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The mother-in-law of the owner of my favorite used bookstore has been on my ass for years to give the Inspector Rebus books a shot. When this one turned up during one of my semi-weekly visits, I decided it was time. Alex Mcauley: Main antagonist of Double Cross, a crime boss in a war with the Dowds. He tries to make Tobey join him, but is killed by Dan, who replaces him. The ‘Noughts & Crosses’ series provides us with an explicit flip and twist on both the history and current political and cultural demographic of British society – where racial politics is turned on its head and power structures are completely reversed. I was also busy taking in the surroundings. Because Rankin’s vision of Scotland – and Edinburgh in particular – is fascinating. Taken together, the early Rebus books now form a series of snapshots of the city’s relatively recent, but very different history. There are references to the heroin epidemic that would also fuel Trainspotting. Leith Walk is not yet gentrified, hasn’t quite forgotten its seagoing past. Yuppies are showing up from London, where property is booming, marvelling at the house prices, buying everything they can … OK, not everything’s changed. There’s also consistency in the lurking darkness. Much of the plot was predictable. There were few, if any, surprises. I predicted Lynette's suicide, Gabe joining the Liberation Militia, and Callum's dad's suicide quite easily.
The thing with this book is that it doesn't necessarily have to do with race at all. It imparts encouragement to fight for what you believe in, to be brave, to do the right thing, to be compassionate, to never judge a person before you know them, to be understanding, to be fair... When a serial killer starts murdering young girls in Edinburgh, Rebus is drafted onto the team investigating the deaths. At about the same time Rebus starts getting anonymous letters with cryptic messages, which he thinks are from some joker - maybe even his ex-wife or daughter. Update. This is a tv series now. I hated this book, but from an ideological and personal perspective, rather than an entertainment one which is how I suppose most people read it. I'm wondering whether to watch the tv series and take it lightly or if I will be as upset as I was reading the book? Overall, I enjoyed this first book in the series and feel like it's a good introduction to Rebus and his personality. The series gets even better in later books, with Rebus becoming more fully realized as a character and the mysteries themselves becoming more sophisticated and complex.
Detective Sergeant John Rebus is assigned to the case, a top priority in Edinburgh, where the locals like to think this sort of thing can't happen. Persephone "Sephy" Hadley is a Cross and the daughter of a wealthy senior politician, Kamal Hadley, who later becomes Prime Minister. Callum McGregor is a Nought, and they used to play together when Jasmine Adeyebe-Hadley, Sephy's mother, employed Meggie McGregor, Callum's mother, as a nanny. Ever since Jasmine fired Meggie, however, Sephy and Callum's friendship has been secret, as such interracial friendships are frowned upon by society.
There’s a sense of threat and danger throughout this version of Edinburgh. It is an impressively nasty book. Not just because of its ugly crimes, but also thanks to a bleak sensibility. One that is only enhanced by the lead character: Rebus himself is one of the things that makes the city feel so unsafe. We don’t know how many crimes he has solved. We haven’t seen his contempt for corruption and his fundamental decency. There is instead a feeling that this occasionally violent and permanently gruff man may be the mad one. That he may have murder inside him.
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Noughts & Crosses is written alternately in the voices of Sephy and Callum, in short chapters that grant the two differing perspectives. There's pain and tension here, and anger - it's a mature book, and doesn't shy away from the worst of human nature. It's well written, with both Sephy and Callum growing older, more mature, more disillusioned. For a book that's not set anywhere in particular, about a world that doesn't literally exist, it's a very real story because it pokes right at the heart of so many of our problems and makes no apologies for forcing us to look at ourselves.
Nathan Ealing: The owner of a restaurant at which Sephy sings. They realise that they have feelings for each other and get married, having a son named Troy. Once more I look into the mirror. For me, it was a marriage of twenty years, two children. Busted. I have grandchildren I've never met. I'm one up on Rebus. My second marriage is on the downhill run. It's never clear what exactly led to Rebus and his wife divorcing. I think it had to do with the work. The hours. The time away. I remember being told "You care about other people's children more than your own." The fact was, I knew mine were safe. I saw to that. But the work was relentless.Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow. He is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award, and he received two Dagger Awards for the year's best short story and the Gold Dagger for Fiction. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, and Edinburgh. She meets Jaxon, a hot-tempered man with a band, the Midges. He offers Sephy a singing part, but the Noughts are prejudiced against her because she is a Cross. In her emotional turmoil, she begins to neglect Callie Rose. A second theatre adaptation of the first book titled Noughts and Crosses premiered at Derby Theatre in February 2019, and toured the UK. This stage version is adapted by Sabrina Mahfouz and directed by Esther Richardson for Pilot Theatre. [6]
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