Knots & Crosses By Ian Rankin

Knots & Crosses is Book One of the Inspector Rebus series written by Ian Rankin. Published in 1987, it was written while the author was a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh.

Knots & Crosses by Ian rankin

As the story begins, Edinburgh has been shocked by the abduction and subsequent strangling of two young girls. The police are working around the clock to catch the killer before he strikes again.

John Rebus is assigned to the investigative team. The investigation remains stalled, and eventually two more girls disappear. Meanwhile John has been receiving anonymous crank letters with taunting notes and a knotted string or crossed matches inside the envelope.

John is a very lonesome person, haunted by flashbacks of his past in the SAS which he has never shared with anyone. He is divorced and has an eleven year old daughter Samantha staying with his ex-wife Rhona. He hardly sees his brother Michael as Michael’s wife hates him. Michael, following the footsteps of their father, is a very successful hypnotist.

Journalist Jim Stevens runs his own investigation on drug dealing and has uncovered Michael Rebus, John’s brother, to be involved in drug dealing. He suspects that John may be abetting his brother Michael in the illicit trade.

When an university professor pointed out to John that there is a pattern in the murderer’s choice of victim and when the names of the victims are taken as an acrostic, their names make up another name – Samantha. To his horror, John realises that his daughter is the murderer’s next victim. He realised that all the crank letters he has received are actually clues to the identity of the killer. He raced to his ex-wife’s house but it was too late. He finds Rhona injured and Samantha missing. Desperate to save his daughter, John gets hypnotised by his brother Michael to uncover the supressed memory of his military past.

I found the book very engrossing and I definitely want to continue with the Inspector Rebus series!