THE FALLS

Flip, a 20-year-old art history student, is missing after joining a compulsive interactive internet game. A tiny doll in a coffin is discovered at a place called Falls, a companion perhaps to the mysterious eight surviving real-life Arthur’s Seat coffins from 1836 (and maybe also to several others found in recent years).

And soon the police realise that a while back the body of Jürgen, another student also keen on interactive games, was found on a remote Scottish hillside; while the other recently discovered dolls in coffins can be linked to a series of apparent suicides that may now have to be regarded as cases of murder.

Rebus doesn’t know what to make of the computer angle that seems to be commanding so much of the investigation, and so it is left to DC Siobhan Clarke to step into the breach, although she soon finds herself facing a series of ever more demanding challenges as she embarks on a life-or-death role-playing treasure hunt orchestrated by an enigmatic Quizmaster.

As Siobhan turns down a promotion and Rebus ignores instructions to see a doctor, the pair find themselves in bad odour with their new boss, DCS Gill Templer (who has history with Rebus), as they become gripped by a complex set of clues that may turn out instead to be mere distractions.

Ian Rankin shows Siobhan coming of age as a detective in The Falls, played out against the poignancy of Rebus’s understanding that technology is now taking over in many investigations and that a technophobe such as himself may be the last of a dying breed unless, of course, the drink gets to him first.

Discussion points for The Falls

There’s a new love interest for Rebus. Does he treat her better than previous partners?

David Costello comments that the Scots can be overly reductive – such as Old Town versus New, Catholic versus Protestant, east coast versus west – is this true in Ian Rankin’s interpretation, or is it, as Rebus responds, ‘an attraction of opposites’?

How does Ian Rankin make Donald Devlin, formerly Professor of Forensic Medicine, seem so creepy?

Curator Jean Burchill suggests, ‘Aren’t we all curious about the things we fear?’ Would Rebus agree?

Rebus claims that his enjoyment of police work is essentially voyeuristic and cowardly: ‘He concentrated on the minutiae of other people’s lives, other people’s problems, to stop him examining his own frailties and failings.’ How true is this?

‘He didn’t think he’d go quietly. They’d have to pull him screaming and kicking …’ Why isn’t Rebus looking forward to retirement?

‘“Such a beautiful city,” she [Jean] said. Rebus tried to agree. He hardly saw it any more. To him, Edinburgh had become a state of mind, a juggling of criminal thoughts and baser instincts … It was a crime scene waiting to happen.’ Is Rebus unable now ever to see the beauty of the city?