Book Description
Bible John killed three women, and took three souvenirs. Johnny Bible killed to steal his namesake's glory. Oilman Allan Mitchelson died for his principles. And convict Lenny Spaven died just to prove a point. "Bible John" terrorized Glasgow in the sixties and seventies, murdering three women he met in a local ballroom--and he was never caught. Now a copycat is at work. Nicknamed "Bible Johnny" by the media, he is a new menace with violent ambitions.

The Bible Johnny case would be perfect for Inspector John Rebus, but after a run-in with a crooked senior officer, he's been shunted aside to one of Edinburgh's toughest suburbs, where he investigates the murder of an off-duty oilman. His investigation takes him north to the oil rigs of Aberdeen, where he meets the Bible Johnny media circus head-on. Suddenly caught in the glare of the television cameras and in the middle of more than one investigation, Rebus must proceed wiht caution: One mistake could mean an unpleasant and not particularly speedy death, or, worse still, losing his job.

Written with Ian Rankin's signature wit, style and intricacy, Black and Blue is a novel of uncommon and unforgettable intrigue.



From the Publisher
"Brilliant...the kind of blistering police procedural that gives the genre a good name." --Entertainment Weekly (A rating) "Reading [Ian Rankin] is like watching somebody juggle a dozen bottles of single malt without spilling a drop." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Ian Rankin is a novelist of great scope, depth, and power, and Black and Blue is a dark, intensely evocative and altogether riveting thriller. Brilliant."--Bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman "Ian Rankin's Scottish police procedurals are so gritty you have to pick the shards out of your teeth when you finish one, and Black and Blue is as flinty as they come." --The New York Times Book Review OVERWHELMING ACCLAIM FOR AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR IAN RANKIN
"In Rankin you cannot go wrong." --The Boston Globe "The progenitor--and king--of tartan noir." --James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential "A brutal but beautifully written series...The author pushes the procedural form well past conventional genre limits." --The New York Times Book Review "A master of mood and setting." --Toronto Globe and Mail "Rankin gives his inspector a refreshing smart-ass personality." --San Francisco Chronicle "John Rebus calls for comparison with Colin Dexter's Oxford copper Inspector Morse...Rankin creates a living, breathing world in which his weary protagonist tackles cases while involved in the intricacies of the day-to-day: Pints and hangovers, stumbling romance, wet weather, damp clothes, tricky superiors and wide-eyed subordinates." -- Publishers Weekly


About the Author
Ian Rankin has written fourteen previous novels, and has also worked as a grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, music journalist, and punk rock musician. He and his wife live in Edinburgh with their two sons.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A murdered oil-rig worker. A copycat serial killer dubbed "Johnny Bible." And a reopened investigation that doesn't bode well for Detective John Rebus or his mentor, Inspector Lawson Geddes. Rebus's Scotland, along with his malt-soaked psyche, is riddled with trouble. Now he's got to tie up the loose ends if he wants to save his job - or live to see another dark Edinburgh day.

SYNOPSIS

A copycat is at work, nicknamed "Bible Johnny" by the media, a new menace with violent ambitions.

FROM THE CRITICS

Entertainment Weekly

Brilliant...the kind of blistering police procedural that gives the genre a good name....Rankin's prose is so graceful, the complicated plot so seamless, and the portraits of even minor characters so searing, it makes for an almost flawless performance.

New York Times Book Review

Ian Rankin's Scottish police procedurals are so gritty you have to pick the shards out of your teeth when you finish one, and Black and Blue is as flinty as they come.

AudioFile

This captivating police procedural is set in the northern reaches of Scotland. Edinburgh police detective John Rebus takes us to Aberdeen, Inverness, and the Shetlands on a quest for serial killers and drug dealers. Stuart Langton, a 34-year-old native of England who has lived in the U.S. for eleven years, reads Rebus's story with a flat monotone that perfectly captures Rebus's sad, sardonic world. Langton's steady reading is totally engaging, pulling the listener into a world of corruption, alcoholism, and Rolling Stones music. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Nearly 30 years after a serial killer dubbed Bible John abruptly retired after three vicious murders, he's back in the news again. Johnny Bible, an equally perverted killer who seems to be much younger, is imitating him with a gusto that suggests close research. Even though he knew one of Johnny Bible's victims, Edinburgh's Inspector John Rebus is in no position to take on this new case; he's got his hands full with a murdered oil-rig painter and the threatened reopening of a case in which he and his mentor, Inspector Lawson Geddes, may have planted evidence years and years ago that framed Lenny Spaven, who went to his death insisting he was innocent. When Rebus takes a few days in Aberdeen to visit the oil company's headquarters and incidentally chat up the locals about another of Johnny Bible's victims, he ends up under suspicion of killing a fourth victim himself and gets stuck with a minder who'll report his every move back to the very same Chief Inspector who's been put in charge of the Spaven case. Can things get any worse? Of course they can. For even though Rebus is behind the eight-ball, another avenger—Bible John himself—is prepared to do whatever it takes to catch the copycat.

Rebus's eighth case (Let It Bleed, 1996, etc.) is his biggest and most grueling so far. Yet Rankin's dexterity in juggling plots and threats and motives lights up the darkness with a poet's grace. Reading him is like watching somebody juggle a dozen bottles of single malt without spilling a drop.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Ian Rankin is a novelist of great scope, depth, and power, and Black and Blue is a dark, intensely evocative and altogether riveting thriller. Brilliant. — Jonathan Kellerman

"Brilliant...the kind of blistering police procedural that gives the genre a good name." --Entertainment Weekly (A rating)

"Reading [Ian Rankin] is like watching somebody juggle a dozen bottles of single malt without spilling a drop." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Ian Rankin is a novelist of great scope, depth, and power, and Black and Blue is a dark, intensely evocative and altogether riveting thriller. Brilliant." --Bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman

"Ian Rankin's Scottish police procedurals are so gritty you have to pick the shards out of your teeth when you finish one, and Black and Blue is as flinty as they come." --The New York Times Book Review

OVERWHELMING ACCLAIM FOR AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR IAN RANKIN
"In Rankin you cannot go wrong." --The Boston Globe

"The progenitor--and king--of tartan noir." --James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential

"A brutal but beautifully written series...The author pushes the procedural form well past conventional genre limits." --The New York Times Book Review

"A master of mood and setting." --Toronto Globe and Mail

"Rankin gives his inspector a refreshing smart-ass personality." --San Francisco Chronicle