The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories: From the iconic #1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES

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I'd only read one Rebus novel before and hadn't really taken to it, but I did very much enjoy this collection.

Many of these stories featured in two previously published collections, A Good Hanging and Beggars Banquet. I heard a few of these CDs in other people's cars, and had to concede that, yes, The Ride of the Valkyries (to skip composers) was a pretty damn' fine track. This is the ultimate Ian Rankin treasure trove - a must-have book for aficionados and crime lovers as well as a superb introduction from anyone looking to experience DI John Rebus, and the dark and twist-filled crimes he has to investigate, for the very first time. Rebus hadn't made many friends in his adult life, but he had his network of contacts and he was proud of it as any grandparent would be of their extended family.Now Rebus's life is revealed through this complete collection of stories, from his early days as a young DC in 'Dead and Buried' right up to the dramatic, but not quite final, retirement in 'The Very Last Drop'.

All the twelve Rebus stories in A Good Hanging and Other Stories are included: they cover a chronological year in Rebus’s life; "Playback" in March, "A Good Hanging" in August during the Festival Fringe and "Auld Lang Syne" in December. This offering contains all of Rebus' short stories, which originally appeared in A Good Hanging and Other Stories and Beggars Banquet. For me, one of the great joys of middle-period Rebus (less so early on and in the novels of the recent renaissance) is the complex, near-claustrophobic nature of both the character and the setting. From his beginnings as a young Detective Constable in Dead and Buried right up to his dramatic, but not quite final, retirement in The Very Last Drop, Rebus shines in these stories, confirming his status as one of crime fiction's most compelling, brilliant, and unforgettable characters.Rankin talks about his own childhood, how he first wrote about the detective, how he discovered that he was really writing about Edinburgh and how he really got to know Rebus. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. I assume this collection of short stories has been issued to fill the void that many of us Rebus fans would have felt without a new book for the winter. Gut es sind Kurzgeschichten, die schon aufgrund ihrer Kürze weder die Komplexität noch die Tiefe eines Romans erreichen können. Of course Rebus is incredibly clever and always works out who the culprit is, but the reader isn't given the time to pick up clues and try to guess.

DS Brian Holmes often seems to resent the senior detective’s inability to share information about his methods. Dadurch ist die Atmosphäre erheblich weniger düster als in den Romanen und ich konnte beim Lesen sehr viel schmunzeln.The novella Death is Not The End is thrown in for good measure, along with a couple of newbies, which I'd not previously read.

A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts.The opening story, Dead and Buried, actually references events in the most recent novel and features a young Rebus when he was a CID newbie at Summerhall station in the mid-80s and still a married man. When I read one of the other cover quotes I sniggered: "One of the great modern cops, a kind of Scottish cousin to Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch" (Patrick Anderson, Washington Post). There are six uncollected stories from magazines and newspapers, often for a Christmas issue so set in the festive season.