{"id":516,"date":"2008-02-13T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T14:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/516"},"modified":"2024-01-30T19:51:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:51:51","slug":"knots-and-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/516","title":{"rendered":"Knots and Crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knots and Crosses<\/a><\/em> (1987) Ian Rankin<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Knots and Crosses<\/em> is the first John Rebus mystery. John Rebus is a Detective in the Edinburgh police force, who is not doing a very good job of getting over his divorce, or his time spent in the special forces. When someone starts kidnapping and\u00c3\u201a murdering young girls, the entire police department drops everything to search for the serial killer. At the same time, John Rebus receives a series of cryptic notes, that may or may not be unrelated to the case.<\/p>\n

John Rebus is a complex character, whose past is as much a mystery to him as it is to us. We watch his life fall apart around him, while he tries to pick up the pieces from both his fallen marriage and his past in the special forces.<\/p>\n

A couple things I want to point out. This book was written in 1984, so everyone smokes–everywhere. Considering how the rest of the book did not have a particular feel of the past, this was occasionally disconcerting–not a fault of the book, just simply a note of how times have changed. The only other thing that didn’t age well was the fact that Rebus did not have joint custody of his daughter, but instead spent only a few hours with her a week. Again, this is simply a sign of how times have changed.<\/p>\n

They mystery was good, although knowing the book was part of an on-going series, the idea that Rebus might be the killer was dead in the water–but that didn’t ruin the story, it just removed one small dimension of the story.<\/p>\n

The only thing that particularly bothered me–the murder of young girls, initially put me off the story entirely, but I was eventually able to get past, as it simply became a fact of the story and not the focus of the tale.<\/p>\n

Although it was a quick read, I definitely want to check out more of Ian Rankin’s John Rebus series–not just for the quality of the mystery, but also because I want to see how Rebus eventually recovers from his past.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knots and Crosses (1987) Ian Rankin Knots and Crosses is the first John Rebus mystery. John Rebus is a Detective in the Edinburgh police force, who is not doing a very good job of getting over his divorce, or his time spent in the special forces. When someone starts kidnapping and\u00c3\u201a murdering young girls, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,8,291,42],"tags":[730,121,122,744],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-mystery","category-paper","category-police","tag-1980s","tag-ian-rankin","tag-inspector-rebus","tag-scottish"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-8k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1734,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1734","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":0},"title":"A Good Hanging","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A Good Hanging (1992) Ian Rankin A Good Hanging is a collection of Inspector Rebus short stories. I read Knots and Crosses a couple years ago, and although I enjoyed it, found it very dark, so I've been hesitant to continue in the series because I haven't been in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Good-Hanging.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":570,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/570","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":1},"title":"Tooth and Nail","author":"Michelle","date":"May 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Tooth and Nail (1992) Ian Rankin In some ways, 1992 doesn't seem that long ago to me. But reading this book, it seems a lifetime ago. Tooth and Nail was written in 1992, it many of the little things in the book made it feel old to me: the lack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Tooth-Nail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2335,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2335","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":2},"title":"Mortal Causes","author":"Michelle","date":"April 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Mortal Causes (1994) Ian Rankin This is the sixth Inspector John Rebus book. It's the Edinburgh Festival, and everyone is working extra shifts. Unfortunately for Rebus, on his Saturday night shift someone discovers the body of a man who was tortured and executed and it looks like it might be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Mortal-Causes.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2332,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2332","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":3},"title":"The Black Book","author":"Michelle","date":"April 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Black Book (1993) Ian Rankin The fifth Inspector John Rebus book starts with Rebus being kicked out by Patience, he has been placed on a task force he doesn't think will succeed, his brother Michael reappears in his life, and Brian Holmes being attacked and found unconscious. Trying to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Black-Book.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2856,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2856","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":4},"title":"Exit Music","author":"Michelle","date":"March 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Exit Music (2007) Ian Rankin I'd put off reading Exit Music, the last Rebus book, for several months. Because it is the last Rebus book, and I wasn't ready for it yet. Rebus, of course, ends his story the way he began it: stubborn, contrary, and in trouble. A Russian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Exit-Music.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1747,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1747","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":5},"title":"Hide and Seek","author":"Michelle","date":"June 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Hide and Seek (1990) Ian Rankin After reading his anthology A Good Hanging, I decided to pick up another of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus books. I had 'em in the house, just never got around to reading any further in the series, because the first two books I read were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Hide-Seek.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}