Book Review: A SONG for the DARK TIMES; by: Ian Rankin

Bottom Line: A disappointing book ... never thought I'd say this about a Rebus novel! Felt as here was a different hand on the typewriter at times ?

UPDATE: 10-30-20  An audiobook version has been uploaded to YouTube .. No fault with the audiobook. Easy listening, well presented. Good voices and pleasing pace. Same conclusions on story and writing.

Rebus the retired copper is moving apartments in the opening of the story to a ground floor flat, due to ill health, assisted by trusted friend Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke.

With a dog named Brillo to mind and boxes — including stacks of old case files — to unpack. The murder of a wealthy Saudi student in Edinburgh, followed by a mysterious missing person case, one with a close family connection to Rebus, has him heading to the Scotland Highlands to investigate.

Rankin’s plot jumps between the two cases, like a Scottish gale, with Clarke and team investigating the murder — the case touches on recent real-world events such as Brexit, anti-immigrant violence and the murder of Adnan Khashoggi. Rebus, meanwhile, attempts to mend fences with his partially estranged daughter, Samantha, as he searches for her missing partner and probes possible links to a local commune and an abandoned World War Two internment camp.

The Rebus of “A Song for the Dark Times” is a slightly diminished one — he is drinking less, nor do we find him sparring with local Edinburgh gangster Big Ger Cafferty, though he does play a role in the drama. The retired detective is a wee bit less enjoyable to read, but he is a familiar character with whom the reader will feel comfortable.  Rebus is still the dogged investigator, able to make intuitive leaps about the dark places that inhabit the human soul and lead some to commit murder, whether in the distant past or in more recent times.

The "professional pundits" provided high praise reviews ....  see various web sites.