by Ian Rankin
How does Ian Rankin explore notions of Edinburgh as a character in its own right? In what way does he contrast the glossy public and seedy private faces of the city with the public and private faces of those Rebus meets?
How does Ian Rankin use musical sources – the Elvis references in The Black Book, for instance, or the Rolling Stones allusions in Let It Bleed – as a means of character development through the series? What does Rebus’s own taste in music and books say about him as a person?
What do you think about Rebus as a character? If you have read several or more novels from the series, discuss how his character is developed.
If Rebus has a problem with notions of ‘pecking order’ and the idea of authority generally, what does it say about him that he chose careers in hierarchical institutions such as the Army and then the police?
How does Rebus relate to women: as lovers, flirtations, family members and colleagues?
Do the flashes of gallows humour as often shown by the pathologists but sometimes also in Rebus’s own comments increase or dissipate narrative tension? Does Rebus use black comedy for the same reasons the pathologists do?
Do Rebus’s personal vulnerabilities make him understanding of the frailties of others?
How does the characterisation of Rebus compare to other long-standing popular detectives from British authors such as Holmes, Poirot, Morse or Dalgleish? And are there more similarities or differences between them?
HIDE & SEEK
Life is moving forward for Rebus. Newly promoted to Detective Inspector and with a new partner, the likeable DS Brian Holmes, and with the Knots & Crosses success behind him, Rebus should be feeling settled and confident. But when he is called to a bizarrely staged death, almost immediately he feels out of his depth: the clues don’t seem to make much sense and it’s not even clear what this case is really about or, indeed, whether a murder has in fact even taken place.
As Rebus and Holmes are led a merry dance through the backstreets of the dingier side of the city, gradually the trail leads them back to the glossy façade of ‘respectable’ Edinburgh, where upright stalwarts of society unleash their depravations behind a sleekly foreboding exterior, and Rebus sees that they will fight to the death to keep their secrets hidden. Only this time it’s neither he nor his loved-ones who are under threat …
As Rebus confronts the different aspects of the Edinburgh he inhabits, he tries (and almost fails) to connect a strange series of deaths; and at the same time the reader is treated to a vivid warts-and-all tour of the city so visceral one can almost smell and hear it, and an ending that refuses to answer questions of natural justice.
Discussion points for Hide & Seek
Ian Rankin saw Hide & Seek as a companion piece to Knots & Crosses, especially in his allusions to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. How does he reveal the relationship between the two books?
Two other non-Rebus novels were written between Knots & Crosses and Hide & Seek (neither was very successful, selling only 500 hardback copies apiece). Does Ian Rankin’s extra writing experience show in Hide & Seek?
To open Hide & Seek, a quotation is used from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: ‘My devil had long been caged, he came out roaring.’ Would you say that this refers more to the murderer or to Rebus?
Has Rebus’s promotion to DI changed him? Has the confidence shown in him by his superiors at work translated into new confidence in social situations in his private life? Why hasn’t he told Rhona about the end of his relationship with colleague Gill Templer?
Does Rebus treat Brian Holmes fairly? Does Rebus feel close to him? And how good is Holmes at looking after himself?
How does Rebus respond to the suggestion made by a colleague that there may be an occult aspect to the case? Is Ian Rankin being playful when he says that Rebus is on a ‘witch hunt’?
Is Rebus sympathetic when questioning young people? Does he deal similarly with his daughter Sammy?
Discussing the ‘real’ Edinburgh, it is claimed that the justified sinners, men like Burke and Hare, or Deacon Brodie, have been ‘cleaned up for the tourists’. ‘And sure enough [says the interviewee], it’s all still here, the past replaying itself in the present.’ Would Rebus agree with this comment? And when he visits the rundown estates of Edinburgh, does Rebus feel slightly like a tourist himself?
‘Rebus believed in good and evil, and believed stupid people could be attracted toward the latter.’ Is the reader supposed to infer that Rebus might give credence to the idea that intelligent people are not attracted to evil?
Carew’s suicide note says, ‘If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers too.’ How does Rebus respond to this?
Rebus wonders why he didn’t tell Gill Templer immediately about the complaint against him. Why didn’t he?
When Ronnie McGrath shrieks ‘Hide!’, in what ways might this be understood, and why does it take Rebus such a long time to consider the various implications?
What is the reader’s response to the novel’s ending? Is Rebus pleased or disappointed with the way things turned out?
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 1990 by Orion Books.
First published in ebook form in 2008 by Orion Books.
This updated ebook published in 2011 by Orion Books.
Copyright © John Rebus Limited 1990
Introduction copyright © John Rebus Limited 2005
The right of Ian Rankin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the copyright, designs and patents act 1988.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 0770 5
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