Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin: He’s Hardly the Retiring Type

Rather Be the Devil Ian Rankin Series: John Rebus, #21 Hardcover, 310 pg. Little, Brown and Company, 2017 Read: August 28-29, 2020

Clarke nodded towards the figure striding across the foyer. She waved, and Rebus noticed her. He offered a curt nod and signaled with his hand that there’d be a phone call later. Then he was out of the automatic doors and gone.

‘What was all that about’ Fox asked.

‘I think it means trouble for someone,’ Clarke answered. ‘Been a while since I saw him with that look in his eyes…’

What’s Rather Be the Devil About?

Darryl Christie is savagely beaten in front of his own house and Clarke jumps onto the case. He didn’t see his attacker/attackers, and there were no witnesses. Cafferty’s name has to be on the suspect list, and as luck would have it—John Rebus calls at that moment for a small favor. As much as Clarke would love to go up against Cafferty, everyone knows that Rebus would get better results. So she trades favors with him.

Malcolm Fox is soon assigned to the Christie case, too—and then something else happens that requires their attention. Clarke, Fox, and Rebus find themselves in the middle of a messy tangle of crimes that are decades old, in progress, brutal and old school, or high-tech and almost hard to fully grasp.

Rebus

He’s dealing with COPD, carrying an inhaler, not smoking (and is handling that about as well as you can expect), and not drinking. Well…okay, not drinking that much. He’s trying to be the good retired man that he’s supposed to be. But sometimes walking the dog and trying to be healthy just isn’t enough…so when he starts telling Deborah Quant an interesting story about a murder that happened in the hotel above the restaurant they were dining in*, he can’t keep his curiosity in check and has to see if he can finally close the case. If only for his own amusement.

* because where can they go where he doesn’t know an interesting story about a murder committed on or near the premises? And, who but Quant would listen?

And then once this turns into an opportunity to lock horns with Cafferty again? And maybe help his friends/protégés take Christie down before he can become as strong as Cafferty was? Well, this certainly beats counting flowers on the wall.

I really love the fact that so much of this book depends on Rebus needing something to do to keep his mind occupied. As nice as it would be for him to find peace with his dog and Quant—and maybe enjoying time as a grandfather, that’s just not Rebus. This kind of thing is so much better for him.

Works out well for we readers, too.

Siobhan Clarke

I really think she got the short-end (again). She’s a better police detective than Rebus or Fox, and while it’s believable that the brass will overlook her to give Fox the promotion, it’s regrettable that Rankin does almost the same.

Rebus and Fox get up to all sorts antics, hiding a lot of it from her—at least until they’re done with them—so she won’t stop them. She doesn’t play things wholly by the book, but compared to Rebus (as always) and (increasingly) Fox, she’s a model officer.

Still, when she’s going toe-to-toe with Christie or his family, or his henchmen? She’s fantastic. I just got wish we got more of her. Maybe Rankin figures we know all we need to know about her, and we’re still trying to figure Malcolm out?

Malcolm Fox

After what happened to him in the last book, he’s given a nice promotion to the Major Crimes Division of Police Scotland. A promotion he takes, but knows he doesn’t deserve, while Clarke does. Clarke knows it, too (and is having a hard time not resenting him getting it). His superiors are hoping the situation with Christie will put them in a situation where they can take him down—and more importantly, a couple of his allies with him, so he’s sent back to Edinburgh to be their man on the ground. He does all he can to keep Clarke involved, which helps their relationship a degree.

It turns out that Christie has a tie to Fox’s sister, Jude, and is working that for all it’s worth. Between that and his willingness to involve Rebus far and above what he should be, Fox is coloring outside the lines that used to define him so clearly. Which is good for this case, but is that really going to serve him long-term?

Big Ger

If you can’t keep a good man down, how do you explain Morris Gerald Cafferty?

So, what did I think about Rather Be the Devil?

I loved the way the cold case resolved. I enjoyed just about everything about the Christie beating story (including what Fox was really there to take care of) and how that took care of itself. And generally, I just really liked being in this world again.

At this point, all I have are smallish gripes (as expressed above) and general expressions of satisfaction and enjoyment. I wish I had some deeper thoughts to offer, but I really don’t. I just like these books and am impressed with the ways that Rankin has found to keep Rebus active. Now if he can just keep him alive…

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