his adorable mutt, have moved home at last — to the flat below. Before he gets round to telling his daughter Samantha, her husband, a local history buff, goes missing. Meanwhile, DI Siobhan Clarke and the Machiavellian Malcolm Fox investigate the murder of a Saudi millionaire’s son who had a thing for James Bond as played by Sean Connery. Just when you begin to think there’s someone missing, Fox receives a call from an ageing gangster, Big Ger Cafferty, who just happens to own the club where the victim partied with his frightful friends.

Ian Rankin’s genius for creating a complex double plot, even after more than 30 novels, remains undiminished. Rebus, who always used to tell Clarke that “the simple explanation usually turns out to be the right one”, is determined to protect his child from prosecution, even if she is involved in her husband’s disappearance. Could the man’s research into a nearby Second World War internment camp provide an answer? In both cases the usual suspects — money, love, jealousy and hate — play key roles.

A Song for the Dark Times portrays a world in which everyone is “bitter and pointing the finger at the person they think is to blame for their misfortune.”