STRIP JACK

A return to Edinburgh and its sturdy police force, focusing again on Detective Inspector John Rebus (Knobs and Crosses, 1988; Watchman, 1991) as he now tries to solve the murder of Liz Jack — only child of mogul Sir Hugh Ferrie; wife of respected Member of Parliament Gregor Jack; and, in her well-hidden private life, centerpiece of wild weekends at Deer Lodge, her isolated cottage. Jack himself seemed uninvolved in those activities but had recently been caught in a well-publicized raid on a brothel that — to Rebus, anyway — looked like a set-up. As his superiors try to make a case against a local drifter, Rebus struggles through red herrings, false alibis, secret liaisons, and his own arid emotions until, aided by sharp-eyed sidekick Brian Holmes, he nails his quarry. A solidly absorbing procedural — all enlivened by a succession of offbeat characters and by the author's eccentric but appealing narrative style.