Dead Souls: From the iconic #1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES

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If you think about the book in terms of Rebus (and through him, the reader) understanding what happened and why -- it's satisfying, not really cheerful, but satisfying in that regard. This might actually be the high point for Rebus in this novel -- at least as far as the way he feels goes. He entertainingly plays Stevens (and quite a few other people) for the fool, and though the character is quite a bit over the top it does make for considerable menace and suspense. Tests to his relationship with Patience as well, which you will have to read about to see if it is resolved satisfactorily.

Rebus finds himself on a treacherous precipice both professionally and personally, dealing not only with the death of a long-time friend and colleague, Jack Morton, but also disturbing cases both past and present. His experience with both Rough and Oakes makes Rebus think out his prejudices and question how much a person is the product of his inherited nature, and how much nurture shapes that character. In this entry,as in most of the Rebus books, there is a lot going on and none of it provides easy answers for Rebus and his mates. Letting the neighbours know who the new man is in one of Edinburgh's rougher council estates is enough to pretty much ruin Rough's life -- but that turns out not be quite as satisfying as Rebus had hoped. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and I would highly recommend this series to those who love Scottish mystery.

Then there is the case of a missing boy who goes missing right around the time that it is discovered that Darren Rouse, the convicted pedophile, is living in the same apartment complex.

His main task is to work with Siobhan Clarke and a rookie to be a very obvious police presence to a convicted multiple-murderer, recently released and deported from the US back to Scotland. The more obvious example is Darren Rough, a convicted pedophile (who himself was a victim of sexual abuse as a child living in an orphanage) who served his jail sentence and has now been set free.

Rebus, while following Rough, observes him taking pictures of the animals or is the children at a zoo.

If you stop and think about how many criminal seem to "get away" with their crimes (as defined by not being charged/tried), it's not that satisfying. Darren Rouse, the pedophile, claims that he is taking a photography class and the zoo is his assignment. And coincidence would have it that one of the criminals that really got to both Rebus and Margulies, the paedophile Darren Rough, is back in town. I was surprised and touched to read in the intro that the title is a reference to a Joy Division song - I had assumed that it referred in some way to Gogol. As a high school teacher, there were many times a student's behavior would become crystal clear after meeting his parents.

This worked for me, I’ve yet to find a nice neat outcome in life, but some readers find the ambiguous conclusion frustrating. The man was standing on a grassy slope sixty-odd feet away, adjusting the focus on a sizeable telescopic lens. When Rebus discovers that Rough has been assigned an apartment with a view of a children's playground, he "outs" Rough to the other tenants with disastrous consequences.